November 13

Color proofs and cover of "The Edit of Tokyo"

The last three months I spent devoting myself to finishing my first own book (or whatever you want to all it), "Tokyo no henshu/The edit of Tokyo", which was finally published by Pie Books on 12/10 (available for 3,300 yen). The book contains long interviews with 11 prominent Tokyo-based editors, along with a total of about 1,000 photographs of their respective "works", compiled with the aim to shed - both visually and verbally - light on the "obscure" work of an editor, while highlighting these individuals' editing skills and introducing their life philosophies. Following a period of preparations in early 2007, the interviews took place between June and August, after which I began to work on the text part that I finally put to bed in November. In retrospect, it was a year of pretty hard work, as I had to juggle (=collect, reproduce, sort, edit and lay out) a large amount of material at the same time.

Featured are, in the order of appearance, Gentosha president Kenjo Toru, Magazine House adviser Yodogawa Miyoko, editor/creative director Goto Shigeo, Kirakusha president and "Sotokoto" editor Oguro Kazumi, "High Fashion" editor Toguchi Yoshiko, Takarajimasha editorial office head Sekikawa Makoto, former "Relax" and present "Ku:nel" editor Okamoto Jin, super-editor Akiyama Michio, Asahi Press editor Akai Shigeki, editor/writer Morinaga Hiroshi, and editor Kawakatsu Masayuki.

All of them are highly respected masters of mine, and the experience of visiting their offices one by one was for me like attending an extraordinary "crash course in editing". These are eloquent persons, so they talk and talk… After typing up all interviews and cutting the texts down significantly, I still had approximately 200,000 characters to work with, and 20 cardboard boxes containing about 1,500 photographs, from which I selected 1,000 that eventually went into the book. Considering these numbers, this one turned out to be the project that involved handling the largest number of words and images for me so far.

What’s more, as I was dealing with editors, each of them made hundreds of changes and corrections when checking manuscripts and layouts… About half of them kept sending revisions even on the day we were to send the whole thing to the printer, but that was still easy as apple pie compared to those who asked for the printer in charge because they want to change things around AFTER printing! I guess that was the first and last time I made a book about editors… So I ended up spending the last three weeks more or less without sleep, which is surely not the healthiest record I broke with this one.

Nonetheless, once I finished work I already began to miss it, which shows clearly what sort of an editing freak I am. The book that came out of all this is an Evangel and Passion from a snot-nosed editing freak for all snotnose editors of today and tomorrow.

November 19

Shinoyama Kishin and Kikuchi Rinko at the exhibition

I attend the opening reception of an exhibition at Nexus Hall, Chanel Ginza, commemorating the publication of Shinoyama Kishin’s photo book "Rinko" featuring photographs of Kikuchi Rinko.

I've known Kikuchi Rinko even before she took on her present name. She used to make frequent appearances in "Composite" magazine. She posed for us as a fashion model around the time she auditioned for the movie "Babel", and I still remember vividly how enthusiastically she was talking about that film.

For this series of photographs Shinoyama-san shot her on Maui, Hawaii, and as the book was realized together with art director Nakajima Hideki (who designed also my "Edit of Tokyo"), stylist Kitamura Michiko, and other mutual friends, it was a particularly interesting affair. The photographs exude such a strong sense of tension that one almost feels as if hearing Shinoyama’s and Kitamura’s instructions to the model how to pose. Kikuchi Rinko was also a model in Chanel’s world campaign promoting the brand’s Cruise Line.

The opening was for me the first occasion in a while to meet her, and although she has become a true celebrity who is posing in front of the cameras of such international top photographers as Bruce Weber, Annie Leibovitz or Peter Lindbergh as well, one can still chat with her without disquietingly mixed emotions. Sato-san, the boss of her agency "Anore", explained with a wry smile that the represented actors (Kikuchi-san, Asano Tadanobu, Kase Ryo, etc.) "generally do only film but no TV, so our income depends on advertising. It’s a tough job!" I for one hope they will stick to their headstrong attitude!