Shinjuku Guntoden 66/73. - Katsumi Watanabe

WATANABE, Katsumi. 
Shinjuku Guntoden 66/73. 
First edition. Small 8vo. Printed wraps with numerous b&w full-bleed images. Japanese text. Tokyo: Baragaho Sea, 1973. 

A truly incredible work by Watanabe Katsumi, an itinerant portrait photographer who predominantly worked in the blue light district of Shinjuku, Tokyo during the 1960s and 70s. Watanabe set out each night to photograph whoever crossed his path and his portraits were essentially collaborative - the sitter would have to be happy with the result before handing over his set fee of 200 yen for three prints. The publication is an archive of images from this period printed with Watanabe's annotations that describe his subjects - prostitutes, gangsters, drag queens, night faces, gay men and party goers. Never a mere bystander, Watanabe was very much a part of the scene he was photographing, a mood that comes across in the intimacy of each photograph. This is a compelling portrait of a transient underground world that may otherwise have slipped by unrecorded.