Japon. Vue panoramique.

Oblong 4to, leporello: 32 double-page back-to-back photomontages, short printed captions in English, German and French.

Original boards covered with silver-textured paper (lower board missing), front cover blocked in blue (rubbed and with sm. def. at sides).

This modernist Japanese propaganda photobook was never on sale, and was probably given to government officials as a present. It was published as an international promotion to enhance foreign understanding of Japan just before the Second World War. The book is designed by Goro Kumada of Nippon Kobo (Japan Studio - an agency for photojournalism). The photographs are a montage of stock photos from Nippon Kobo and KBS (Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai; Japan Cultural Society, an extra-governmental foundation, affiliated with the Foreign Ministry), taken by Ken Domon, Yoshio Watanabe, Masao Horino, Ihei Kimura, Yonosuke Natori and other members of the influential photojournalistic group. The photographs form a continuous double-sided panorama of subjects relating to Japanese landscape, culture, economics, sports and the military.