Kariudo / A Hunter.

Tokyo, Chuo-koron-sha, 1972. . First edition; 4to (256 x 216 mm, 10 x 8½ in); black-and-white photographs printed in offset, texts by Tadanori Yokoo and Yamagishi Shoji in Japanese and English, light foxing to top edge and end pages, offsetting to one page; plain endpapers, lightly foxed, printed white paper-covered boards, text in black, leaning slightly, dust-jacket printed in green and red, minor wear to edges, publisher's printed wraparound band, grey, corner of flap turned, original fitted acetate dust-jacket, lightly rubbed, near-fine; [120]pp.
Moriyama produced three books in the first half of 1972: Shashin yo Sayonara [Bye, Bye Photography], Kagero [Mayfly], and the present work Kariudo / A Hunter. Realising three books in such a short period left Moriyama feeling something he likens to a crisis in creative confidence. As a result, he scaled back his photographic work for several years. A Hunter was published as the final book in Chuo-koron-sha's 10-volume series of monographs by contemporary Japanese photographers. It contains a tightly sequenced selection of Moriyama's best photographs from 1968-1971 and was published as he was in the midst of his most creative period. Moriyama was an admirer of Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957) and dedicated A Hunter to the beat writer.
Auer Collection p542; The Photobook: A History I, p300; The Japanese Photobook 429.