GANGS OF KABUKICHO by Katsumi Watanabe

PPP Editions/Andrew Roth Inc., 2009, First edition limited to 3000 copies, 160 pp., 8" X 11 1/4", Softcover with printed vinyl jacket

Fine

The subjects in Watanabe's photographs are the prostitutes, street people, Drag Queens, entertainers and gangsters (Yakuza) that populated Kabukicho at night. Gangs of Kabukicho reproduces 155 photographs taken in the 60s and 70s in the blue light district of Shinjuku called Kabukicho. The title of the book reflects the title of his first book published in 1973 called simply The Gangs of Shinjuku.Designed by Alexander Gelman and Andrew Roth.