Back from Japan!

We returned from our vacation in Japan about a week ago, and we’re still sifting through the hundreds and hundreds of photographs that Kyo took. It was an amazing trip, so it’s hard to choose just a few images to show on the blog. We’re going to post a series of mini photo-essays over the next few weeks.

One of our favorite parts of the trip was a visit to the small, rural village of Shigeraki, known for its rustic pottery. Shigeraki ware is a classic example of the Japanese appreciation for “wabi-sabi”, a term that could be loosely translated as “things that are beautiful because they are natural, incomplete, assymetrical, and imperfect.” Kyo shot the following pictures on film with his Hasselblad medium-format camera.

Here is the courtyard of a warehouse in Shigeraki:

Kyo’s parents are friends with a potter in Shigeraki named Kobayashi-san. He makes beautiful terra-cotta-colored pieces with a signature wave pattern, from massive serving dishes to tiny teacups. Here’s a portrait Kyo shot of Kobayashi-san in his studio:

And this is a shot of his workspace:

Here’s the view from Kobayashi-san’s house:

And finally, here’s a certain somebody looking askance at the Shigeraki town mascot, a giant raccoon.