x elements

Seido Kino

Although I had no relation at all to Shimane, my interest in the ancient technique of Tatara smelting brought me here. The process of pouring iron sand and charcoal into a furnace to produce Tamahagane (precious steel), the material used in making Japanese swords, was a perfect example of the workings of people and forests. I wanted to learn in what form this activity survives in the Unnan and Okuizumo regions today. I had the opportunity to attend a traditional year-end event still held by the Tanabe family, formerly a powerful business family of iron masters in the Tatara ironmaking industry centered in Yoshida Town in Unnan City where iron was produced from the Muromachi period (1460 A.D.) to the Taisho period (1923). 

Choemon Tanabe, the 25th-generation head of the family, said, "I'm not doing this to preserve tradition. I do it just because it's fun." His son, joining in the festivities, certainly was smiling with true enjoyment. I guess I had misunderstood something. Tradition does not spring solely from hardship. In Yoshida Town, the population of just over 1,400 people facing a declining birthrate and aging population have preserved long-standing annual events that transcend eras no doubt due to their unpretentious resilience. 

In Shimane, clouds form and dissipate frequently, perhaps because of the strong
winds there. This phenomenon is perfectly described by the words from an ancient Japanese poem --Yakumo Tatsu (eight clouds rise). On some days, the rain falls
and stops repeatedly and rainbows appear every 30 minutes. At Inasa Beach, where
the priests of Izumo Oyashiro welcome the gods, rays of sunlight shine through the clouds and disappear and the sky is rich in color. I could watch the seashore for hours. Weather, when it changes this often, seems to be alive rather than simply a physical phenomenon. It's easy to see why myths are born from such a land. Wind and earth are in constant interaction, bringing changes and shaping our ways of life and thinking. The smooth transition of the four seasons brings diversity to landscapes and living creatures and is the reason why the power of restoration is strong. A huge rock appears deep in the forest with the help of orogeny (mountain-building activity) and moss grows on it. Things of rare unnaturalness found in nature exist at the point where inorganic contacts organic and they remind people of one thing or another. At first glance, people sense a unique aura that recalls to them the eternal nature of time and, not surprisingly, can even evoke reverence. Walking through Shimane, I often think that an improbable phenomenon is something to be grateful for. 

The period of rapid growth made daily life more convenient but in exchange severed people's connection to nature. In Unnan and Okuizumo, if a mountain or river is dug up just a little Kanakuso, the slag produced from old Tatara ironworks, appears to remind one of the land's history. Even in this region, forests have been redefined from living spaces to sacred, distant spaces or irrelevant areas. Except for those who work in the mountains, most people lead their daily lives flat. 

Thus, the choice to live in harmony with nature is conspicuously equivalent to actively embracing the existence of both special and everyday aspects, and, wind and soil. 

Japanese iron created by Tatara smelting blends many elements woven by the wind, earth, and people that are unique to Unnan and Okuizumo. 

These are not simple straightforward connections, but are deeply immersed in nature and culture, history, and other elements not easily explained. This is what I sensed from my journey. They are what make up the unique character of a land and the people themselves are also part of that character. Among these, the versatility of iron and rice have brought people together, formed the base of power, and brought about civilization. The intimate relation between these two elements in Unnan and Okuizumo is what has captured the imagination of an outsider like myself. They say that over a third of the myths narrated in the Kojiki (records of ancient matters) are set in Izumo. When you visit the coastline of the Shimane Peninsula, you can see signs of crustal movement. The distant past has drifted over hundreds of years to be visible to us today. 

In Shimane, it makes sense to recognize that nature is something people share communication with rather than something they control. The tireless change of seasons is a two-sided coin that benefits the land but, sadly, also brings disasters. Delicious rice makes the tradition of Mochitsuki, Sasamaki, and straw snakes possible, but growing rice also brings about damage by animals. Besides climate causes flooding and landslides. In time, though, vegetation grows there again. After all, the interaction of wind and soil is what gives permanence to life's diversity and resilience. 

I turn this way of seeing things towards daily life. If we regard the earth as a protective force, then wind represents a force for change. Friction between the elderly and young people, between long-term residents and newcomers, if it ultimately results in mutual understanding of each other's logic can act as a force for solving regional issues. In Shimane, I met many such robust and open-minded people. Compared to the vast natural world and even to cities, this land may seem quiet and unobtrusive. But the way of life here is undeniably abundant.

