Provoke Complete Reprint

In November 1968, a quiet yet radical publication emerged from Tokyo’s independent publishing scene: Provoke. More than a photography magazine, it was an experiment in visual language, politics, and perception—a direct challenge to the conventions of both art and journalism.

Founded by critic Koji Taki and photographer Takuma Nakahira, with contributions from poet Takahiko Okada and photographer Yutaka Takanashi, and later joined by Daido Moriyama, Provoke carried the subtitle: “Provocative Materials for Thought.” Each issue wove together photographs, texts, and poems to interrogate the limitations of language and the instability of visual meaning in an era of political unrest.

Its now-iconic aesthetic—are-bure-boke (grainy, blurry, out-of-focus)—was at the time dismissed by traditional critics. But the rawness of its images, its refusal to conform, and its intellectual rigor marked a seismic shift in postwar Japanese photography. The group disbanded after publishing the third issue, First, Abandon the World of Pseudo-Certainty—leaving behind only three issues and a legacy that would resonate far beyond their moment.

Original copies of Provoke are now exceptionally rare. The NITESHA Complete Reprint edition is among the most faithful and comprehensive facsimiles ever published. Unlike the reprint included in The Japanese Box, which featured cropped photographs and excluded some content, the NITESHA edition preserves the full image dimensions and original layout, and crucially, includes Takahiko Okada’s writings—restoring the publication’s full conceptual weight.