Message from the Artist

The woman who was walking slightly ahead of me is praying devoutly. So she’s a Buddhist, I now realize. In the midst of a snowstorm, at an elevation approaching 5,000 meters, she prostrates on the ground over and over again, her arms stretched out above her head, her forehead touching the cold earth. The first night on the pilgrimage circuit, I lodged in the same room with this woman, who likely came from somewhere in the West. From the moment she understood that I spoke little English, she made the gesture of zipping closed her lips, to stop me from talking. In my surprise, once I understood what she meant by it, it hit me like a stab to the heart. After that incident, I distanced myself from her during the rest of the trip. But now, in the presence of the deep faith that I’ve come to know, my mind is filled with a rush of past events and the desire to give them positive meaning.

Chihiro Kihara
Message from One of the Judges

Ever onward, from one road to another… A trip Kihara began after losing her loved one. Emerging from the fog that clouded her vision, what suddenly appeared into the depths of her empty heart were the mountain peaks leading to Kailash, Tibet’s sacred mountain. Kihara, as if turning back after losing her way, was wandering along the pilgrims’ trail to Mount Kailash, said to be the root source of all faiths. Here, the noise of the city that becomes woven into the fabric of everyday life intersects repeatedly with trails of dust and sand. Seeing people making tiny progress forward, in prayer, over unfathomably hostile terrain, Kihara’s will to ask the meaning of religion gradually faded. The experience, more than the concept, imperceptibly transformed her clothing into something blowing gently in the wind. In the spring of 2021, Kihara was standing in front of a cherry tree. The newly fallen petals, overlapping with feelings from her past, became a ray of light that grew longer with the passage of time.

Nao Tsuda（Photographer）