ENTRY DESCRIPTION
“We are formed by sensitive nature”
Since ancient times, torii shrine gates in Japan have symbolized the boundary marking the threshold of sacred ground. It is believed that the practice of torii construction based on bird worship dates back to the Yayoi period (around the 5th century BCE).
People revered the natural realm that lay beyond the reaches of human power as holy, regarding mountains, seas, waterfalls, islands, and ponds as objects of worship, and erecting torii to protect them. In some instances, they deemed these sacred places “forbidden lands” to protect the land itself or the vegetation growing on it; at the same time, they prayed that the spirits inhabiting the natural world would guard them in their daily lives.
In the case of torii built in water, they are often constructed on top of small islands in a sea or lake or off the tip of a cape, on protruding rocks, or amid other landscape elements that draw the eye. Our ancestors who lived on the Japanese archipelago, surrounded by seas, must have sensed divinity in the slightly extraordinary elements of an otherwise ordinary landscape. They built torii in these places, and in doing so began a prayer that has continued across generations, for safe oceangoing journeys and fishing expeditions, for abundant harvests of the sea’s bounty. Torii are not only the gates we pass through when visiting a shrine; those that stand within the natural landscape function as symbols of awe and piety toward nature’s power that have shaped the spirit of the Japanese people throughout history.
Leonardo da Vinci once said "The earth's blood is the veins of the waters."
For the humans who were our ancestors, the landscape was literally a life-scape that they depended upon to survive. Also the same in our body.
AUTHOR
After graduating from university, Eriko Kaniwa worked as a producer at a major Tokyo television station before studying photography independently. In addition to exhibiting photographs in individual and group shows and continuing to work as a photographer, she has explored alternative education, cognitive science, depth psychology, and art communication. Kaniwa became director of CTW Omotesando in 2009 and produced a wide range of programs related to the creation of a harmonious global society, including the CTW Omotesando Academy, CTW Vision Forum, CTW Discussion Table (held after the Great East Japan Earthquake to consider support for recovery from the perspective of social entrepreneurship), and CTW Fellowship Member Program. Since 2016, she has refocused intensively on fine art photography, Kaniwa is currently engaged fully in creative work.
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