Norio Kobayashi: Japanese Blue

Photographer Norio Kobayashi's series captures the iconic blue tarp across Japan's landscapes over thirty years, from 1991 to the present. From urban construction sites to suburban terrain, from highway tracks to junkyards, this ubiquitous blue is provisional and anonymous—a temporal presence suspended between destruction and reconstruction. Kobayashi began the series with medium- and large-format film cameras before moving to digital, and the texture of "blue" transforms over time, reflecting shifts in Japan's landscape and its relationship between the artificial and the natural.

Accompanied by a text, "Residual Peony Blue," by photographer and scholar Yuki Kasama.

Published by AKAAKA in 2025
128 pages
Size: H230mm x W260mm
ISBN: 978-4-86541-207-9