Japan: Images from a Visual Journal
Roswell Tea House, October 2009

The moon and sun are eternal travelers. Even the years wander on. A lifetime adrift in a boat, or in old age leading a tired horse into the years, every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.

These words were written by the poet Basho some 500 years ago in his diary Oku no Hosomichi, Journey into the Far North.
I wrote this passage in the front of the journal I began when I traveled to Japan with a few friends in October 2007; the words echoed in my mind as, at the beginning of our journey, we attempted to follow in Basho’s footsteps north to the temples of Motsuji and Chusonji, then on to Matsushima.

Every day was indeed a journey: into the past of a thousand years ago in Nara and Kyoto; into the timeless crafts of sumi ink and brush making; into a very special world of music and tea ceremony; into the 16th century world of a mountain village; and into the hyper-modern world of Tokyo and Shinjuku.

These images are a few of those that captured my eye and heart, a body of work that I have named Images From a Visual Journal.