Images

Ikata, Ehime

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Along both sides of the ridge, there was absolutely no city lights. It would seem that this peninsula between night sea does not have its end.

All the thing that can be seen was starlight in the far distance in the dark along the way of 25 miles to the cape. As if it led us into even outer space where is absolutely alone.

The Milky Way came into the sight beyond the windy cape. Here is the family of stars without number, including us, where each existence lights and is lighted mutually, to recognize one another.

Sakaide, Kagawa

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As if the earth had disappeared, the flow of the water was overflowing the color of the sunset glow becoming a mirror which was framed in the riverbanks.

In a small town that is getting dark toward the night, the stream remains exceptionally glisten. Since it does not have any colors at all, it is capable of reflecting any colors. Since it does not have any shapes at all, it is able to change it into any shapes.

The calm, clear surface of the water reflects natural beauty. What do we reflect on our heart when it finally gets to quietness and purity.

Naruto, Tokushima

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After going over the Naruto Strait which always has huge eddying currents, the cityscape would change to quiet natural beauty with calm waves and rich greens. However, there would be a long line of cars that are looking for parking spaces.

That would be the line of people who are visiting the Otsuka International Museum, one of the largest museums in this country. This museum exhibits over 10,000 life-size replicas of masterpieces from ancient times up to the present ages. All of those has each reproduction of the original picture frames as well.

This overwhelming scale’s exhibition and the highly developed technology of facsimiles of pictures on ceramic ware were realized by a sublime purpose of cultivation of aesthetic sentiments. The fact that the exact life-size replicas are right in front of us is fascinating, makes the people who would be deeply impressed pay a visit to the original pictures all over the world.

Kobe, Hyogo

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The City of Kobe is representative of port cities of Japan. Thanks to the enough depth, the bay has been developing as a natural harbor from many years ago and today it is being an international port which is lively with 35,000 ships a year coming and going.

In 1995, this city suffered severely from the Great Hanshin earthquake. However, it was reconstructed rapidly and in 2012, Kobe was elected as the most comfortable city in this country and also the fifth best city to live in in the world by Swiss-ECA international.

Ports are the wide gateway to relations with other cities and foreign nations. The people who get together, come and go, would cultivate the land, bring riches there and would be the motive power of revival as well.

Kyoto, Kyoto

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Fushimi Inari-Taisha Shrine is located at the base of Mt. Inari in Kyoto, an ancient capital, and still attracts many worshippers. The whole mountain that commands a view of Kyoto city and has many Japanese ciders and brooks is considered to be a sacred place.

There are 10,000 of torii gates in the precincts of this shrine, particularly the approach comprised of 1,000 toriis built-up close together is called “Senbon Torii” and is regarded as the passage to the world of the God.

The omnipresence of the world which is beyond our comprehension. Each time you pass through a torii, your mind might be passing through the spirit would.

Takashima, Shiga

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Lake Biwa is an important source of water supply that is called “ a water vessel of Kansai”. It is the largest lake in this country that has been the foundation of the life of people from old times.

Shirahige shrine which was built on the west coast of this lake has been keeping its eye on the lives of people for 2000 years together with the lake. People around here give thanks to the blessing and pray for the eternity of it.

Stood at the water’s edge and faced toward a torii. A gust of wind blew away the low-hanging clouds over the surface of the lake and an aquatic bird flew away from the top of the gate. Shortly after that, sunlight streamed through the clouds.

Kanazawa, Ishikawa

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There is “Higashi-Chayagai” on the east side of the Asano River. This district which means the east tea stalls street was part of the castle town and has a history of 200 years.

From early evening, the soft tones of Japanese flutes, drums, and banjo, called samisen, would reach your ears along with the murmur of the stream. For a long time, the people here have done regular practice in Noh chants and the whole area started being called ’a street where songs fall from the sky’. 

Training, mastery, and the initiation from person to person. The graceful melody still falls on the street nightly and adds a flavor to the area.

Wajima, Ishikawa

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For the evening calm, all the coast was quiet. A thousand mirrors of the still water reflected subtle gradation of the sunset glow and each of those glittered with different colors.

