Look inside
Kikuji Kawada’s The Map (Chizu) is widely considered one of the most important and masterfully designed volumes in the history of photography.
The legendary first edition was published in Tokyo in 1965 by Bijutsu Shuppan-sha, on the exact twentieth anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Designed by the renowned graphic designer Kohei Sugiura, the book is famous for its intricate, multi-layered structure featuring complex gatefold pages that the viewer must physically unfold to reveal the images. Visually, it is an intense, high-contrast psychological investigation of post-war Japan's collective trauma. Kawada’s imagery focuses on the architectural stains left on the ceiling of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial (the Genbaku Dome), discarded scrap metal, reinforcing bars, and the overlapping symbols of American consumer culture and military occupation, creating a powerful metaphor for memory, ruin, and national grief.
The 2005 edition in this collection represents the first formal reprint of this masterpiece, published forty years after the original by Nazraeli Press. This second edition was limited to only 500 copies globally. While the 1965 original has become exceptionally rare and fragile, this 2005 reissue faithfully preserves the conceptual weight of Kawada's vision, presented as a set of boards with an accompanying explanatory leaflet housed together in a protective slipcase. This specific copy is hand-signed and numbered 410/500 by Kawada himself
Kikuji Kawada’s The Map (Chizu) is widely considered one of the most important and masterfully designed volumes in the history of photography.
The legendary first edition was published in Tokyo in 1965 by Bijutsu Shuppan-sha, on the exact twentieth anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Designed by the renowned graphic designer Kohei Sugiura, the book is famous for its intricate, multi-layered structure featuring complex gatefold pages that the viewer must physically unfold to reveal the images. Visually, it is an intense, high-contrast psychological investigation of post-war Japan's collective trauma. Kawada’s imagery focuses on the architectural stains left on the ceiling of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial (the Genbaku Dome), discarded scrap metal, reinforcing bars, and the overlapping symbols of American consumer culture and military occupation, creating a powerful metaphor for memory, ruin, and national grief.
The 2005 edition in this collection represents the first formal reprint of this masterpiece, published forty years after the original by Nazraeli Press. This second edition was limited to only 500 copies globally. While the 1965 original has become exceptionally rare and fragile, this 2005 reissue faithfully preserves the conceptual weight of Kawada's vision, presented as a set of boards with an accompanying explanatory leaflet housed together in a protective slipcase. This specific copy is hand-signed and numbered 410/500 by Kawada himself