meguru_stillness_japan– Author –

雪見 ／ Yukimi The Richness of Seeing Nothing KOTO／The Intangible Resonance | MEGURU STILLNESS JAPAN The garden was there yesterday. The stone lantern, the raked gravel, the small maple whose every branch had been trained over years int...

Uchimizu Not purification, but cooling the air itself FOUR SEASONS／SUMMER | MEGURU STILLNESS JAPAN Uchimizu is a traditional Japanese custom dating back to the Edo period, in which water is sprinkled on the ground—such as in gardens or ...

Kotatsu A fire meant for gathering, not heating FOUR SEASONS／WINTER | MEGURU STILLNESS JAPAN At a grandmother's house, the kotatsu has not moved in decades — the same low table, the same heavy quilt tucked around its legs, positioned in...

Suzumushi to Matsumushi A tradition of listening for insects FOUR SEASONS／AUTUMN | MEGURU STILLNESS JAPAN A man stops walking, mid-sentence, on an ordinary residential street. His companion stops too, out of habit rather than understand...

Jūgoya to Jūsanya The aesthetics of viewing the moon twice FOUR SEASONS／AUTUMN | MEGURU STILLNESS JAPAN She returns to the same spot on the same veranda, exactly one lunar month after the first night. Nothing about the setting has chang...

Shukakusai A season of public gratitude FOUR SEASONS／AUTUMN | MEGURU STILLNESS JAPAN Before the drums start, there is an hour of quieter work: young men in matching happi coats checking the ropes on a mikoshi, an elderly shrine caretake...

Momiji-gari Chasing the color front across Japan FOUR SEASONS／AUTUMN | MEGURU STILLNESS JAPAN From a train window somewhere in the mountains, the tree line arrives in three distinct bands. At the highest elevation, the maples have alrea...

Tsukimi The etiquette of moon-viewing, and the luxury of doing nothing FOUR SEASONS／AUTUMN | MEGURU STILLNESS JAPAN On a small apartment balcony, a low tray has been set out: a short pyramid of white dumplings, a few stalks of pampas gr...

間 ／ MA The Japanese Art of the Meaningful Pause KOTO／The Intangible Resonance | MEGURU STILLNESS JAPAN The guest kneels before the tokonoma before the tea has even been prepared. There is a single scroll hanging in the alcove, a singl...

TABI - The Journey of Stillness 丹波 TANBA The valley does not appear all at once. It arrives in pieces, through a fog so thick and so ordinary to this particular basin that it has its own name — Tanba-giri, the Tanba mist — rolling low ...