American West is a photographic collection by Japanese photographer Shu Sakurai. After graduating from Tokyo Photography Junior College, he worked as a darkroom assistant for VIVO, the collective formed by Kikuji Kawada, Akira Tanno, Shomei Tomatsu, Ikko Narahara, Eikoh Hosoe and Akira Sato. He developed and printed the work of these six major figures in Japanese photographic history. After VIVO disbanded, he worked in commercial photography at Hakuhodo and later continued as a freelance photographer.
 
This book brings together photographs of the American West, a subject that became his life's work. The monochrome images capture the region's nostalgic character, the vastness of America and the subtleties of everyday life: quiet country towns, cowboys in traditional hats, majestic natural landscapes and urban scenes with a cinematic atmosphere. In an introductory comment, Tomatsu praises the photographs' powerful structure and the precision of their viewpoint, distance, angle and timing.