TOKYO: Visions of the City's Darkness, 1970–1985

Tokyo: A Vision of Its Other Side – TOKYO 1970–1985 is a photobook by photographer Masatoshi Naito, documenting Tokyo over a 16-year period from 1970 to 1985.

Having continuously photographed folk beliefs and religious worlds in the Tohoku region from the late 1960s to the 1980s, Naito turns his gaze in this volume toward the great metropolis of Tokyo. Starting with the sideshows of Asakusa, he walks through areas including Ueno, Ginza, and Shinjuku. With his strobe light, he captures people met on the night streets, the fringes of the city, festivals, sideshows, and entertainment districts, exploring the memories of "Edo," the darkness, faith, performing arts, crime, and the world of the deceased that remain beneath the surface of Tokyo.

This book is composed primarily of the "Tokyo City Map" series, serialized in Asahi Camera from May to December 1971, and the "Tokyo" series published in Camera Mainichi in October 1983 and March/December 1984, with the addition of previously unpublished works. It captures the Tokyo that continued to change from the 1970s to the mid-1980s from Naito’s unique perspective.

In addition to the photographs, the book includes "Tokyo Theory Notes." Based on images evoked by the photographs, the text explores themes such as the city's darkness, Asakusa, the Yotsuya Kaidan ghost story, and the urban planning of the Tokugawa shogunate. In the afterword, Naito himself defines his photographs as "magical tools for visualizing the essence of things" and his writing as "another camera" for seeing the invisible world.

The book includes an English text at the end titled "TOKYO: A VISION OF ITS OTHER SIDE."
Naito himself handled the photography, writing, composition, title lettering, and design.

[Title] Tokyo: A Vision of Its Other Side – TOKYO 1970–1985
[Publisher] Meicho Shuppan
[Publication Date] June 24, 1985 (First edition, first printing)
[Pages] 224 pages
[Size] Approx. 210 x 304 x 27 mm / 1,610g
[Format] Hardcover
[Language] Japanese / English
[Title Reading] Tokyo toshi no yami o genshi suru
[Author/Editor, etc.] Masatoshi Naito (Photography, Text, Composition, Lettering, Design), Kazue Kobata & Arturo Silva (English translation)
[Printing/Binding] Dai Nippon Printing (Printing), Dainippon Bindery (Binding)
[ISBN] 4626011926
[Condition] Used [5] Fair (Cover: minor scuffs, foxing on top edge, slight damage; Main body: faint foxing on top edge)
[Included items] Obi (dust jacket band) missing
[Featured in] -
[Related Exhibition] "Tokyo" (Minolta Photo Space, 1985)

Masatoshi Naito (1938–)

Born in Tokyo in 1938. Photographer and folklorist. After graduating from the Department of Applied Chemistry at Waseda University, he worked for Kurashiki Rayon before beginning his career as a photographer.

At the age of 25, his encounter with a "sokushinbutsu" (self-mummified monk) while visiting Mt. Yudono in Dewa for a shoot deepened his interest in Shugendo (mountain asceticism), and in 1966 he participated in the Akamine ascetic practices of the Haguro-san Yamabushi. He has continuously researched and photographed folk beliefs, Shugendo, and representations of the dead in the Tohoku region, developing a unique photographic expression using stroboscopic lighting in the darkness. He received the Newcomer Award from the Japan Association of Photographic Critics for "Japan's Mummies" and the 2nd Domon Ken Award for Dewa Sanzan and Shugendo.

While publishing works themed on Tohoku's beliefs and folklore such as Tono Monogatari and Baba Bakuhatsu!, he published this volume, Tokyo: A Vision of Its Other Side, in 1985. Traversing different realms such as Tohoku and Edo/Tokyo, nature and city, and science and religion, he uses both photography and text to explore invisible histories and spiritual worlds.

In parallel with his activities as a photographer, he has published numerous books on folklore and religious studies, including Research on Mummy Beliefs, The Spiritual Universe of Shugendo, The Original Landscape of Tono Monogatari, and Japanese Mummy Beliefs. In 1985, he held the "Tokyo" exhibition at Minolta Photo Space, and received the Photographic Society of Japan Annual Award in 1986 for this work.

< Related Figures >

Dewa Sanzan
Taro Okamoto
Tono
Asakusa
Edo
Sideshows
Ghost Stories (Kaidan)
Shugendo
Asahi Camera
Camera Mainichi
Shomei Tomatsu
Genpei Akasegawa
Masao Yamaguchi
Yoshihiko Amino
Meicho Shuppan