The plush interior of the wonderful Daikanyama T-Site may well be a world away from Moriyama Daido’s usual haunt of the decidedly less glamorous, and far more gritty, Shinjuku. But, on Monday night, in a quiet corner of the vast bookshop, this giant of Japanese street photography was signing his new book, Okinawa.
Somewhat predictably, the staff made sure that the event itself was far more regimented than Moriyama’s photographic style, but at the same time that didn’t dampen the obvious respect on display — from both sides of the table.
Oooh, don’t usually comment but I’m a fan of the (IMHO) sometimes great Moriyama. Must have been pretty cool to see him. Haven’t seen Okinawa. Is it good?
Thanks for all the photos!
It was. Quite strange really.
I was going to buy it and have it signed, but I had a good look through a copy and unfortunately it didn’t do much for me at all. I asked one of the staff if I could have another of his books signed instead, but they wouldn’t let me near him…
Amazing to see his books in a bookshop! I’ve only ever seen the Phaidon one on sale. I hope you made an investment even if they are old photos! (You’ve managed to make T-Site look quite gritty by the way)
They have a good number of his books in T-Site. Some rarities, but quite a few that are reasonably priced. I did intend buying it, but as I mentioned above, it didn’t do much for me, and the staff wouldn’t let me take another book to be singed instead. A real shame…
As it was a picture of Moriyama, anything other than grainy black & white didn’t seem right!
A shame indeed – sounds like a firm marketing policy there.
Yes, a disappointing but somewhat predictable approach.
Very cool. Wish I’d been there.
Bumping into him on the prowl in Shinjuku would have been much better, but it was still interesting to see him.
Yeah, isn’t it amazingly stupid and short sighted to have customers only sign that the new book of his? He probably changed publisher and they didn’t want to promote the competition.
I know. Thing is I don’t even think it was anything like that. Just that strict adherence to rules. It was signing event for ‘Okinawa’, and so that was the only thing was going to be signed…