First edition of Tales of the Islands by Yasuhiro Ogawa (2026)

First impression

Medium format hardback in new condition. 

Signed by Yasuhiro Ogawa to the inside title page

283 x 233mm

112 pages

80 tritone printed images with printed end papers

About

Apart from the larger main islands of the archipelago, there are about 300 inhabited islands in Japan. Most of them are tiny islands with small population of few hundreds, and almost of all the inhabitants are elderly people. Those remote islands used to be vibrant with many inhabitants who were engaged in fishery and trading, but the islands’ population started to decline sharply just after the period of rapid economic growth in the 1960’s and 70’s, due to the younger people who left the islands for seeking better jobs.

Yasuhiro Ogawa’s first visit to a remote island was to Miyake-jima in 2005 as he elaborates, “Following the volcanic eruption in 2000, the entire population had been forced to evacuate. Five years later, I visited the island aboard the ship carrying the returning residents. It was my first experience of visiting a remote island. The island had been uninhabited for five years, and it felt as though time had stood still. The atmosphere and the passage of time there seemed entirely different from those on the mainland. I was immediately captivated by the island’s unique charm and decided to visit as many islands as I could.”

Tales of the Island is a revised and expanded edition of Yasuhiro Ogawa's long since sold out 2014 photobook Shimagatari.