Hajime Kimura’s Artist book “Mišo Bukumirović” available now.

11/26/2021

Hajime Kimura’s artist book “Mišo Bukumirović” is now available.

This book is a prologue that leads to the core of the project that author Kimura Hajime decided to undertake in order to meet “that man” who he remembered from the time he started playing football. How did the “idol” remain in the author’s mind? He would never have thought that the day would come when he would actually come face to face with “that man”, himself at the age of eight, his memories and motivations intersecting with “that man”, i.e. Mišo Bukumirović, from the TV image.

In November 2015, after deciding to work abroad, Kimura received a plain notebook as a goodbye gift. The information gathered between journeys and during the days leading up to meeting “that man” filled his notebook with scribbles. This book is based on the notebook, which has been compiled into a single volume.

“Mišo Bukumirović”

This story depicts how I tried to remember a man who remains deep in my earliest memories of playing football.

A fridge in the kitchen. And a 14-inch tube television on it.

I was just watching TV.

In 1990, there was no professional football league in Japan. However, football gradually became trendy, as far as I could remember. I caught the wave when I was in elementary school.

Around that time, I also watched some European football TV programs, if my memory is correct. I was eight then. Several pieces of my memory are still coming back to me. There were two football games. One team was in both games.

One game was held in Zagreb, Croatia on 13th May 1990. Dinamo Zagreb versus Red Star Belgrade. The other was held in Tokyo on 8th December 1991. Red Star Belgrade versus Colo Colo. That was the final match of the ex-Intercontinental Cup.

If I could make out the reasons why I remember those two games, it was because the first one was more of a riot than an ordinary football game and that I tried to go to the stadium to catch the second game. I couldn’t make it through. Instead, I watched the game on TV.

Somehow, I remember seeing a man in the second game, and he remains deep in my memories. I found out he was neither a player nor a supporter. He was a physician of the Red Star Belgrade. But why do I remember that man?

When I reviewed the footage of that game, I realized that man sometimes appeared in the TV frame and popped into the field to provide treatment when a player got injured. After the game, he and other players paraded with a trophy on the track. One thing that I clearly remember is that he was in a green jacket.

In 1995, two years had passed since the J-League started. I was playing football in junior high school. Around that time, many former Yugoslavian players came to Japan. I didn’t even think about the reason they came to the peak of their careers in Europe.

In 1998, I was in my second year of high school and was still a football player. Meanwhile, the Japan national team took part in the World Cup in France for the first time.

In 1999, I heard that there was a NATO airstrike in a country somewhere.

In 2016, I felt an urge to meet the man who was stored in a distant part of my memory.

This story depicts how I tried to remember the man who remains deep in my earliest memories of playing football. And a kind of fantasy before I met him.

Hajime Kimura
English proof: Ng Hui Hsien

©︎Hajime Kimura / Mišo Bukumirović

[ Book Specifications ]

Hajime Kimura’s artist book Mišo Bukumirović
Number of pages : 524pages
Size : 200 x 138 x 50 mm
A limited number of production: 91 copies (all editions signed)

Price: 17,000 yen (Asia) 17,600 yen (Oceania, North America, Central America, Middle East, Europe) 18,400 yen (South America, Africa) Consumption tax and postage included, and will be shipped by Japan Post’s international air freight service.

We will ship your order as soon as we receive confirmation of your payment via Paypal.
Please allow 1 to 2 months for the production period. Thank you in advance for your understanding.

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.
International mail service availability chart (Updated on November 18)

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.

Please consider that Hajime Kimura’s “Snowflakes Dog Man” is also available for order.
The exhibition is scheduled to be held on June 13, 2020 with his latest work The Bluebird Perch.
We will be updating the details on Facebook and other sites, so please stay tuned.

From the page spread of the photo book Mišo Bukumirović: Hajime Kimura