“Robert Frank to and from Japan”

This article reflects on image-text relations and translingual practices in terms of Robert Frank's acclaimed The Lines of My Hand (1972) in its bilingual edition by Yûgensha. The absence of several contributions to this volume —essays by Japanese intellectual writers including Haniya Yutaka and Shigemori Kôen, a piece by Gotthard Schuh, and the preface and postscript by Frank himself that illustrate a crucial role played by the Japanese editor Motomura Kazuhiko in the photographer's career—from the photobook's American edition is considered in comparison with the well-documented textual diversion between Frank's earlier Les Américains and The Americans.