The cluster of small rice terrace was formed by the idea of making an effective use of a limited land. Level the hillside into many stepped spaces, surround each plot with ridges, plow and fill with water, then grow sprouts of rice. A mere vacant land develops into a fruitful farmland.

Bring the cosmos to chaos, the scattered energy that is supposed to disappear changes into fruition. Our wisdom and perspiration are capable of bringing naught significance which is filled with joy.

Shirakawa, Gifu

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The pastoral landscape which has been handed down from generation to generation. It is the primal scene that anyone yearns for irrespective of whether they have seen it or not. The traditional lifestyle that relies on rice growing and the benefit from nature.

Bending down on the soil, laboring with their hands, cooperating with each other, people are engaged in most steps of food producing process. In those days which people used to devote their lifetimes entirely to farming for their living even without leisure, their experiences were the exact pure phenomenon of life. 

When you put all your energies into your aim without any doubt or other options, your self-consciousness would fade away, a moment turns into eternity, and the reciprocal influence between the environment and yourself would be in perfect harmony.

Saku, Nagano

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In the early morning, a wide kind of flowers was waiting for the rising sun. All of those were breathing fresh air and glittering with dew softly. 

Forming connections with water, wind, and light, they come to purify air, distribute nectar and treat others to their fruits. Then, they would run to seed with the assistance of fur, feather, and insect. 

To give and to receive are inseparably related. Those are one and the same. One receives the life then supports others, and gets help then leave their posterity.

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Giving hues and scents which are loaded in the life of flowers. To celebrate joys and glories, or lamenting over partings.

The saying that ‘dumplings rather than flowers,’ (pudding before praise,) admonish us not to seek our immediate interests in disregard of elegance.

We, the human beings may be the only existence that can — even that must— give priority to the things which have no actual profits.

Nagatoro, Saitama

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While descending to the Kanto Plains, the stream which had a strong current calmed down and turned the color into deep green. Followed one stream and noticed the whole life which is blessed with the benefit of water.

The being that can never go beyond the transmigration of water even for a single moment. If we can not exist without it, water really is a part of the life phenomenon.

We appear to require the liquid of life, but, as a matter of fact, Water itself might be calling us.

Minakami, Gunma

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Turned off the coastline into the inland area. There was a river along the way which goes over mountains, and it was splashing around the slopes as if it was breathing hard.

Passing the cold winter together with plants, the circulation of snow water permeates through every heart of the mountains to the ends of the earth like a blood current of living things.

Floating faintly in the sky, beating on rocks hard in mountain streams, running calmly across planes. As if it were the endless vicissitudes of mind, the circulating water travels changing its form to make flowers open, and to quench us.

Nagaoka, Niigata

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As if they know the color of a blue sky, bright flowery waves occupy the earth. The air is so perfumed with the intoxicating fragrance that it is dyed yellow and then waft into our brains sharply like needles.

Knowing the joy to bloom in spring, to rustle in the breeze, to bear fruit, they are expressing it in the color, in the nectar, and in the fragrance. The color is a color of delight. 

At under our nose, there are each single flowers. When we look over the whole field, they are as one. Since whichever individuals accept themselves as they are, the whole flower field forms a unitary life.

Tsuruoka, Yamagata

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At the base of a huge overhanging rock toward the sea, there stands a shrine named “Yayoke” which means ”evade arrows”. “Tateiwa”, which means “standing rock” has the same pronunciation as “shield rock” in Japanese. It is said that in ancient times, people took cover from enemy’s arrows behind this rock in a civil war.

Shimenawa and Torii — a rope and a gate specific to Shinto — are the symbols of the border between the earth and the great beyond. It is said that Gods exist in nature from old times. People have believed that especially magnificent spots would be sacred places, and many mythologies have been handed down for generations.

Our hearts, which are also beyond human knowledge, catch the wonders of nature and its Creation, divide off from our world and interpret those to be beyond human knowledge. It is not analysis but intuition, not wishes but prayers, not demand but belief.

