This photo essay embodies everything I learned and loved about Japan.
The essay starts in the shogun gardens in Yamagata, Japan. You can see that every plant was selected for its height and color and texture to work with all the plants in the garden to showcase Mount Chōkai. The attention to detail and balance is so Japanese.
We saw a lot of stone lanterns in gardens, this one was unusual because it wasn’t symmetrical or smooth. It was carved out of stone, but not in the usual fashion. The front and the back were very different from each other, as well.
But then, you look through the rough hole in the front of the base, past the moon-shaped hole in the back of the base, and you see this:
Attention to detail and balance, respect and love of nature, creativity and artistic vision,…it’s all so Japanese.