If you go to a traditional Japanese wedding, then stand on a side and close your eyes and only listen to the surroundings, you will not know whether this is a wedding or a funeral procession. It is slow, traditional music sounds are a rather dramatic, and everyone is dead serious. However, the stunning parade of women and men dressed in traditional kimono, and the wedding ceremony itself are well worth witnessing. It is really beautiful. Wedding party, on the other hand, is something that you can skip, as it is being animated to the last detail by 1456 wedding animators, extremely stiff, need to fill an application with a pastport photo every time you want leave the table and go to pee, cant really talk to anyone as you are given a seat and have to stay there for the whole thing, and get kicked out after 3 or so hours. Not my idea of whoopie. Photo was shot in Meiji Jingu Shrine in Tokyo, where weddings such as this one can cost around 100,000 $ (yup, thats hundred thousand).
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Senso-ji Srine (浅草寺) in Azakusa, in central Tokyo is one of the most visited places by the tourists. The main attraction there is not this beautiful Shinto shrie itself, but the Nakamise-dori, or in other words, the street with small shops selling all kinds of Japanese omiyage (お土産, i.e. souvenirs), from little plush toys to fake Japanese katana swords. You do not see much of Nakamise-dori on this photo, as I think that the most intriguing and beautiful thing in there cannot be bought, but can only be admired. One of those things is the pictured Hozomon (宝蔵門) - the Treasure House Gate leading to the inner complex of the shrine.
When visiting a Japanese shrine or a temple, one can be easily overwhelmed by the lavishness of decorations, and insane attention to architectural details. Admiring Japanese traditional architecture could be compared to admiring Japanese calligraphy. First one admires the overal composition and the white space, then the harmony between the characters, then balance of strokes, and finally fine details of each line, dot and so on. Below you can see Japanese calligraphy in standard script carved in wood. It reads: 成田山 (Narita san), which is the name of the Busshist temple complex in Narita city near Tokyo. It was a gift from Akita prefecture, presented to the Narita temple back in Taisho Era (大正), year 9, i.e. 1921.
I am not sure when was the first time that I saw a photo of similar panorama of Tokyo with the Mt. Fuiji at the back, but from the moment I saw it, I was obsessed with taking such photo. Last year I finally took one, so here you are. One of the most striking city landscapes that I have witnessed. I love the the contrast of the glass, concrete, sky and the geometrically perfect snow-coated volcanic giant. The trick for a good panorama of Tokyo is to to shoot when the air is not too hazy. The best time seems to be between December and February, preferably after a windy day or night. Picture was shot from the Tokyo Civic Bunkyo Cenre.
As a kid, I had no idea who I wanted to become when I grow up. I guess it must be the artist in me - always confused like a snake in a can of tomatoes, with mind spinning like roller-coaster. I took this photo when I went to Odaiaba in Tokyo, to shoot the giant Gundam statue at Gundam Tokyo Front, the Japanese anime action figure slash robot slash transformer thingie. By chance, there was a racing car show there, and I snapped this photo. Photos like this, make me realise how special and unique the art of photography really is.
Japan is not only about gadgets, life in a rush, packed train stations and instant cup noodles. If you slow down and look around you, even in the most crazy places like central Tokyo, you will notice that there are things that remain unchanged for centuries. Calligraphy originated in China, but today Japan is considered to be be a country where calligraphy research and studies are on a very high level, and calligraphy exhibitions are a vital part of that tradition. It happens so, that the picture you see here was taken during one of many Japanese calligraphy events that take place in Ginza, and I was one of the participants. Person on the left hand side is my calligraphy teacher, 74 years old Master Kajita Esshuu, and to the right is oen of his students.
The good thing about being an artist is that you can allow yourself to be absent minded. Often times, when I am on a train in Tokyo, I doze off on waves of 100 thousand thoughts per second, and I miss a train stop ... or a few. Sometimes I even forget what stop I should get off at. But as long as I have my camera with me, I don’t mind, as Japan is one of those places on earth, that no matter which train stop you arrive at, there will be always something interesting to shoot. The other day, I was on my way to ... when I realised that I missed my stop. When I left the metro station, the first thing I saw was this crossing. Brilliant!
When I arrived in Tokyo for the first time, all buildings seemed the same to me. Tokyo is just an ocean of concrete, glass, and millions of people. However, there are structures that stand out. The building of Japanese Kabuki theatre is one of them. In Japanese language, 歌舞伎 (kabuki) means "singing and dancing technique (skill)". However, the word kabuki is derived from 傾く (kabuku), which means "to incline", where kabu is the old word for "head". To slant one's head is something out of the ordinary, hence the idea of kabuki - the avant-garde theatre. Kabuki theatre originated in Japan in early 17th century. Below photo: Kabuki Theatre building in Tokyo.
Unlike in Hokkaido and northern part of Honshu, in Tokyo we do not see much snow. It usually snows one day a year, sometimes two, and it dries out after a few hours. But today, it is snowing all day long. It started yesterday evening, and it is stil snowing! I must say, it does look beauiful outside. So, I went out with my camera, and took a few pictures. Here is one of them. I added a calligraphy in Japanese kana script, which reads しらゆめ (白夢), i.e. "white dream", although "shira" (白) could also mean "innocent". Buy a print of this photo at my store on Fine Art America.
Japan is famous for its anime and manga characters, movies, cartoons, video games and what not. The difference between the two is that anime is animated (motion picture), and manga is a still image (in a form of a comic book). Manga originated back in 19th century, whereas anime in early 20th century. Today, manga and anime themes are all over Japan. Even serious institutions like banks, post offices, etc., have their cartoon-ish logo marks. I shot this photo in front of Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu (鶴岡八幡宮) Shinto shrine in Kamakura. Those are masks sold for kids, and they represent famous anime characters, like Ultraman, pokemons, and, not surprisingly, the multi-billion dollar marketing phenomenon Hello Kitty, which, believe it or not, was originally used by a Japanese company for promoting their rubber sandals.
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Ponte Ryuurui (品天龍涙)
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