Sakata, Yamagata

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Sought the seashore for the westering sun. The white sand overflowed into a back alley. On the wide beach were a few people to see the daylight off mutely. Waves rolled in on the sands.

Air dyed blue and scarlet together touched cheeks and breezed away. The whole sky was setting down over the sea, the whole sea was rising up to the sky gradually. The ceaseless sound of waves had already faded away from the awareness before knew it.

Or rather the consciousness unified into the sound itself. Melting into it, heartstrings would not hear the sound anymore. All we can do was to recognize the everlasting moment of dusk.

Akita, Akita

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Fly, swim, hunt, and sleep. At times sing, At times sob. Living without any school, office, lodging, nor grocery. Neither any nursery to leave children, any organ to depend on, nor any property to put in a bank.

Even though lost its one leg, standing on the water, standing on the air, it would be living as long as the Nature permits. It continues to practice the existence. From coasts to coasts, ages to ages, moments to moments. Riding the tide, sailing on air currents, with the lapse of time.

Learn, work, settle, and consume. What will we finally get when we have sold the whole ourselves out short, being buried under the material possessions. Not only one of the legs. What can we give to the world if we could devote ourselves, heart and soul.

Fukaura, Aomori

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At the water’s edge, whether the sounds abated or the heart became calm. Behind the clouds, whether the sun sinks below the horizon or the ocean covers up the sun. Toward evening, whether time is passing away or consciousness perceive transitions.

There would be no hearing when sounds do not exist, there would not be “here” when there is not “there”, there would be no time when there is no consciousness.

Time can be experienced only by consciousness. Neither time nor space does not exist without consciousness. All the things out there that we believe those presences are just experienced by consciousness in here, which involves the whole possibility.

Yokohama, Aomori

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Until 30 miles away from the shore. The things that meet your eyes would be the waters and the skies alone. On the opposite shore, a mountain can be seen dimly in the distance.

Nothing to photograph, nor to write about, nor to keep in mind, particularly. Never themes, it does not mean that we can not experience nor create anything. Creation is not producing something visible or tangible but conceiving concepts of the beautiful and expressing it physically.

As a painting is drawn on a brand-new canvas, and also an architecture is built on an empty lot, all the living things, lifeless things, arts, and emotions would be created from “Nothingness”. 

Misawa, Aomori 

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No buildings, no glaring billboards here are. Not a place to get together, nor a statue nor a tourist attraction. With your back to the sea, only the reed field stretched as far as the eye could see. It seems improbable that this place would be the destination of any trip. 

This marsh, “Hotokenuma” was reclaimed from a fresh water lake by fire and draining to make farmlands. Yet it has been left as it is for half a century owing to a policy of reducing rice acreage.

Since various species of birds, flora, mammals, amphibians, fish, and insects including some near-threatened one have been found here, subsequently, this site received national protection. This reclaimed land did not benefit us after all. However, the longer-term outlook for humanity should involve conserving the nature, not only urban or economic development. 

Hachinohe, Aomori

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Climb up to the top of a breakwater, and look around. In the direction of cities and industrial area, the air is glowing with the lights of those in the dark.

Just like trees grow in the sun, the progress of human beings has also been made under the light, literally and literarily.  As the sun lights the sight, our consciousness throws the light on the occurrence of our life.

The moon does not exist if there were no sunlight. We can not recognize the things which do not reflect the light. Neither can we ourselves exist without any light which is our faculty of perception.

Miyako, Iwate

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Walk through the pine grove, then a greenish blue seascape will peep through trees. At the end of the downward slope, you will find a quiet inlet covered with white gravel.

Ripples are lapping on the surface of the water, which is so clear that you can see through the bottom. Some seagulls are floating on it, others are gliding through the air.

The name of this shore is “Johdogahama”, which means Heaven. There would be the Beyond, beyond those rocks.

Kesennuma, Miyagi

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At 6 o’clock in the evening, there sounds The Symphony No. 9 “From the New World”, known as the New World Symphony, composed by Antonín Dvořák. The people living around here listen to this every evening as a time signal.

