Sha-Girl ‘80, Complete Set, Featuring Araki, Fukase, and Hosoe

Sha-Girl ‘80

First Edition, First Printing, 1980

Rare Complete Set – Dust Jacket with OBI, Slipcase, and Outer Shipping Box

Featuring Works by Nobuyoshi Araki, Masahisa Fukase, and Eikoh Hosoe

This is a scarce first edition of “Sha-Girl ‘80” published by Nippon Geijutsu Shuppansha, KPC, Japan in 1980. The Kaigo No Hana Photographers Club "Girl" anthologies are sumptuous annual publications featuring the best of their amateur members' work, alongside that of professional submissions. Billed as "Japan's Standard in Nudity", the images are beautifully photographed and printed. Sha-Girl ’80 is the high point of the series and is very rarely found with all its components. From Photo-Eye, “This early and very scarce volume in the annual Sha-Girl series offers diverse and of-the-moment (for 1980) overview of Japanese photographers working in the genre of nude/erotic photography. Though some of the names are by now well-known--Araki, Hosoe, Fukase--most will be unfamiliar to western viewers, with some interesting surprises to be found among them. Styles run the gamut from classic black-and-white to exaggerated Hosoe-esque abstraction to the somewhat more slick and fashiony. Gorgeous printing and a stunning cover design by Tadanori Yokoo--part anime, part William Blake, it is itself worth the price of admission!) round out the package. While editions of Sha-Girl from later years are quite common, this one from 1980 is extremely rare.”

Measuring approximately 14.5” x 10.5”, the book is hard bound in black cloth with an illustrated dust jacket and matching paper-covered slipcase that is housed in the original shipping box. The overall condition of the set is Near FINE+ with a touch of foxing to the preliminary and final page and a small remnant of the bookseller's stamp on inside cover. There is some slight rubbing to the edge of the OBI and outer shipping box has some wear. Overall, this is a highly collectible copy of a scarce photobook title that is rarely available in this condition with all of its components.

Photographs of the dust jacket, slipcase with obi, and several photographs contained in the book appear below. Please note that although the photographs appear digitized as thumbnails, they are viewable in the photo viewer by running your mouse over the thumbnail. You can also click on the thumbnail to open a separate window where the picture is viewable as a slideshow.