Couple

One of Joji Hashiguchi's "Japanese Series." Following "Seventeen's Map" and "Father," this portrait photography collection documents 103 unmarried couples across Japan.

The book features 103 couples photographed across Japan, from Okinawa's Iriomote Island in 1990 to Tokyo's Shinjuku in 1992. Hashiguchi photographed couples on the condition that they "recognize each other as partners but are not married," documenting a diverse range of relationships including romantic couples, same-sex couples, and international couples. The photographs, presented alongside interviews with the subjects, reveal not only their individual lives and values but also a glimpse of Japanese society in the early 1990s. Their words and expressions convey hopes, anxieties, and conflicts regarding love and the future.

Similar to "Seventeen's Map" and "Father," Joji Hashiguchi consistently focused on the relationship between "the individual and society." By focusing on the free relationships existing before marriage, this book highlights the distances and tensions between people, as well as the differences in values across eras. The inclusion of same-sex couples, pioneering for its time, makes this an important record for visualizing diverse lifestyles and relationships.

This is a representative work by Joji Hashiguchi that portrays Japanese society in the 1990s through the extremely private relationships of couples. The relationships between people and the backdrop of the era, recorded here, remain timeless even when viewed today.

[Title] Couple
[Publisher] Bungeishunju
[Publication Date] November 30, 1992 (First Edition, 1st printing)
[Page Count] -
[Size] Approx. 30030510mm / 920g
[Format] Softcover
[Language] Japanese, English
[Title Reading] Couple
[Author/Editor] Joji Hashiguchi/Author, Hiromi Hoshino/Assistant, Yoshitaka Matsumoto/Assistant, Asako Fujioka/Assistant, Rin Tatsuno/Assistant, Jun Mimura/Art Director
[Printing] Tosho Printing/Printing and Binding
[ISBN] 4163602402
[Condition] Used [5] Good (Cover: spine faded, minor scratches; Body: sticker removal marks on endpaper, slight yellowing on edges due to age)
[Accessories] None
[Featured In] -
[Related Exhibitions] -

Joji Hashiguchi (1949-)

Born in Kagoshima Prefecture. Photographer.

After dropping out of university, he moved to Tokyo to study photography. In 1981, he won the 18th Taiyo Award for "Shisen," a series of photographs depicting young people gathered on the streets. Since then, he has consistently documented people's portraits and their words, establishing himself as one of Japan's leading documentary photographers.

He published "Seventeen's Map" in 1988, "Father" in 1990, and "Couple" in 1992. He established a unique style of directly photographing individuals and recording interviews with them while traveling across Japan. He subsequently published "Shoku 1991-1995," "Yume," "17-sai," "Kodomo-tachi no Jikan," "BERLIN," and "Hitori no Kioku Umi no Mukou no Senso to, Ikinuita Hito-tachi."

His major works include "Seventeen's Map," "Father," "Couple," "Shoku 1991-1995," "Yume," "BERLIN," "17-sai," and "Hitori no Kioku Umi no Mukou no Senso to, Ikinuita Hito-tachi."

His major awards include the Taiyo Award (1981), the Higashikawa Prize Domestic Photographer Award (1992), and the Photographic Society of Japan Annual Award (1992).

His major collections are housed at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and the Kawasaki City Museum, among others.

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