Last autumn in Japan

What is your favourite season?

I have always loved autumn the most. As a child, I loved its colours—they are the closest approximation to my favourite colours (black and red). As I grew older, I recognise the season as one of harvest, maturity and sunsets. It is a bittersweet time: as things reach their peak, their shadows become longer, stretching towards an impending end.

The Japanese have a phrase, mono no aware, that relates to the transient nature of things and how such impermanence affects the way we feel about them. Consider a flower in bloom, its beauty is a joy to behold. Consider this flower again, with the knowledge that it will soon fade like all flowers do, do you feel the same about it?

This series of photographs were taken last autumn in Japan. I hope I captured the sweet sadness of the season, the place and the sense of an ending.

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Like a swansong, the dying leaves burnt as red as the last light of day.

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Every meeting ends with parting, which is such sweet sorrow (to quote the Bard).

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At the ramen shop, I finished the last drop of the delicious broth and the message 「この一滴が最高の喜びです」 (“this drop’s the greatest joy”) was revealed at the bottom of the bowl—they know!

In life, there are days so glorious that the heart knows that they would never come to pass again. On such rare days, I would cling to every moment on the journey home. With each passing second, my heart would quietly swell with an unspeakable longing until it becomes too much to bear.

When the day is done
Down to earth then sinks the sun
Along with everything that was lost and won
When the day is done
—Nick Drake