The Green Mantle is a photographic collection by Japanese photographer Kazuko Hamachi. She studied under Eiko Yamazawa, a pioneering photographer active since before the war, and worked closely with her on commercial photography, exhibitions and photobook production. In the early 1960s, she travelled to Europe to study German photography. After returning to Japan, she taught at Kobe Yamate Women's Junior College of Art, exhibited alongside Yamazawa, and edited and designed her photobooks.
 
First published in 1970, Hamachi's debut photobook brings together still lifes based on toys. Her home was filled with dolls and toy animals, with which she enjoyed subtle emotional exchanges. Through these distinctive works, she hoped that expressing herself through toys would convey her outlook on life and her photographic sensibility. She created the book hoping that “children and mothers would see it”.