Photographs taken in 1982 and 1983, when Mitsunobu Sawada, then aged 19 and crazy about photographing clowns, followed the Holiday'n Circus on tour in Toyama Prefecture and Aichi Prefecture. Sawada felt that clowns visualize the complexity, ambiguity and frightfulness of human nature, and asks what lies beyond their humour. The motifs range from portraits to moody shots of the circus interior, documentary pictures of the circus and its surroundings and almost publicity-like shots of the clowns during their performances, approaching them with a strange mix of fascination, ridicule, respect and reluctance. The photographs are one of only a few documents of Japanese circus culture, a tradition that has lost its significance in the decades since. The afterword speaks of clowns who keep smiling, enriching hearts with fragile hearts full of warmth and affection while hiding their pain and loneliness. All text is in Japanese and English.