This evening I stumbled upon something wonderful near Yoyogi-Hachiman station: So Books
This is a photobook and artbook store with a superb selection of titles, both foreign and domestic (Japanese) and even better the owner was extremely friendly and approachable. If I wasn’t in such a hurry to a friend’s opening I would have liked to spend more than 5 minutes looking around. Well worth a visit if you are in the area!
gosh, its nice to see that tokyo can support places like that … we are unable to get or sustain such shops here!
Comment by FongLong — January 7, 2011 @ 11:12 pm
It was worth a visit even though I wasn’t in the area. The prices are reasonable: he has a first edition of “Zokushin” for just a squeak over 10,000; he has an as-new copy of Kikai’s “India” for the list price, etc. And more thrillingly the amount of stuff he has there is extraordinary. When I asked for either Dodo or Kitai’s book on Shin-Sekai, he quickily fished out the latter from the back room. I was tempted to buy two or three other books that I saw on the shelves but I had already bought five photobooks (one of them huge) this year (i.e. in the space of three shopping days) and if I keep on at this rate divorce is a distinct possibility.
Comment by Peter — January 8, 2011 @ 10:40 pm
Peter I am glad you liked it- – I too went through a bit of a photobook splurge recently (rather than the threat of divorce, my issue is a continued single-ness) and was unable to financially assist this owner by buying something during my visit. Another time though!
Comment by John — January 9, 2011 @ 10:25 am
You know that you want to meet the kind of girl who realizes that as long as you have space for a table, darkroom and bed, everything, all other space is for Stuff. (Just try not to become an Araki completist.)
Umm . . . how about updating the page “photographic bookstores in Japan” (top right)? Also, although “photo book guide” lower down on the right sounds intriguing it turns out to be a domain name squatter.
Comment by Peter — January 16, 2011 @ 12:20 am