Pilgrimage to Japan

I have been influenced by Japanese culture all of my life. As a child of six or seven I learned to compose Haiku, fold origami and paint with sumi-e ink on rice paper. I saw the film “Rashomon” and had it explained to me by an adult. Later I discovered more films by Akira Kurosawa and next generation director, Shohei Imamura. I continued to be influenced by other Japanese artforms like shakuhachi flute music, Edo Period woodblock prints, the wanderings of Basho and even trashy Japanese noir novels of the 1980s and 1990s. Eventually I found my way to the westernized Zen teachings of Soyen Shaku and D.T. Suzuki through the work of midcentury American painters, composers, and beat poets. My first visit to Japan was the realization of a longtime ambition. It challenged me to apply all that I had learned about composition and being in the moment to photographing the visual world created by the Japanese. I decided to explore two poles of their culture: its ultra modernism and its reverence for tradition. My pilgrimage took me from recently-built skyscrapers in Tokyo to the ancient gardens and temples of Kawagoe and Kyoto. I was fortunate to be introduced to the family of a Zen priest and stayed at their temple.