Apologies to all for my lack of tlc for this blog. Seeing the first post continually must have become quite annoying… I’ll endeavor to dedicate a lot more time to it these coming weeks!
It’s quite general, but with regards the main project I would like to focus on an aspect of life either here or in Japan. One idea I had is a project on Mount Fuji, which has always been the ultimate symbolic landmark for the Japanese. The mountain is open for climbers during the summer months, the busiest time being around mid-August. The idea amongst climbers is to climb during the night to be at the summit in time for the morning sun, another symbol for the Japanese. It’s a pretty full on symbolic experience.
What I found interesting when I reached the summit (that is both a shrine, kitsch shop and post office) was how different people reacted when the sun began to rise. Most pulled out their mobile phones and digital cameras, but a large number began to spontaneously sing the national anthem or pray. In a country that is both increasingly secular and quite reluctant to face its recent Imperialist past (where the national anthem is rather neglected from everyday life) I thought it was an interesting reaction. So I’ve started thinking this relationship between the Japanese and Mt Fuji warrants some form of photographic documentation…I’m just trying to figure out how to approach it.
The people praying also got me thinking. In Japan, there is a word ‘mokuto’ 黙祷 which means ’silent prayer’ and originates from religious practices, but is also used much like the minute’s silence in the West. Mokuto is also performed at the beginning and the end of certain martial arts. It’s basically a form of meditation to quieten the mind. As a photographic project, I thought it might be interesting to photograph different individuals from different walks of life, each with their own form of ‘Mokuto’ in modern Tokyo, where time for meditation and contemplation seem to be at a premium..
I think I’ll keep doing a bit of mokuto myself and come up with better ideas…
