Review
Nobuyoshi Araki: Tokyo Aruki (Tokyo Walks)
Text and images by John Sypal for Japan Exposures
The other night I picked up Araki’s latest book, Tokyo Aruki. It comes in at a modest 160 pages printed at the extremely portable A5 size. Initially I was taken in by the reasonable asking price, but after a couple go-throughs it is plain to see that portability was a major factor in this book’s construction.
Each section is divided between various locations throughout Tokyo, taken over a full year between July 2007 to July 2008. Similar to Aget’s Paris, Tokyo is Araki’s town.
It is worth stepping back for a moment to reiterate that “Tokyo” as you might think is not technically a city in the way that Omaha is considered to be. That said, he kept to a handful of the 23 wards for the photographs which ended up in this book. To be more casually precise (!), the photographic sections have been separated into areas often determined by the name of the local train station.
Interspersed through the pages are brief essays on thoughts of his personal meanings for each area. Some of the sections feature the appearance of young women who have flocked (his words) to him to be photographed. I say that jokingly, but I have with my own eyes seen a young woman break down into tears simply upon seeing the man step out of a room. So “flock” it is.
Often his writing goes further into technique and thoughts on the human condition in Tokyo which in Japanese can sound sweet, but putting it into English they are a little corny. For good measure it seems that the editor felt it best to highlight some of the cornier statements in blue or pink and slap them down on top of a perfectly fine photograph. There are unexpected visual treats here, but one has to look a little harder than usual to find them.
For those who only know the more internationally marketable and nude/bondage side of Araki’s work, the fact that he is a street photographer on par with — and often surpassing — the “greats” might come as a surprise. Due to limitations in printing quality and text placement this book isn’t the greatest vehicle to find this out, but at the price it is a good beginning chance to explore this recent softer side of his work.
If you are at all ever out with a camera in Tokyo you’ll no doubt recognize the locations of a good half of the pictures, or in some cases, have already photographed there yourself.
Earlier I mentioned that portability is an essential aspect to this book’s creation. It wasn’t until looking at the last three pages when the realization that Tokyo Aruki is in part, a Tokyo walk-a-bout type travel companion. It’s “Araki does Tokyo” in a way that is different from his other previous (and often more literal) experiences.
Since it is indeed a travel guide, each section of the book has it’s very own precise map, complete with Araki’s very route highlighted for those who might want to hit up the same spots. If the recent press is of any indication, Tokyo Camera Walks seemed to have exploded in popularity over the past few years and I’m assuming that due to it’s extremely approachable content matter, this book has several print runs ahead of it.
And for those who might be interested in the cameras which he used, a few pages before the maps are devoted to an informative essay about his camera choice (two Mamiya 7II) and (naturally) pictures of Araki on the street working.
John Sypal
John has been exhibiting his photographs widely in the US and in Japan. His photographs are frequently featured in Japanese photo magazines.
He is currently a member of Machikata Sampo Shashin Doumei (Walking Photographers Alliance).
John also enjoys meeting people and photographs their cameras for tokyo camera style.
Tokyo Aruki can be purchased in the Japan Exposures Book Store.
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July 20th, 2009 at 11:24
“the fact that he is a street photographer on par with — and often surpassing — the “greats” might come as a surprise.”
Get outta here!!
The quality of Araki’s most famous work is extremely questionable, but giving him credibility as a street photographer is simply a case of the “emperor has no clothes.”
July 20th, 2009 at 14:31
I’d agree with Clive here, I quite like some of Araki’s work but I’d hardly class him up there with the greats of ‘street photography’.
July 23rd, 2009 at 11:10
It appears we may have a different list of Street Photographers in mind.
Mine includes Ume Kayo!
Does Araki consistently produce work which levels out to echo the basic dogma of popular “Street Photography” ? Is he most famous for such images?
