book select by Yoshitaka Haba

Book Director ISSUE 2 2024 AW

“Presenting a book with care and respect.” These are the words on the website of “BACH,” which is run by book selector Yoshitaka Haba. He has directed areas for book sales in many stores, and has created libraries in various unexpected facilities such as zoos, hospitals and banks. He is also involved in production as an editor, and last year he opened a private, appointment-only library café “Donkou / Kissa Fang” in Kyoto. What does he, who created the previously non-existent title of “book director,” think of “books with obsessions”?

Helix  Shimpei Yamagami

“This is the first photo book of Shimpei Yamagami, a photographer based in Hase, Kamakura. He didn’t follow the typical path of a photographer, but concentrated only on purely “seeing” things. What he did was to go into the mountains behind his house early in the morning every day, and just take pictures of trees. He used an ordinary digital SLR camera, but the branches and leaves were so detailed that I was worried that he might be off his trolley if he kept on going. He often uses the phrase “resolution of the gaze,” and I think this is one extremity where we could see this kind of world if we raised it to the utmost. I would like many people to know about his incomparable stare: the highly spiritual perspective in other words.”

Watashi wa Watashi  Morikazu Kumagai

“Morikazu Kumagai is an oil painter who spent decades struggling to make a living, seeking out what he really wanted  to paint. The super simple pieces of pictures of animals and plants in this book are in a style that he finally found at over 60 years of age. It may look as if he painted it without hesitation, but in fact, it is not so. It is a well-known story that after years of watching ants carefully with his chin on the ground, he ultimately discovered that they start moving from their second left leg, and at last he painted them. His uniquely keen eyes and extraordinary patience while waiting for his own lines and colors are certainly result of a great obsession, and that is why even lines in the painting with only eggs on a tray have a sense of inevitability.”

Tools of Disobedience  Melanie Veuillet

“This is a photo collection of confiscated items made by prisoners in a Swiss prison by DIY modification of rationed items, like a radio converted from a milk carton and a nunchuck-like object made from stones in a sock. The basis of the creation is probably an obsession with life. As the title “Disobedience” indicates, in the extremely limited and tough place of a prison cell, the individuals want to somehow make today better than yesterday, and hopefully they’ll get out of there one day, if possible. The things they made and the ideas they came up with are pretty childish, and it’s also charming and tearful that they dreamed they could get away with something like this.”

The Sting of Death  Toshio Shimao 

“This is a story of the most tremendous and sublime quarrel between a couple in the history of literature. A caring wife becomes furious when she knows of her husband’s infidelity. The husband tries to pacify her at first, but it carries on from there. As she begins to uncover and question her husband’s past closely, he gradually humiliates himself and exposes more of his undesirable side. The composition of the husband, a sinner seeking salvation, and the wife, a divine being who allows him to do so, is exactly that of a religion. I suppose it is because the author, Shimao, was a Christian. Their relationship, driven to the very edge, is eventually elevated to ultimate love story. After reading this book, you might have an indescribable feeling as if having appreciated a religious painting.”

Yayoi Kusama Anthology Kakunaru-Urei 　Yayoi Kusama

“When I heard the word “Obsession,” the first person I thought of was Yayoi Kusama. This is her first poetry book, in which she presents her personal history of creating art and writing poetry in the struggle to live, as if it were a record of her life, interspersed with photographs. In the series of lines, “I hate my heart because it revolts against me,” the imbalance between the peace she wants to achieve, and the body and mind that inevitably resist it, is well expressed. I found it’s respectful and interesting at the same time, that she transforms this inner conflict into energy for creation. You may experience the moment when something biased, like an obsession, takes root in words through the expression of poetry.”