Spoon & Tamago - japanese art, design and culture

Kyoto can represent many things, depending on who you ask. For some it’s the ancient capital of Japan. For others it’s a paradise of tasty delicacies. For Yasuhiro Ogawa, Kyoto is all about color. The deep, rich and vibrant colors that fill the city. “And it changes constantly,” says the Tokyo based photographer, whose collection of photographs “Lost in Kyoto” is currently on display.

Eight hundred years ago the Japanese poet Kamo no Chomei penned the following poem. And for Ogawa, it still rings true:

The current of the flowing river does not cease, and yet the water is not the same water as before. The foam that floats on stagnant pools, now vanishing, now forming, never stays the same for long. So, too, it is with the people and dwellings of the world.

Kyoto’s colors change constantly owing to the old city’s architecture and seasons. “The color of Kyoto tells us that everything is transient, almost like the current of the flowing river,” says Ogawa, who attempts use photography as a media to capture the ever-changingness of everything.

Ogawa’s photographs are on view through October 24, 2016 at the Ricoh Imaging Square in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

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