Shu Watanabe’s artistbook “THE LAST SUMMIT” is now available!

06/16/2021

We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting orders for Shu Watanabe’s artistbook “THE LAST SUMMIT”.

This project is a story of his loving father’s last attempt to climb a mountain and visualize his emotions leading up to that moment. At the same time, after losing his father in an unexpected accident, this project is part of his recovery and an effort to overcome his grief and bereavement by reliving his father’s footsteps.

The project has developed in the experimental workshop Atlas Lab “AKINA BOOKS Workshop: Stillness and Movement – Cinematic Editing and Dummy Books” in March 2018, and the project was also developed with the RPS mentorship program.

Reminders Photography Stronghold will hold an exhibition related to this work entitled ‘THE LAST SUMMIT’. The exhibition will run from July 10th to 25th.
The artist will be in the gallery during the exhibition period, and will be working on the book at the gallery.

We look forward to seeing you at the exhibition too.

THE LAST SUMMIT

My father died in a slip-and-fall accident on July 15, 2017, at Mt. Ryokami in Chichibu County, Saitama Prefecture. At the beginning of that year, he was in the hospital to receive treatment and surgery for liver cancer, which was discovered in September of the previous year. After leaving the hospital in March, my father was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver, but he had gradually resumed working and continued his hobby of mountain climbing.

“Dad went out to the mountains yesterday morning and never came back. ……”

It was a sunny morning when I received a phone call from my mother, and then it felt as if the ground was crumbling beneath my feet. After filing a missing person’s report at the police station near my parents’ house, my father-in-law gave me a ride to Mt. Ryokami.

As much as I wanted my father to be safe, I couldn’t stop thinking about what would happen if I couldn’t find him. I was feeling hopeless. As if to reflect my feelings, it began to rain heavily as we approached the site. Before arriving at Mt. Ryokami, I received a call from the Ogano Police Station in Saitama Prefecture. They informed me that the body of someone matching my father’s description had been discovered at the bottom of the trail. When I checked the body that had been brought to the police station, it was unmistakably my father’s face. It was a hot summer day, so his body was cremated as it was. My family didn’t get to see his face on his last day.

When the nightmarish day for our family was over, what came to my mind as I was driving back to Tokyo from Chichibu, was not so much sadness over his death but rather anger over why he had gone climbing despite his health condition so soon after the surgery.

About a week after my father’s funeral, I remembered that I had family photos in a drawer of a cupboard in my parents’ house. I searched through the images, trying to find a glimpse of my father, and came across a large number of photos of him climbing mountains, which had never caught my attention before. The image of him in his mountaineering clothes and backpack, looking contented in nature as far as the eye could see, was different from the gentle father I knew at home.

I wondered why mountain climbing fascinated my father so much. To ease the resentment caused by accident, I began to look for what he saw in it. Relying on his notes, I started to purchase climbing gear, including clothing and food. I decided to climb the mountains he climbed.

Shu Watanabe

“THE LAST SUMMIT” artist book by Shu Watanabe
15,400 JPY
Language: Japanese or English
Page: 204page
Size: 215 x 312 x 24mm
69 editions only (all made to order)
Each edition will be signed and give the edition number by the artist
Photo / Edit / Binding / Print: Shu Watanabe
The book concept, storyline, and art direction developed: Yumi Goto at Reminders Photography Stronghold
English Proofreading: Sachie Takagi, Marc Kaufman
Photos provided: Katsumi Kawashima, Yuko Kawashima, Tomoki Sato, Kazuo Fukata, Mizuko Yamaoka, Norihisa Watanabe

For shipments to the US, please note the pull-down selection.
Be sure to select the United States, it’s the third on the list!

There are some countries where Japan Post is delaying shipping due to the new coronavirus.
Please check this list before placing your order, as your shipment will be delayed if the country you are shipping to is on the list.

●Countries and territories to which acceptance of mail is temporarily suspended because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Please note that the situation is changing day by day, and even if a country is not on the list, your order may be placed on hold.
However, we will always secure the books you order and ship them out as soon as they are available.
Also, for orders of two or more books, please email us at photobook@reminders-project.org.