西田俊英『AURA』       Book Design：おおうちおさむ 山田彩純(nano/nano graphics)   発行：赤々舎   Size：H300mm x W230mm   Page：220 pages   Binding：Hardcover   Published in October 2023   ISBN：978-4-86541-176-8	¥ 7,000＋tax  国内送料無料！ 【国内／Domestic Shipping】  お支払い方法は、PayPal、PayPay、Paidy 銀行振込、郵便振替、クレジットカード支払いよりお選び頂けます。 【海外／International Shipping】 ＊ Please choose your area from the two below    　　　 Book + Asia shipping ¥11,550 JPY Book + World shipping ¥13,700 JPY

AURA

Shunei Nishida

This title "AURA" features the representative works of Japanese painter Shunei Nishida, who continues to paint while treading on a single path, along with his latest work based on the primeval forests of Yakushima Island.

Born near the pristine forests of Ise Grand Shrine and mentored by Togyu Okumura, his lodestar, and Hideo Shiode, an exemplar of the conscience of a painter, Nishida has been guided by everything in the natural world, from a single drop of clear water and the stars in the night sky to the microorganisms beneath fallen leaves. His deep connection to nature allows him to depict the spirituality and universality of the world, including the intangible and the fantastical, expressing the beauty of existence.

There was a period when Nishida, who had fallen into an artistic slump, and avoiding people, he secluded himself around Mt. Tanigawa to immerse himself in sketches. Up to then, Nishida had relied on his imagination for his paintings, but in this period, he recognized again the importance of realistic representation. 

Nishida sketched everything he could think of -- landscapes, animals, people and so on -- awakening himself to their potential for art.

Since 2000, Nishida has contact with Japan's beautiful nature around Hiroshima and other areas in the Chugoku region and to attempt classical motifs such as cranes and cherry blossoms in his paintings. He also tried creating his own new style of bird-and-flower painting.

In 2022, he moved to Yakushima Island for a year, aspiring to create a 70-meter-long masterpiece that delves into the island's history, the cycle of life, and the impacts of logging and development on the pristine forests. A work in progress titled "The Phoenix" reflects everything in the environment, with a meticulous and free brush, and it questions the relationship between nature and humans.

Praying is painting - this book is a culmination of the artist history and view of the work world, where they resonate with each other.

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My mother was forever overworked. She spent her entire life only working without respite. For me, growing up seeing my mother work like that, I think of painting itself as work. Painting is often demanding but I believe that is what working is. If I murmur that I want to take a rest, I then feel someone is telling me: "Well, in that case, give up being a painter." I have vowed that I will follow the same path as my mother. I should just do my job and work. I believe if I do so, someday I will be able to create a work that strikes the heart. Has it come? To you.

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My mentor, Hideo Shiode, said: "Personality is never about being different from others. It is just a matter of becoming yourself." His disciple, I have relied on those words and not tried to have a distinctive personality. I have come to believe that a personality unnaturally made is only bluster and without any value. Sensei! Have I become my true self? Having entered the later stage of my life, am I painting the pictures that are really me? My mentor also told me: "A painting is not created with a brush. It is not painted by your hand." "Well, then how do I paint?" I muttered to myself when I was young. I thought that I could create a masterpiece by myself if I bring to bear all my effort and talent. But before long, I found out that was not the case. I finally realized that a painting is only the expression of my true feelings and the catalyst that keeps me alive. "Don't forget your dreams and strive to learn," my mentor told me in the last years of his life, and I have lived my life cherishing those words. I really think painting is a difficult thing. I had no idea I would have to paint so much of what lies in my heart. That is precisely why I believe it is so valuable to continue putting into practice the lessons from my mentor.

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God dwells in every tree and blade of grass.

Nature lives on as it is.

Yet I feel that what is happening in our human society runs counter to what we desire. Our human-centered egotistic values....

We continue cutting down trees and destroying forests.

Isn't it more important for forests to continue to be forests?

What kind of paintings bring happiness to people?

There is still so much I don't know.

（Shunei Nishida）

大竹昭子『迷走写真館へようこそ』  写真を見るとはどんなこと？       Book Design：榊原健祐      発行：赤々舎   Size： H188mm × W128mm   Page：168 pages   Binding：Softcover   Published in October 2023    ISBN：978-4-86541-175-1	¥ 1,800＋tax  国内送料無料！ 【国内／Domestic Shipping】  お支払い方法は、PayPal、PayPay、Paidy 銀行振込、郵便振替、クレジットカード支払いよりお選び頂けます。 【海外／International Shipping】 ＊ Please choose your area from the two below    　　　 Book + Asia shipping ¥3,700 JPY Book + World shipping ¥4,950 JPY こちらの書籍の"赤々舎もう一冊"はりんご通信のみになります

Welcome to Meisou Shashin-kan

Akiko Otake

The new publication by Akiko Otake（written in Japanese only）, known for her thought-provoking writings on photography from a unique perspective.

