Things Become Other Things

Update Dec 2024: Pre-order the Random House edition of this book (coming May 2025), and instantly get $30 off anything in this shop (including this fine art edition). More details here. 

Hi, I'm author Craig Mod. 

Things Become Other Things (TBOT) is a book about a decade of walking. It's where I’ve tried to distill why it is that I walk so much: Walking as a way to become who I wanted to become but didn’t know how to. Walking as a way to reflect on where it is that we come from. And walking as a way to bear witness to a certain grace visible only when you’re bored out of your skull, when you’ve been walking for weeks on end, and when you think you should just pack it up and go home. There, at that point of exhaustion, appears a little thing — a hello, the smallest gesture, something that becomes, yes, almost supernatural, spiritual in a way that is impossible to recognize amid the average day-to-day routine. Something you can only see in that elevated rhythm of the walk.

This is a book of those moments.

It’s about talking with a thousand fishermen and farmers and kissa owners, about communing with the mountain fauna, about hopscotching around leeches. It’s about floods and tsunamis and the capricious fecundity of nature. It’s about walking through a hundred old villages, many gone or soon to be gone. It’s about whispering priests and suddenly-appearing rain-soaked Irish priests and foul-mouthed little kids. It’s about the life of one lost friend, decades back, and an ocean away.

About the Book

Things Become Other Things' first edition was published in November 2023. 

The book is entirely printed and produced in Japan to exacting standards.

Details about the physical object: 

• 1,000 signed copies
  
• 1,500 unsigned copies
• cloth-bound, flexible hardcover (0.6mm boards)
• blind deboss + foil stamped cover
• fine-art archival matte Japanese body papers (Araveal White, 104kg)
• 170mm x 240mm (~B5 size)
• 240 pages
• 68 chapters 
• 56 photographs
• printed and bound in Japan
• ISBN: 978-0-9845958-7-7

The explicit walk in this book took place in 2021 over the course of about thirty days. It's through the lens of that walk that we reflect on a decade of walking the peninsula — thousands of kilometers — and on that lost life in another country. 

This book is not a guide. While the book has a map, it is not meant to be followed explicitly. (Although you could try to.) While the book has photographs, they probably won't help you find your way. 

To give you a sense of ground covered, here's the book's map:

Production Notes

Things Become Other Things is offset printed on top-tier Heidelberg presses at the famed Matsumoto-based Fujiwara Printing. The detail and "quality of light" in the photos looks and feels phenomenal. 

This edition is hand bound, book by book, by the incredible Mochizuki Bindery in Kagurazaka, Tokyo. Because of our (annoyingly; sorry binder folks) precise specifications, the only way to reliably bind our book with a 1mm edge was by hand. The folks at Mochizuki produced two jigs specifically for this edition. The result is a flexibound hardcover, wrapped in cloth with a silk-screened cover. 

Thanks to the work of Fujiwara Printing and Mochizuki binding, TBOT is a true collectable.

Cover

Things Become Other Things' cover illustration was drawn by the great Luis Mendo. The illustration is foil-stamp-debossed onto the cloth using white foil. The title and my name are blind-debossed on the front. 

Limited Edition Prints 

Two limited edition prints (The Bus, The Road (With Tiny Shrine)) are available with the launch of TBOT's first edition.

• editions of 50
• signed and numbered
• Printed on acid- and lignin-free Hahnemühle Photo Rag Ultra Smooth using 10-color archival pigment inks
• B5-size paper (same size as book; image itself is slightly smaller)

They're available as a combination purchase with a signed book. 

Reader Testimonials for Kissa by Kissa

Hi — author Craig Mod here. I asked buyers of Kissa by Kissa to send in testimonials / thoughts about the book. Here are some of the (extremely!) kind things they wrote in with:

One of the most beautiful books I've seen and read in a long time. The physical nature of the book—and the text and photographs within—represent a thoughtful labor of love that one rarely sees in print these days.

This book made me want to make books.

More than just a book, it's an object, an artifact - and it is timeless. The thought that went into crafting this must be immerse. Thank you for putting so much into documenting a critical piece of fading culture.

I am so very glad I decided to buy Kissa by Kissa. I know I will return to this book again and again: to relish the beauty of the images; to be delighted and moved by the writing; to enjoy the craft of the object itself in my hands. Worth every penny.

Kissa by Kissa is one of the most beautiful books I've ever purchased. Craig takes us along his walk both visually through his writing and tangibly through the way he produced the book. I admire the thought that went into every aspect of experiencing this work.

This book is the most beautiful object I own, it might be too perfect. Books should be shared and Kissa by Kissa is compelling to share. All of my friends should get to wander Japan on a quest for pizza toast, but they don't get to. I don't trust them with book, the binding is perfect. You wouldn't lend out a Turner would you?

This is a gorgeous book! The subject matter is fascinating, and the book itself is a work of art.

How My Books Are Made — Making of Kissa by Kissa 

This is a documentary showing production of the third edition of Kissa by Kissa, but almost all of these production steps are identical for Things Become Other Things:

Things Become Other Things: Table of Contents

Production

From the box it ships in, to the thread the signatures are woven with, everything is made, assembled, and produced in Japan. This book was touched by — and helped employ — dozens of skilled workers with sustainable and humane salaries, across a number of industries — from paper making, to box making, to printing and binding.

Thank you for your support and enabling us to do this kind of work in this way.   

About Craig 

Craig Mod is a writer and photographer who has lived in Japan since 2000. His book Kissa by Kissa's fine art edition has sold over 4,000 copies. His book Koya Bound (2016) is an award winning (AIGA 50 Books / 50 Covers) book. Over the past decade years he's walked some 2,500km across the country and eaten several hundred slices of toast, pizza and plain alike. His writing has appeared in publications including The New York Times, Eater, The Atlantic, WIRED, The New Yorker, The Japan Times, California Sunday Magazine, and others. His weekly newsletters on walking, photography and writing are read by over 40,000 people.