I have been out and about and shooting a lot, but like many others, the season's obligations occupied me so I have been less than diligent posting. A lot has been going on in Japan, with the arriving and passing of the spectacular autumn colors and the arriving and passing of the New Year's Celebrations. As usual there is a lot to shoot, and I tried to take every opportunity to get out there.
For the first time I was able to stop by a local shrine in Tachikawa, that I have passed by for years, but never photographed. I was lucky enough to get there on the day after New Year during great weather to catch locals coming by and paying respects to their ancestors, many of whom are enshrined out back. During these visits people ring the shrine bell and lay flowers at and clean the area where their family remains are commemorated. I try to be reverent shooting in shrines and temples, part of that is shooting with small, quiet cameras.
While I was walking the grounds, I came across this little fellow who I think is a statue of a shrine priest who is in the next world now, but evidently while in this one, he liked to play with cameras. I think we would have gotten along well. It also reminded me, that although I am careful while taking photos in Japan, photography is engrained in the culture, as far back as the late 19th century. The Japanese have long sought to document daily life in pictures, I think more so than any other culture. This can be seen in the Ukiyoe woodblock prints that captured so much of popular and historical life in Japan. When the camera came along it was quickly accepted as providing a way of capturing the same moments without the need of experienced artisans and a team of printers, ink makers etc. to put it all together. The stereotype of the Japanese person carrying around a camera taking photos of everything is more truth than stereotype and it is why many of the best photographers and cameras in the world come from Japan.
So in that spirit I attempted to ramble around Tokyo (much like this article) to see and document the little moments that make me love this country. It is an oft-worn cliche, that I always challenge, to say that this is a country where tradition and modernity co-exist side-by-side in harmony. Any time I see that written, and it is in every travel piece ever written about Japan, I instantly think, "this person does not 'get' Japan." Japan is more a place, like most others on the planet, where modernity has done its best to sand blast history and tradition out of existence. They only endure by accident, or because some caring (and usually crazy), committed soul spends his/ her life trying to save it. They usually make movies about those moments, but the average Japanese has no more regard for their own history than a strip-mall developer has for a civil war battlefield in the States. We have that in common.
Tokyo in particular is a place where the places and moments worth preserving are mainly the domain of the photographer. Those who have never been to Japan would be far from the mark to imagine Japan as a place where all views contain Mount Fuji, a Shinto Shrine, a Maiko in a Kimono puring a cup full of the finest sake made, all from within a Japanese garden. But what makes the place enchanting, and a home for many an expat, is that there is a slight chance that one will come across all of that, at least once while here - and when one does, they seem to forget all of the hustle and bustle, crowds and ass-pain it took to experience it.
It is the notion that while I content myself with shooting the tops of taxis when the lights go down, I can, when I really want, get on a train, go 30 minutes from my house, and walk around a shrine where there is not a single human soul - and shoot to my heart's content. I suppose that is what keeps me here so long.
