Production period

1977-1979

Publications

The New Testament World Japanese ed. (1979)
Shogakukan Inc. (price 28,000JPY)

The New Testament World Special Edition Japanese ed. (1983)
Shogakukan Inc. (price 7,500JPY)

Christ's Life Japanese ed. (1980)
KyoBunKan (price 12,000JPY)

Christ's Life Special Edition Japanese ed. (1984)
KyoBunKan (price 8,000JPY)

The Old Testament World Japanese ed. (1980)
Shogakukan Inc. (price 28,000JPY)

The Old Testament World Special Edition Japanese ed. (1983)
Shogakukan Inc. (price 7,500JPY)

The Biblical World Japanese ed. (1984)
Shinchosha (price 1,100JPY)

The Biblical World Revised Edition Japanese ed. (2003)
Shinchosha (price 1,400JPY)
After going through 21 editions, a revised edition of the 1984 pubications was published in 2003

I Luoghe Della FedeII Italian ed. (1992) Mondadori company

Leshauts Lieux Dela Bible French ed. (1992) Solar company

Lugares De La Biblia Spanish ed. (1992) Anaya company

Miejsca Biblijne Polish ed. (1993) Split Trading company

Although innumerable biblical photographic collections have been previously published, all of them were inaccurate. For instance, in previous biblical photo collections, Mesopotamia was taken to be located around Lake Galilee and to the north of it. It is now well-know in biblical studies, that the scene of Mesopotamia from Genesis, in the Old Testament, refers to the area between the two major rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates. But Iraq refused to issue visas for people who wanted to shot or film in this area.

Mr Shirakawa, however, obtained a visa for the first time with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and succeeded in extensively taking photos across the whole region of Mesopotamia just before the Iran-Iraq war. After this, no one has entered this area because of the conflicts. The important scenes from the Bible are still geopolitically important today, with many places having become military bases.

Obtaining permission to enter and shoot in the vicinity of military bases had been impossible until Mr Shirakawa, using his network of contacts over a period of four years, obtained the necessary permission. Mr Shirakawa was the first person to be able to photograph all the sites described in the Bible. The shooting period was three years but it took seven years in total when the time taken to obtain permission is included. For this unprecedented job that made the 'impossible, possible', he received for the tenth time, Photographer of the Year from the American Society of Media Photographers.

On 20 October 1979, the 400 first editions of The New Testament World were released and all were sold out within 24 hours. There is no precedent for a book that cost tens of thousands of yen to be sold out in just one day.

From 19-31 October 1979, 'Yoshikazu Shirakawa's Exhibition of Photographs — The Biblical World' — was held at Odakyu Department Store in Shinjuku, Tokyo. As the exhibition hall was filled to overflowing, it was hard to fully appreciate the displayed works. So, after being show at ten other locations throughout Japan, the same exhibition, this time entitled the 'Encore Exhibition', was again held at Shinjuku from 12-21 December 1980. Never before has the same paying exhibition been held at the same location on two separate occasion.

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