My Reverence for Autumn In Japan

It’s contemplative — best to be outdoors with a good jacket.

Tokyo. All photos by the author.

Growing up, I was enamored by the Japanese aesthetic. Shadows, rock gardens, vibrant autumn foliage contrasting gritty neon cities. These elements arise from different worlds — future and past; pleasure and pain; wisdom and rebellion — two sides of the same coin.

Contemporary Japan could not be one without the other, as the dance of yin and yang gives this country an otherworldly nature which called me here for the first time five years ago.

It’s not something tangible I can pinpoint; it’s an ethereal thread that flows through one’s being as sensations.

It’s not Tokyo Tower or Kyoto’s Golden Pavilion that inspire these feelings. To me, it often comes when wandering off the main road, lost in something alive and flawed and ancient.

My neighborhood in Nakano, Tokyo. Photos by the author.

Part of the Japanese aesthetic is exemplified in the philosophy of wabi-sabi, a sort of beautiful decay, purposeful disarray…