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SOMETHING VIBRANT

SU HOU WEN

I am always amazed by everything burgeoning along the rivers - from the smallest thing like dust, the thriving and withering of vegetation, the hovering flies in golden blue, to those gargantuan rocks, the thick and damp forests, and the capricious weather. The winding roads lead people to join in on this natural mystique. Subtle details and activities are hidden behind the ever-changing rivers, and become the fleeting moments of difference in the repeating, quotidian everydayness that embody the root of my quest for the rivers.

This photo series was undertaken between 2014 to 2023. Spanning close to a decade, the project aims to not only document the rivers, but also create for the rivers. The inception of this series had first begun to emerge since my relocation to Ankeng, Xindian. It was also the moment when I started to realize that as someone new to the area, how close I could be to water. The small towns and mountains upstream, permeating with a touch of wildness and some lost memories, have since become the captivating and inclusive sceneries and episodes that have compelled me to continue my wandering along the rivers.

The development of human beings has been intertwined with rivers since time immemorial. Rivers nowadays have, however, become a mere resource for tourism and recreation to many an urbanite. The genesis of rivers was mythologized, while rocks with odd shapes transformed into memorials that have long been forgotten. Driven by my cravings for a unique paradise, I was eager to be a part of the river. I had little clues about whether these being documented are people who have long lived here with legacy passing down generations, or perhaps just those that arrive to escape from city life. I wandered through it all. All these people, activities, things, and sceneries that confused or intrigued me were documented and became my metaphors to demarcate a heterogeneity of life. These life stories developed along the rivers gradually evolved into distinctive narratives, which turned into a thick web of storytelling over time, to eventually fixate me within its fluid boundaries.

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先着ご購入者様にステッカーをお付けしてお届け致します。 同時刊行の頭山ゆう紀『in fog』（Self-Published）収録のイメージです。 A sticker will be given to the first customers. The image is from Yuhki Touyama's simultaneously published photo book, in fog (Self-Published).

Scenes of Absence

Yuhki Touyama

"I discovered a lump in my neck and had it checked by Dr. Maeda. I think it's cancer. Let's make my last send-off a grand occasion."
My grandmother hadn't been diagnosed with cancer yet and she acted cheerful over the phone.

The call came just before we were planning to visit my uncle's grave on the anniversary of his death in May. Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus in 2020, we had been unable to go for the traditional visit to his grave in March during the week of the spring equinox. Not being able to go out shopping because of the pandemic and the anxiety she felt at the possibility of having cancer was taking a serious toll on my grandmother's elderly body. By the time all the tests were done and I finally could go to see her in July, my grandmother's former vitality was gone.[...]

The doctor recommended natural therapy (no treatment at all). My grandmother, who had never experienced a major illness and had never been hospitalized, chose to stay at home. I made the decision to resign from my job of 11 years and move in with her.

From the time I was a young child, I often took the train back and forth between my parents' house and my grandparents' house on either the Musashino Line or the Chuo-Sobu Line--both were direct connections. Whenever I visited my grandparents they would always have Western sweets ready for me that I wasn't familiar with. During summer vacations, we would stay at the Keio Plaza Hotel and dine at fancy restaurants. My grandparents were quite indulgent toward their grandchild.When I enrolled in vocational school in the photography course and said I would love to have a darkroom at home, my grandparents immediately cleared out a room in the house and even installed plumbing to create a darkroom for me. They provided almost all of the photography equipment I needed and my grandmother always supported me, "Your dream is my dream, Yu-chan," she would say. [...]

In September, I began living with my grandmother. The first thing I did for an interview with the home care doctor who had been was to go referred to us. He explained my grandmother's condition again and, in a way that felt like an admonishment, firmly said to me, "According to the medical record, she has only three months at best. She won't make it to next year. You will need to be very resolute in taking care of her at home right until the end." Even being told that and even with my imagination operating at full strength it was difficult for me to picture what would happen from now on or what was involved in the process of dying.  [...]

She even managed to make it to the year I was told she wouldn't make it to. Just as I began to relax when three more months had passed since the original three-month life expectancy prediction, my grandmother became unable to walk. The cancer had progressed, robbing her of her strength.

She reluctantly started sleeping in the nursing care bed she had refused to use before and had to constantly wear a nasal tube connected to an oxygen inhaler. She became able to breath and move a little on her own, but after three more months she gradually found it difficult to walk again. She couldn't take a bath even with assistance and couldn't make it to the toilet in time, so I put a portable toilet by her bedside. Delirium set in, conversation and eating became difficult, she started breathing through her mouth, and then she passed away.

It had become difficult for my grandmother to speak articulately, but on the day before she died she bid goodbye to her friends and family in a clear voice. Just before she passed, she had the nurse change her clothes, then beautifully and gracefully closed the curtain on her life.

