Our flagship store in Ebisu, Tokyo, NADiff Apartment (1-18-4 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 1F NADiff A/P/A/R/T), which is in charge of our weekly Thursday column "The Book You Should Read Now," once again introduced us to many books in 2016.

To conclude the year, five staff members at NADiff Apartment will be presenting their "best of books published in 2016," one book per day until the 31st! On the final day, staff member S will be selecting the best of 2016.


"Odasaku" by Daido Moriyama

This collection of works by graphic designer Satoru Machiguchi is based on the 1946 novel "Keiba" by Sakunosuke Oda, also known as Odasaku, and includes photographs taken in Osaka by photographer Daido Moriyama. "Horse Racing" is a short story that vividly depicts the dramatic life of one woman and two men, intertwining with the extreme excitement and tension of a horse race. The deep shadows of the streets in Daido Moriyama's photographs, the details capturing the chaos of the city, and the chaotic noise collide and resonate with the arrival of unexpected events, such as life's "upsets," and the characters' overwhelming sadness and fleeting moments. While also exploring the lives of Odasaku and Daido Moriyama, who share the commonality of being born in Osaka, Machiguchi explains in the afterword at the end of the book why he chose "Horse Racing" as his subject. The book pits the unique expressive qualities of each medium against each other: what can only be captured in photography, what can only be written in literature, and what can only be experienced in the form of a book. The expressive power they carry, and the attractive and beautiful appearance of this book, gave me a sense of the many latent possibilities that lie within the medium of books.


【Book Information】
"Odasaku"
Photography: Daido Moriyama
Publisher: match and company
216×190mm / 180 pages / 85 images
Release Date: October 2016
Language: English and Japanese (2 language versions available)
Price: 5,800 yen

>> Return to Vol. 4: The Most Shocking Book
>> To see previous installments of the series here