This was my fourth trip to Japan. Seven years have passed since my first time there, and photography has always been one of my main drives while travelling there: the way people react to being photographed, they fascination for something that still is ‘unusual’ to my eye. It still is and I kept experimenting with it even during this trip – as I did more and more during each of my previous visits: in 2012 it was with digital, in 2015 it was with film in a rangefinder camera, in 2017 it was with both film in a reflex camera with a flash and instant pictures. This year I decided to try taking both portraits and street photographs on the same camera, in order to capture different perspectives on how people live and behave there, might they be turists or locals. I wanted to be able to show people both as individuals, and as part of the environment they live in and influence with their actions.
“(…) Being able to reach such a mental state doesn’t imply that one has managed to create a masterpiece. Yet, to create a masterpiece one has to know such a mental state.”
Soseki Natsume, “Kusamakura”
(草枕, Grass Pillow)
Since we would have been up to six people at the same time at a certain point of the trip, I decided to plan the daily schedules even more neatly than I already usually do. Once back home I wanted to try drawing the weekly calendars of our days there, and this article ended up being filled with lots of doodles I made from the impressions I had during my stay in Japan. The first few days it was just me and a friend, and we stayed two nights in Tōkyō: she had to recover from jet-lag, while I needed time to get back into the japanese habits and things I really love. Even just the onigiri that can be bought at the combini were a treat!
Despite my usual reticence towards what I usually consider as the two least interesting aspects of Japan, I tried to get more in touch with them – through pictures. The first one of them is what ‘looks’ ancient or traditional: most times, said things are not really ancient, but just fakes – sometimes even made out of plastic. Such a consideration used to make me consider them as meant just for the tourists, but then I started to consider how – more than just being an effect of having suffered war bombings – this is also part of their whole culture. Not all of them are plastic, some are re-built in wood according to ancient techniques. Japanese people always built things that could burn and be re-built. With this in mind, I started to appreciate a little how beneath nylon dress reminescent of the Edo period there still might be the ideals that flourished in those centuries.
The second aspect I used to snob is what is new, colorful and ‘flashy’. It might be how most people in the world imagine Japan is like, and – although such image does not reflect how I picture it in my mind – I indeed have to accept that it is a major part of the visual stimuli that one gets while in Japan’s major cities.
Luckily the remaning part of Japan has a much closer resemblance to the kind of mental image that I have in mind when thinking about this country. Its alleys and suburbs stimulate my imagination. They are filled with both ‘vivid’ life and deep calmness: there are parts of the town where it is hard to find people around and observing the surrounding is easy, and other parts filled with people to the point that it is hard to walk. I am not talking about the turistic spots, and would omit them in this remark. I prefer visiting those that are busy with locals, such as markets and squares where people tend to give appointments to each other. This is my preference, since in those conditions it is easier to find unusual and extraordinary things in ordinary situations – and take pictures of them in order to tell also those stories that are uncommon and hidden.
Accordingly to this approach by which I look for a balance between ordinary and extraordinary, I also juxtaposed pictures once they were developed back at home. It is fascinating how pictures that visually have nothing in common, can evoke a similar sensation. They might have a common element of peacefullness – as it is in the pictures above, one displaying outer calmness and the other inner peace.
I also took a video of the DJ in the portrait above. It was yet another unexpected surprise: travelling to Japan never fails to wonder me, not even during my fourth trip there.
Despite the idea of Japanese locations and things being more colorful and extrovert than their usually shy human counterpart, these same people can shine in circumstances that are more traditional and modest. It is not unusual to see ‘crazy’-acting people in small family-owned restaurant or in cheap night bars, while they usually are so uptight in everyday life and in fashionable areas of Tōkyō. There are tons of funny stories about weird encounters that tourists had in Japan, and in fact they are most surprised that they happened in a country so well-known for its composure. I have a few about drunkards turning over a police mini-van on new year’s eve.
During the first full week of our trip we moved to Kyōto, away from Tōkyō’s
chaotic life. Nonetheless, I ended up going back to the capital not once but twice to take pictures for an infrared mini-project I had in mind. Despite that, we enjoyed Kyōto, its many temples and narrow alleys and had a bunch of different kinds of food.
When I got back home in Milan and looked at the pictures I took, I had no trouble sorting the pictures between a city and another. Most of the things I took pictures of are very distinctive to one that has visited Japan more than once. But the underlying theme surely is clear at this point: the constructive contrast between places and people, and how busy or relaxed they are and are felt. There is no doubt that such is what caught my eye during this trip. While I was there I had no theme in mind, and noticed it only during the editing phase – when comparing slides against the light.
I shot picture out of necessity during this trip, and I hope that this could keep being the reason why I take pictures in the future as well. I always push myself to experiment, and it pays off. Though, most times the most challenging results are completely unexpected. When I took the left picture above I did not consciously intend to take such a long exposure on a shaky train, yet the result is sharp enough to be comprehended and blurry enough to convey the movement. On the contrary the right picture above is very static, yet the flowing water and the stretched crane give a sense of potential movement.
