Senchimentaru na Tabi [Sentimental Journey].

Inscribed with a drawing. An early presentation copy of Araki Nobuyoshi's most important work, inscribed to Asahi Sonorama Chief Editor Tatsuo Shira with a drawing of a three-trunked elephant, which was Araki's preferred method of embellishment in the 1970s.

Sentimental Journey is Araki's signature work, comprising photographs made while on honeymoon with his wife Yoko in Yanagawa on Japan's Kyushu island. Araki's exposure of this most intimate of occasions attracted much criticism in a country which still valued a strict code of behaviour, but ultimately, by putting his private life forward for public scrutiny, he paved the way for successive generations of Japanese photographers to work in a similar vein.

Initially, Araki had intended for Sentimental Journey to contain no text. However, after publication and at the request of the bookshop Kinokuniya, he wrote a short introduction that rejects the falseness and insincerity of much photography and compares his work to the popular post-war literary form of the 'I' novel. This text was printed on a green leaf of paper and laid into the book.

First edition, presentation copy inscribed by Araki on the upper wrapper with a drawing, his address on the lower side crossed out; 4to (238 x 238 mm, 9¼ x 9¼ in); black-and-white photographs printed in offset; wire-stitched with white photo-illustrated card wrappers, printed in black, light rubbing and soiling, minor foxing to sides and edges, a near-fine copy with the printed leaf of green paper added by Araki shortly after publication at a bookshop's request; [108]pp.

Provoke pp11-12; The Book of 101 Books pp206-7; The Photobook: A History I, p295; The Open Book pp268-9; Auer Collection p527; Self Life Death p694; A Book of Araki Books pp38- 45; Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and '70s pp108-115; The Japanese Photobook 321.