JAPAN, an oversized volume nearly six years in the making, weaves images and text into a cohesive visual narrative unlike any other photobook on the country — revealing aspects and links rarely exposed before.

Pause slideshow on mouseover

This ambitious project was conceived by photographer Hans Sautter with editorial and text contributions by Eugene Tarshis. Subjects and locations were chosen after in-depth research, with most photographs conceived before shooting. The images are deliberately linked, their arrangement illustrating interconnected themes throughout. Contributing essayists are accomplished writers, all longtime Japan residents with deep expertise and extensive publishing histories: Peter Tasker, Stephen Mansfield, Holly Thompson, Charles T. Whipple, and Azby Brown.

In our flattened, networked world of incessant digital babble and information overload, there is a rarity premium for the polar opposite – high quality work born of craftsmanship, long experience and intimate knowledge. Hans Sautter has spent the best part of five decades in Japan. He is an insider looking around him, not an outsider looking in.

Peter Tasker

Of the many photographers I have worked with over my years as a writer in Japan, Hans Sautter’s work stands out for its unfailingly honest vision and excellence. He is a consummate perfectionist who refuses to compromise the integrity of his work. Reverent at times when truth and beauty call for it, irreverent at other times when honesty and the harsh realities of life demand it. This book, more than any other I have seen, unveils the essence of what IS Japan.

Diane Durston

Sautter's insistence on identification with and pre-visualization of his subjects, a premeditated approach resulting in images that are not merely illustrative, but, in many instances, metaphorical signifiers. Some of the images are so powerful they almost levitate off the page. It is a book that was quite different from anything I had seen before. A work that did not try to please people or delude them by perpetuating comforting stereotypes.

Stephen Mansfield, Nikkei Asia

Sautter, a photographer who specializes in editorial, corporate, and architectural assignments and who has been based in Japan for over 40 years, shares many areas of the country that are often kept from public view. This book centers around six themes: metropolis, nature, costume, ritual, sacred, and aesthetic. Each section includes an essay by one of various contributors on the theme of the photographs, along with relevant historical and contemporary information and discussion of how Japan's shift from agrarian to densely urban lifestyles has impacted it. VERDICT: Photographers, arm-chair travelers, and anyone interested in Japanese culture will find something of interest and likely some new knowledge too.

Zebulin Evelhoch, Library Journal