DRAGON BLUE
Keiko Nomura
(Pre-order)

'Dragon Blue' is the 3rd and final book of Keiko Nomura's trilogy. After 'Drop of Light to Rushing Water' and 'Okinawa', the Japanese photographer continues to delve into the world of water and women, in her overarching exploration of life’s infinite cycle, beyond time and space.

PRE-ORDERS
Book starts shipping in late Mid-January 2026

沖縄の海の青。
それは記憶であり、祈りであり、
この世とあの世をつなぐ橋。
水平線の彼方には、
海の向こうの天国――ニライカナイがあると信じられてきた。
あの世は闇ではなく、
深く澄んだ青い光の世界。
その青は、龍の息のように静かに流れ、
空と海を、生と死を、
ゆるやかに結んでゆく。
サンゴ礁に抱かれた浅い海、イノー。
そこは二つの世界のあわいにある。
Dragon Blue――祈りと光の記憶の場。
満ちては引く潮のように、
生命はめぐり、光は波となり、
やがて祈りへと溶けてゆく。
――ニライカナイへと続く、青の道。

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　野村恵子

The blue of the Okinawan sea— it is memory, it is prayer, a bridge between this world and the other.
Beyond the horizon lies Nirai Kanai, a paradise believed to exist across the sea.
The afterworld was never darkness, but a realm of deep, lucid blue light.
That blue drifts softly, like the breath of a dragon, gently binding sky and sea, life and death, this shore and the next.
The ino, a shallow sea cradled by coral reefs, rests between two realms.
Dragon Blue is a place of prayer, a living memory of light.
Like the tides that rise and fall, life circles quietly,light becomes waves, and waves dissolve into prayer— leading the soul along the blue path towards Nirai Kanai.

Keiko Nomura, 2025

Keiko Nomura (Kobe, Japan) graduated from Visual Arts College Osaka and studied photography in Los Angeles. She has  published several books, mostly with Japanese publishers. Nomura received the Newcomer’s Award from the Photographic Society of Japan in 1999 and New Photographer Prize at the 16th Higashikawa International Photography Festival in 2000 and has been exhibiting regularly in Japan in the last years.

Dragon Blue
Softcover with flaps, 21x29cm, 32 pages
400 copies
Pierre von Kleist editions 2025