Such interpretations are made subsequently, and I believe that it is a normal part of the photographic art process. Pictures ‘live’ when taken and when watched. I already ranted about that in previous blog posts. I always start a voyage with picture-taking set in my mind. But once there, also idling naturally happens. Mostly in Japan I love walking around in any small alley I encounter. Going from point A to point B might even be on a straight line, but – unless I am in hurry – I will always take my time and stroll throught the maze hidden behind the main road ahead. I might find street vendors, people in smoking areas, kids running ahead of their parents while back from buying groceries. Sperimentation always is an important part of my travels – I want to push myself out of my comfort zone – but I do not want to miss the chance to enjoy time in a foreign country.
In fact, my other main reason to head back to Japan every few years is their many divers kinds of food. Despite all my love for photography, I would have a hard time concentrating on a picture with a donburi (i.e. rice bowl covered by other ingredients) in front of me. The calendar drawings that I made display many different kinds of food, and I could talk about dozens of them. Moreover, indulging in gluttony often brought me luck: I witnessed many unusual situations while having a meal in Japan, and restaurants are usually so busy and crowded that something interesting is bound to happen.
I did in fact encounter many of the unusual places in my pictures while looking for food during my trips. And I did try to appreciate them with both the customer’s and the photographer’s eye. The memories of such places end up being layered, with both glimpses of the people and the sensations felt there – and of me drolling over the great food.
Once we got back to Tōkyō, we made two more daily trips and also finally visited one place that had evaded my precious trips: the Ghibli Museum. Heading towards the end of our trip, we indulged more into buying omiyage (i.e. souvenirs) and enjoying even more of the great food that would have missed once back home – although there are many good places also in Milan, for those that suffer from intense Japanese-food craving.
And since we were back in a city worldwide known for its modernity and extraversion – although that stereotype might be more bound to how extremely modern Tōkyō looked in the 1990s compared to other major cities in the world – the pictures I took during the last week reflect that aspect of Japan more. Despite the fact the such modernity always seems to me more of a bait for tourists – as Japan is more keen into being practical and efficient – I also find it visually fascinating. Its vivid colours and bold shapes are Asia’s homologous of America’s 50s aesthetics in the suburbs and mid-states roads, and immediately evoke the common language of what Japan looks like in anyone’s mind. Moreover I tried to portray some of the exuberant people that always are happy to ‘pose’ for a tourist’s picture, and I believe that despite that being a farce many of them truly show their craziest and funniest side in those occasions. One that is hard to normally show in such an uptight society.
Nonetheless, I tried to catch glimpses of calmness even there. And into editing this selection of pictures, once again I juxtaposed pictures that alternate that sense of calmness and the liveliness of the people we encountered. The man above started singing a very good version of some famous Italian song from the 1940s that he knew from his childhood. All of this, while doing his job – serving people in his kiosk. Such encounters might well be the most funny anectodes to tell other people regarding our trip.
I tend to forget telling such things when talking about those trips that I make, but they nonetheless are holidays and I deeply enjoy my time and absorb that peacefulness that comes from avoiding travelling as a tourist, while instead spending time around as if I lived there. I will never truly be a local and I do not lie to myself in that regard, but the attempt and mind-set still allows me not to rush from one place to another, and instead walk around, eat and relax.
Some of the best pictures to keep me grounded to the reality of me just being a foreigner in visit there are those that portray places deeply rooted in the sense of travelling. We mostly pass through train stations, and after each trip in Japan I tend to use more and more public transportation at home – although they might be much more crowded and unpleasant in the hours I would use them in my hometown. While on vacation one has the comfort of taking trains while other people are at work, and the luxury of taking time to look around.
Moreover while on a trip I take tons of pictures of the food that we ate and that was constantly on display around us.
I also was lucky enough to have two chances to return some mementos of things I enjoyed during my trip: in Kyōto I went to Jizō – a shop were I bought a ceramic sculpture that sits in my home’s entrance – and brought back an instant picture of the statue and gave it to the artists that made it, and now that picture is on display in their shop. I am really fond of that statue and wanted to show them how much I liked their work. And in Kanazawa we went to have lunch in an amazing sushi place were we went during our previous trip, and where we reciprocally took instant pictures with the family that runs the restaurants. Once there, they recognised me and wanted to take another picture together – making my memories of that place even fonder.
Trip after trip I brought with me many different cameras, and my approach regarding photography changed and matured much. The drawing above shows what gear I brought along this once. Nonetheless, the one ‘thing’ that I had on my side during my trips and that influenced me the most are the people I travelled with. And there is one person that could not make it for this trip due to scheduling issues, but with whom I will make many more trips in the future.
“People talk of “social outcasts.” The words apparently denote the miserable losers of the world, the vicious ones, but I feel as though I have been a “social outcast” from the moment I was born. If ever I meet someone society has designated as an outcast, I invariably feel affection for him, an emotion which carries me away in melting tenderness.”
Dazai Osamu, “Ningen Shikkaku”
(人間失格, No Longer Human)
Thanks to Giuditta Fullone for reviewing this article.
All the images included in this article were shot on Fujichrome Provia 100F film on a Mamiya 6, lab-developed and home-scanned. All the drawings are made by me (unless when specified differently).