Sacred Spaces, Part 1

Shusse Inari Jinja, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo. The shrine was founded in 1620 by Lady Kasuga, a powerful woman in the Tokugawa Shogunate. The sound that periodically sweeps through the shrine is a cross between wind and thunder—the noise of the Thunder Dolphin roller coaster, the structure in the background, as the cars pass the gap between the buildings. From the book Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Emptiness: Tokyo Landscapes. Click on the image for a larger view.

Shinbashi, Tokyo

A solitary figure is standing in the usually vibrant district of Shinbashi, Tokyo. Unlike Ginza, its exclusive neighbor to the north, Shinbashi caters to the average Tokyo worker with reasonably-priced restaurants and bars. This is from our book Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, Emptiness: Tokyo Landscape. Click on the image for a larger view.

Tokyo Station

Tokyo Station at night after the rush hour. When it opened in 1914, half a million passengers used the station in the first year. Today, 420,000 people pass through daily on over 3,000 trains. This is not the busiest station in Tokyo. From our book Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, Emptiness: Tokyo Landscape. Click on the image for a larger view.