MIDORI / 美登利

This photo book was shot in the image of Mitori, a girl who lives in a brothel in Yoshiwara and appears in Higuchi Ichiyo's short story "Takekurabe. The book was printed by Gravure Seikosha, a company that prints photogravures, but a series of unfortunate events occurred during the production process. The book was a difficult one to produce, and it was only after overcoming such adversities as printing the wrong side of the cover, reprinting the cover, reversing the binding direction, and re-stapling the cover that the book was finally published.

樋口一葉の短編小説『たけくらべ』に登場する吉原の廓に住む少女、美登利をイメージして撮影された写真集。印刷ではグラビア精光社によるグラビア印刷という気合いの入りようだが、制作工程では不幸の連続が企画者を襲った。表紙の左右印刷間違い、表紙再印刷、綴じ向き逆、ホチキス外し綴じ直し、といった逆境を乗り越えて、ようやく出版へと至った受難の写真集だったそうだ。