KISHIN SHINOYAMA - SILK ROADS

Kishin Shinoyama
Silk Roads Collection

Published by Shūeisha, May 1981 and July 1982
Book size 27 x 34.5 cm
Pages 2,236 pages
1,214 Images
Rare books
Good condition

Kishin Shinoyama wrote the texts for each book. The flyleaves feature tales about the Silk Road and texts on the photographer's work from renowned Japanese authors, poets and researchers.

The eight volumes including Kishin Shinoyama's Silk Road were published between May 1981 and July 1982 at a rate of one volume every two months. The project marked the 55th anniversary of Shūeisha, one of Japan's top five publishers. The eight volumes, in 27 x 34.5 cm format, bound and boxed, represent a total weight of over 17 kg, 2,236 pages and more than 1,214 photographs. Kishin Shinoyama wrote the texts for each book. The flyleaves feature tales about the Silk Road and texts on the photographer's work from renowned Japanese authors, poets and researchers.

A three-volume paperback edition was published in 1983. Silk Road includes the following volumes:

— vol. 1: Japan
— vol. 2: Korea
— vol. 3 and 4: China
- flight. 5: Pakistan/Afghanistan/Iran
— vol. 6: Syria/Jordan/Iraq
— vol. 7: Egypt
- flight. 8: Turkey/Greece/Italy/Vatican City

The journey begins in the south of Japan at Tōdai‑ji Temple in Nara, the country's former capital, and ends in Vatican City. The choice has been made to leave out a number of the countries Kishin Shinoyama traveled through for this book. Here his journey ends on the banks of the Bosphorus in Turkey, staying true to the spirit of the original Silk Road. The network of trade routes owes its name to the most costly of the goods it conveyed: silk, the secret of whose production was known only to the Chinese for many years. The name was coined in 1877 by German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen (1833–1905), who had been tasked with proposing a route for a railway line between Germany and China. However, certain sections of the Silk Road date back as early as the 2nd century BCE.

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Kishin Shinoyama wrote the texts for each book. The pages feature stories about the Silk Road and texts about the photographer's work by renowned Japanese authors, poets and researchers.

The eight volumes that make up Kishin Shinoyama's Silk Road were published between May 1981 and July 1982, at a rate of one volume every two months, to mark the 55th anniversary of Shueisha, one of the five largest publishing houses in Japan. The eight volumes, measuring 27 x 34.5 cm, bound and in a slipcase, weigh a total of over 17 kg, contain 2,236 pages and over 1,214 photographs.

The texts of each book are signed Kishin Shinoyama. On the endpapers, stories about the Silk Road or texts on the photographer's work have been entrusted to renowned Japanese authors, poets and researchers.

A three-volume paperback edition was published in 1983.

Silk Road includes the following volumes:

— vol. 1: Japan
— vol. 2: Korea
— vol. 3 and 4: China
- flight. 5: Pakistan/Afghanistan/Iran
— vol. 6: Syria/Jordan/Iraq
— vol. 7: Egypt
— vol. 8: Türkiye/Greece/Italy/Vatican

The journey begins in southern Japan, at the temple of Tōdai-ji, in Nara, the country's former capital, and ends in the Vatican City. For this book, it was decided to skip some of the countries crossed by Kishin Shinoyama. The journey ends here on the banks of the Bosphorus, in Turkey, in the spirit of the original Silk Road. This network of trade routes owes its name to the most expensive commodity that passed through it, silk, of which the Chinese people were for many years the only ones to hold the secret of manufacture. This name was established by the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen (1833-1905) in 1877, when he had been commissioned to design a railway line between Germany and China. But the first traces of the Silk Road date back, in some parts, to the 2nd century BC.