Traces of faith
Across Japan's sacred sites
The sacred is not an event. It is a condition. It persists long after the visitor has gone.
These photographs look for what devotion leaves on things. A door is kept shut and kept painted. Paper has been folded and knotted onto a wire by a hand that wanted something. The straw rope is still pale, its paper still white. Water runs under a roof, ladles laid out, in the pause between one pair of hands and the next.
Belief cannot be photographed. What it touches can.
Procession. Cedar path, Kifune Shrine, Kyoto
Mossed stone walls, Nikkō
Crossing. Shinkyō bridge, Nikkō
Vigil. Moss-capped lantern, Nikkō
A Door Nobody Opens. Black lacquer and iron, Nikkō
Screened. Great Buddha, Kamakura
Behind the Cedar Branch. Gate post, Kumano Kodō
Facing the Mountain. Toyosaki Kompira Shrine, Hokkaido
Union. Meoto Iwa, Mie
Dressed by Hand. Jizō, Kumano Kodō
Ascent. Stone steps, Kumano Kodō
Beside the Falls. Seiganto-ji pagoda, Nachi
Threshold. Dawn torii, Lake Biwa
Left Behind. Omikuji, Aizuwakamatsu
Given. Stone lanterns, Nikkō
The Keepers. Ebijō lock, Lake Biwa.