At the same hour, at the same places, but not in the same views of the town. Making them feel pangs of the nostalgia for the past, the melody would be engraved in their memories for generations.

Now, the port appears to have regained the lights of ships and buildings. Their daily lives still go on.  However, even though the melody which we can hear in this town is identical, it has a different tone for them. Reaches From the New World.

Ishinomaki, Miyagi

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4 cranes were standing still on the shore like fishermen, in the evening twilight.  Letting the fishing lines drift across the air, underwater, and through our minds invisibly, they attempt to salvage whatever the people remember.

The persons here literally lost their homes, properties, workplaces, friends, and families, in a moment, in that tidal bore. Lost the bonds that were used to be the matter of course. Lost themselves.

4 cranes lift and put new tetrapods to develop the region again, in the morning glow. And to crane forward to see into the future.

Tomioka, Fukushima

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These towns lay in ruins after the core meltdown of the nuclear power plant in the vicinity. Weeds grow all around, farms were left to run wild, houses, stores and the entire functions as the residential quarter were abandoned.

The dose of radioactivity here still remains about 25 times higher than the safety standard that is set by ICRP (International Commission on Radiological Protection) even after 5 years from the occurrence of the accident.

As the only country which has the cities called Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japanese people have been supposed to understand the serious menace of nuclear energy, deeper than any other nations in the world. 

Nevertheless, the government had been constructed an enormous number of nuclear power plants in each district. Then, we have given rise to such an irretrievable calamity by ourselves again.

Kamisu, Ibaraki

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Along the coast, 12 huge windmills line in a row. Even if the weather is fine, it would be hazy by the wet sea breeze all over the seaside. There is hardly anyone in this vast expanse of land. Just for waves and winds.

Starting revolving slowly, one of the huge windmills shrieked out at the sea. That sounded as if the earth were shaking in the cry. Notice that winds have their own moods and are showing those as they blow through us.

The shadows of the rotor blades crept around on the sand. Stroked the weathered drifts and waste articles gently. Turned faster, then a blast of wind swept the whole coast.

Asahi, Chiba

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There is no doubt that Sakura, cherry blossom is the most beloved flower as the representative of Japanese spring. We can find this pretty flowers at almost every single park, shrine, riverside, educational institution, and the like.

People spare their time to picnic under these trees and congratulate for the beginning of new season annually. The small petals would be fluttering down in the breeze.

The beauty of falling petals is frequently associated with sadness. Our wish that Sakura does not fall so soon against the reality makes us more captivated by this flower.

Tateyama, Chiba

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Sunosaki Lighthouse is one of the landmarks which forms the boundary line between Tokyo Bay and the Pacific Ocean together with Tsurugisaki Lighthouse in Kanagawa, keeping an eye on the boats that voyage the bound.

This lighthouse is placed on the top of a slightly elevated hill. On the way there, you would find a little maze of alleys, that hides a statue of Buddism. Before getting to the top, you will pass by an old flower bed. 

Even the people from the next prefectures might feel variations in the climate, the kind of the plants and the terrain there.

Futtsu, Chiba

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At the top of a seaside observatory here, you will know how the city lights are shining brightly all around, throughout the night, even you are 20km (about 12miles) distant away from the opposite shore.

There is a small matter whether you can go up to the top of that observatory at night. This grotesque observatory has numerous stairways and landings, that are unreliable thin, swaying back and forth even in the spring breeze.

Coming down from the tottering observatory onto the ground, you must feel the gentleness and the silence of the sea breeze as much as you would be scared.

Kohtoh, Tokyo

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Tokyo, one of the largest metropolises in the universe, might be also the most lonesome lands in the world.

Despite its population of over 13,000,000, the majority of them could spend a whole day without saying any word. There are so many stores and facilities which are capable of any kinds of supplies, and they do not require us to speak or even know any word but the way to spend money. 

If you walk 30 minutes from Shinkiba-Station to the southeast and gaze at the night view around Tokyo Bay, you will see many lights coming from each isolated house, a room of buildings, a running train, the places where people are there, mostly alone.