shashasha

"Country Road” is a remarkable series, not only for capturing a side of Japan that has largely been lost in the 50 years since it was made, but also for the raw, transparent attitude with which Kazuyuki Kawaguchi, then only 17 years old, approached his subjects. Shot on the Sado Islands and along the Niigata coast in March 1976 and March 1978, Kawaguchi's black-and-white images reveal - in glimpses of ordinary daily life - the stubborn vitality of Japan's more remote rural regions, with the raw forces of nature only one of the constant difficulties to be overcome.

“This is a photobook in which the photographer, now in his 60s, re-examined, reselected, and restored film taken about half a century ago. In addition to the documentary value, the photographs taken by a teenage photographer who simply walked around, looked, felt, and took pictures, have a certain universality to them, and I hope that the passage of time has enhanced their beauty.”
― from Kazuyuki Kawaguchi’s afterword