On 13 January 1958, the grotesquely disfigured body of a man was discovered near Lake Sembako in Japan. Two investigators from Tokyo came to help the local police in resolving what at first appeared to be a banal case, but which soon proved to be something more complicated. For the first time, a photographer was authorized to accompany the police to document the investigation. Press photographer Watabe Yukichi (1924-1993) followed the inspectors as they questioned witnesses (workers in a tannery factory, local police officers) and pounded the streets of the most insalubrious neighborhoods in Tokyo--its bars, bridges, alleyways and hospitals--in search of the killer. Like the haunted film stills of a newly discovered noir classic, Watabe's images record much more than simply a police investigation, and reveal a Tokyo of the 1950s in a way that has rarely been depicted.

Author: Watabe Yukichi
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Editions Xavier Barral
Published: 06/30/2012
Pages: 200
Weight: 1.85lbs
Size: 11.60h x 8.50w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9782915173826