Ikko Narahara’s España Grand Tarde, Fiesta, Vaya Con Dios is one of the great Japanese photobooks devoted to Spain. Published by Kyuryudo in Tokyo in 1969, the book records Narahara’s encounters with Spain during the summers of 1962 and 1963, bringing together bullfighting, street life, religious and popular celebrations, landscapes and rural communities. The work is divided into three sections, Grand Tarde, Fiesta and Vaya Con Dios, each presenting a different aspect of the country and its people.
Narahara approaches Spain from the perspective of an outsider, but his photographs are remarkably intimate. Rather than producing a conventional travel document, he constructs a deeply personal vision of a country experienced through contrasts: spectacle and solitude, violence and tenderness, tradition and everyday life. The gravure reproductions give the photographs an extraordinary density, while the numerous fold-out plates create a particularly immersive reading experience.
The book is also notable for its ambitious physical construction. The first edition consists of two volumes, accompanied by the separate booklet The Promised Journey, with Japanese and English texts. The complete publication was issued with its original slipcase and outer protective cardboard box.
This is a particularly desirable first edition copy, signed by Ikko Narahara. It retains both original slipcases, the original transparent acetate dust jacket and the accompanying booklet A Promised Journey to Spain. The preservation of these original components makes the copy especially complete and faithful to the way the publication was originally issued.
España Grand Tarde, Fiesta, Vaya Con Dios is an essential work within Narahara’s career and a landmark in Japanese photography. It demonstrates his ability to transform a journey into a complex visual meditation on place, culture and human experience, while creating one of the most distinctive photographic portraits of Spain produced by a Japanese photographer.