 "What does it mean to look at a photograph?" Through the "迷走写真館" featuring 36 photo works, she skillfully delves into the possibilities of seeing.

In these photographic works, the names of the artists are intentionally omitted. This allows the viewers to closely examine the photographs, vividly imagine, and weave words around them. Photography beckons us into an exploration of vision and contemplation, unbounded in its reach.

"The diversity, depth, and intricacy of words evoked by photographs set free from the hands of their creators in the wild--this is where I would like to seek the worth of photography." (Akiko Otake)

36 photographs, there are works by internationally renowned artists. referring to the brief artist biographies at the end of the book may offer new perspectives on these photographers.

森本洋輔『Yoyogi Park,Shibuya-ku,Tokyo』       Book Design：脇田あすか   発行：赤々舎   Size：H195mm x W305mm   Page：154 pages   Binding：Softcover   Published in July 2023   ISBN：978-4-86541-173-7	¥ 3,500＋tax  国内送料無料！ 【国内／Domestic Shipping】  お支払い方法は、PayPal、PayPay、Paidy 銀行振込、郵便振替、クレジットカード支払いよりお選び頂けます。 【海外／International Shipping】 ＊ Please choose your area from the two below    　　　 Book + Asia shipping ¥6,400 JPY Book + World shipping ¥7,650 JPY

Yoyogi Park,Shibuya-ku,Tokyo

Yosuke Morimoto

Yosuke Morimoto's first photo book is featuring photographs taken from 2006 to 2023, arranged horizontally like frames of a movie reel.

This series began with an encounter in Yoyogi Park, where he approached a solitary woman, asking her if she would let him take her portrait.

Amidst the urban forest, hidden away, stands the presence of individuals. Morimoto eventually ventured beyond yoyogi park, encountering people hidden within the forest of the city, capturing both their portraits and the scenes of their surroundings through his camera lens.
The photographs, arranged chronologically, extend like a path walked, and the fleeting form, only once in existence and scenes captured through the camera linking  into a continuous current path.

These womens and their surroundings carry a profound sense of fleeting yet resilient which familiar and easily overlooked, gazing back at the photographer and us.

Where are you, and what expressions do you hold within?

This is a photography book etched with the essence of an individual's existence that is often hard to perceive.

内倉真一郎『忘却の海』       Book Design：町口景       発行：赤々舎   Size： H264mm × W225mm   Page：112 pages    Binding：Hardcover   Published in August 2023    ISBN：978-4-86541-174-4	¥ 4,500＋tax  国内送料無料！ 【国内／Domestic Shipping】  お支払い方法は、PayPal、PayPay、Paidy 銀行振込、郵便振替、クレジットカード支払いよりお選び頂けます。 【海外／International Shipping】 ＊ Please choose your area from the two below    　　　 Book + Asia shipping ¥6,400 JPY Book + World shipping ¥7,650 JPY

THE SEA OF OBLIVION

Shinichiro Uchikura

"I live and work in Miyazaki Prefecture. Everywhere I look, it is surrounded by the sea. The shore continues with beautiful beaches well-cleaned by the government and volunteers. A little further out, however, is the opposite world. The seashore as it is in today's society, where debris and jetsam have been dumped and forgotten, and no one even enters.

Plastic, gloves, toys, fish, and bird carcasses with empty bright colors have become trash. Things have been tossed about by the waves of time from afar, dried up by the sun, and transformed into new forms. These are the traces of human involvement in the past, evoking a strange sensation that does not seem to belong to this world.

I collect the debris one by one, absorbed, looking only down. I feel the discarded objects speaking to me. Someone made them, had them, and came with the waves to the beach. And then, they met me. This series is the last portrait that records their final state."

Shinichiro Uchikura

"Castaways are beautiful, poisonous, and sad.

As he walks through the coast, he finds and collects small chairs shaped like rusty crabs, glasses that have lost their owners, clocks, and filthy dolls.

I imagine him offering the objects he chose on a white cloth; as if making a collage on the coast, he creates something that exists only temporarily, photographs them, and repeats such action. 

If it comes to his hands, lost time and damaged bodies of such forgotten and meaningless castaways are transformed into something innocent and dainty.

Something is charming about that.

The sacred objects in the monochrome seem to go into a quiet sleep as if they have been waiting for a long time.

He who casts a tender eye on his subjects might be someone with a ensitive sensibility, who can imagine what it would be like to be a drifter himself."

Contributed text by Michiko Kon

"The Sea of Oblivion"  is a theatrical still life in which the viewer is conscious of the placement of the main subject and the supporting characters. Organic and inorganic objects intertwine, and things discarded by humans and things no longer useful in nature cohabit to create a small universe.

Fragments of the world are condensed on a square screen, and in the imagination, they begin to move with cell-like precision. The objects are either already dead or lifeless from the start, but are given a new life by being photographed. Like actors on a stage, they are assigned a role in the photograph and begin to start a new life as part of the work's universe.

Extracted from the text "A Small Universe Things by the Sea" 

by Kenji Takazawa（Photography Critc)