No, I can’t say that he does, or is. But it’s not that he can’t produce great street work, and it’s not that he never has. His Sacchin pictures hold up well forty years on, and his street work in New York in the 1970s is quite solid, but unfortunately not very well known. (Check book # 4 of the twenty volume multi-colored covered series entitled “The Works of Nobuyoshi Araki”)
Other “Street” centered collections which may be of interest to those unfamiliar with Araki’s work include:
東京は秋 Tokyo, In Autumn (1984)
東京物語 Tokyo Story (1989)
冬へ Tokyo, a city headed towards death (1990)
過去 The Past (1993)
東京夏物語 Tokyo Summer story (2003)
Subway Love (2005)
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Personally, I’m not interested in, nor do I really really need to see another Araki image of woman bound and nude, but the point though is that if you know where to look, you’ll find pictures which really work in conversation within the entire scope of Street Photography. It’s a shame (but understandable) that only a certain portion of his work has received such recognition outside of Japan.
There are few people who seriously call themselves geniuses, and even fewer of which the title actually fits.
Araki is the only one I am aware of.
July 25th, 2009 at 15:45
Araki has a genius business model, that’s for sure. I know he takes his own photos (because I too have seen him at work), so he’s unlike, say, Kusama Yayoi with her team of blob-designers and blob-painters.
I’ll look for the book (so you’ve been a bit persuasive, John), but I’m not all that hopeful: the better books I’ve seen by Araki have a few arresting images but a lot of filler. Maybe if he edited as rigorously as, say, Nagano Shigeichi, he’d put out books I’d be tempted to buy.
Which reminds me: a few weeks ago I was in some bookstore (forget which) in which somebody was looking through Moriyama’s forest-slaughtering Hokkaido, turning page after page, from start to end, at a rock-steady one page per second, lingering over zero (0) photos. Pretty vacant.
My favorite street photographer this week: Roger Mayne: the book published by Jonathan Cape is fine.
July 31st, 2009 at 9:31
Whatever value his work may have, Araki and his fawning acolytes continue to ensure he remains the ‘name celebrity’ in photography in Japan.
July 31st, 2009 at 13:59
Steve, don’t you think that title is more apt for Moriyama Daido?
July 31st, 2009 at 21:52
Within the ‘industry’ maybe Daido but among the general japanese public, I believe Araki is far more well known…
August 1st, 2009 at 18:48
However it seems that his presence in the general media has not been at the level it was in the late 90s. It will be interesting to see whom the next superstar photographer will be.
August 7th, 2009 at 7:41
hey, i am in tokyo right now, do you know where i can buy the book? I asked for it in on sundays, the rat hole gallery and another one, but they did not know it.
Have Japan Exposures a physical bookstore?
Thank you!
August 7th, 2009 at 7:51
Azur,
Sorry, we don’t have a physical bookstore. Your best best is one of the major bookstores in Tokyo — Kinokuniya, Maruzen, or Junkudo (ask your hotel for the closest one of those). It’s a mass-market publication so it shouldn’t be too hard to find.
August 28th, 2009 at 18:04
It’s amazing that Araki has this incredible ability to polarise opinion, like William Eggleston and then some. He represents the place where modern or contemporary art and photography join up. Therefore his work does not easily fit into established photographic conventions and vernacular, which goes some way to explaining why so many “Photography” People misunderstand his work.
My interest in Araki began after seeing a Channel 4 TV Doc. back in the 90′s. This was when I decided buy a camera at the age of 19. He is along with Eggleston and HCB and others like them one of the biggest influences and inspirations. If there was no Araki we would have no Juergen Teller and no Terry Richardson. Araki continues to bring playfulness and freedom to the medium. Is he a “Street Photographer”? He would probably say no. He is just photographing the river that runs between Life and Death within the context of his home, Tokyo.
We can learn many lessons from him, photography is about taking pictures and editing, and photographing what you know and love. Anything else is folly.
September 4th, 2009 at 22:07
I enjoy your site Kurt! and thanks for the review… I’ll be in Tokyo again late September so will pick up a copy from you then.
September 4th, 2009 at 22:17
Thanks Brad, although I didn’t have much to do with it. Credit goes to John Sypal!