MARILYN MONROE Asahi Graph 1983 Vintage Japanese Magazine Photo Spread
$52 · Offered by eBay
OVERVIEW Vintage 1983 Asahi Graph (アサヒグラフ) magazine, a well-known Japanese weekly photojournalism publication by Asahi Shimbun. This is the February 25, 1983 special enlarged issue (増大号), featuring a dedicated Marilyn Monroe photo feature under the headline "Forever Nostalgic, the Lovely Woman" (いつまでも懐かしいかわいい女). Original issue price 480 yen, printed in Japan for the domestic Japanese market — a genuine piece of early-1980s Japanese pop-culture print media honoring the Hollywood icon. CULTURAL CONTEXT Asahi Graph was one of Japan's leading photo-news weeklies, running from the 1920s through the 1990s, known for large-format photo spreads and cultural retrospectives. A "zokango" or enlarged special issue (増大号) like this one carried extra pages and a higher cover price than a standard weekly number. Japanese publishers frequently ran retrospective Marilyn Monroe features decades after her death, reflecting her enduring, near-mythic popularity with Japanese audiences — the cover line itself translates to "the lovely woman who remains forever nostalgic." The issue notes a Monroe photo exhibition held that spring at Isetan department store in Shinjuku, Tokyo, underscoring the scale of Japanese fan interest at the time. CONTENTS/DETAILS - Front cover: full-color portrait of Marilyn Monroe holding a striped scarf, credited to UPI wire service, with the masthead "Asahi Graph" and headline "Marilyn Monroe." - Interior feature: full-page color photo of Marilyn Monroe kneeling in a pink
- Year: 1983
- Condition: Good
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