In spite of loneliness at being unable to see her family during the coronavirus pandemic, it was a relief for me that she had chosen in-home care and didn't have to die in a hospital or hospice. But my time as a caregiver had not gone well.

Frustration at not being able to do what I wanted, at the days without any expression of gratitude, at the self-sacrifice situation created by the pandemic that didn't give me room to take my mind off things, at not enough sleep--all of these contributed to a buildup of stress without my being aware of it. I was dealing with everything alone and experiencing the loneliness of isolation. Little by little I felt trapped by the task I imposed on myself of doing everything in my power to be the perfect caregiver until the end from the desire to give back to my grandmother for all she had done for me. I was distant toward my grandmother who was losing mobility. [...]

I am filled with endless regret and questions. Although I read lots of articles and books on caregiving, in actual practice I couldn't keep up with what I learned.

What could I have done?

I am left with the photographs of the neighborhood that I took as a brief respite during the short times when I went out shopping and the photographs of the garden that I took from inside the room in the attempt to emotionally support my grandmother who, unable to go outside, sometimes hallucinated, declaring that she saw ink paintings on the wall. Outside the house, the seasons changed. My experience and my grandmother's experience were undoubtedly different.

Maybe we needed more words that could have filled up the time. Now I rely on the photographs that remain with the intention to continue the dialogue with my grandmother.

Yuhki Touyama

Special edition

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22種類の布色より表紙をお選び頂けます。

22 types of cloth covers（Same Contents）

左より　 6 亜麻色 ｜ 7  菜の花色 ｜ 8 柿色 ｜ 9 胡桃色 ｜ 10 煉瓦色 ｜ 11 赤銅色

左より　 12 紺桔梗 ｜13 葡萄色 ｜14 濃藍 ｜15 紺青 ｜16 天色 ｜17 藤色

左より　 18 薄墨色 ｜19 濡羽色 ｜20 鉄色 ｜21 千歳緑 ｜22 柳色

migration

Keiji Tsuyuguchi

An island nation, built upon the framework of modern imperial rule, emerged to the east of the Eurasian continent, separated by the sea. Since its inception, various circumstances have continuously generated people forced into migration. One of the things photography in this book seeks to capture is the juxtaposition between the lands from which displaced individuals originally hailed and the northern islands they migrated to. One such island, dubbed"Hokkaido"by the newly formed nation, was incorporated into the state alongside its indigenous Ainu people and became a target for colonization from the mainland. Simultaneously, numerous forced relocations of the Ainu people became institutionalized. 

Additionally, this book primarily focuses on various regions such as parts of the cities Tokyo and Sapporo, where the administrative body known as the"Development Commission,"which was heavily involved in these relocations, was established post-state formation, regions formed by the mining industry now facing decline and extinction, and these various territories are captured through photography.  

Located in the heart of Tokyo, the city where the Development Commission was placed and surrounded by various powers constituting the nation's authority, lies the"Imperial Palace,"an invisible space where residing is excluded, and one of the subjects of this book. 

On the other hand, in recent years, we have experienced the emergence of highly unique spaces in our archipelago. This includes the formation of the"Difficult-to-Return Zone"and its surrounding areas, contaminated by high levels of radioactive materials due to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident. Once again, people were forced to move from their traditional homes and leave the area. 

This attempt to find strong homogeneity between these vastly different spaces in origin, history, and time̶the Difficult-to-Return Zone and the Imperial Palace̶forms another axis of this book. 

The forces that gave rise to the Imperial Palace and the Difficult-to-Return Zone continue to create several spaces that appear similar or homogenous to them. These spaces, inherently invisible due to the exclusion of habitation, intersect and overlap with the locations constituting the first axis, appearing in our sight. Therefore, what appears in photographs̶the seemingly visible landscapes, cities, mines, nuclear power plants, farmlands, and the residences of those who live there̶forms part of this book.

These photographs are juxtaposed with timelines of events that occurred in those places and spaces. However, the timelines compiled here are merely arbitrary listings of events selected from existing or perpetually ongoing event descriptions. The photographs taken here merely fix fragments of chance encounters at specific times and places. 

Spaces akin to the Imperial Palace and the Difficult-to-Return Zone, with their homogeneity, pervade invisibly. If so, we must resist the rituals that have repeatedly occurred in spaces where habitation is excluded and create and conduct something akin tocounter-rituals, not to remember something, but never to forget. It's about probing our dwelling places with our own "life" perspective, revealing unseen layers, honing our vision to expose the turmoil and chaos.

Contents

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Related text 露口啓二「移住」展に寄せて 四方幸子「移住─現在そして未来を生き抜くために」

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