Eriko Koga: “Issan” – Magical visit to 1200 year old monastery in Mt. Koya

Eriko Koga was born in the city of Fukuoka in 1980. She is a graduate of Sophia University’s Department of French Literature. Her maiden work, Asakusa Zenzai (2003 - 2008), which documented the daily life of an elderly couple living in the Asakusa district of Tokyo, was chosen for inclusion in the photo documentary, “NIPPON,”

Japan –

In 2009, photographer Eriko Koga visited Mt. Kōya, home of a 1,200 year old Buddhist monastery in the mountains south of Osaka, for the first time. She explained the effect that visiting the complex had on her:

Okuno-in Temple exerted an especially strong pull on me. Its unique atmosphere overwhelmed all five of my senses. The air, the slow pace of mountain life and the kindness of the people brought about a serenity and security that permeated my entire being.

Koga returned many times after her initial encounter to document with camera and film the feelings Mt. Koya evoked in her. With a desire to go even deeper than her regular short trips from Tokyo allowed, the photographer rented a small apartment in 2010 in the mountain village of Kōya where she stayed for one week every month for three years.


Screen Shot 2015-09-17 at 12.15.25 PM


Mt. Kōya is a destination for Buddhist pilgrims and tourists alike, and is home to the Shingon sect of Esoteric Japanese Buddhism. The goal of Shingon is to simultaneously employ the “Three Mysteries” of body, speech, and mind to reveal one’s nature. The mystery of the body is revealed through devotional gestures and the use of ritual instruments; of speech through sacred formulas; of mind through meditation. Koga’s images are the result of a meditative eye wed to a camera, itself a ritualistic instrument controlled by actions and gestures bordering on the devotional. Through Issan,published by Akaaka, Koga reveals not just the nature of the monastery but perhaps something of her own nature as well. Her devotion to photographing the mountain is not unlike that of the Buddhists whose rituals played out before her lens.

Ultimately, my sense of myself as a person takes precedence over my photography. If only in a small way, I always try to be a better person. I believe it is this desire that inspires me to give voice to certain places or persons; it is a desire to address a deficiency I see in myself. When I am searching for something, it makes me devote myself more and more to the subject. Perhaps this is the kind of strength that underlies religious faith.

Photography

Related Posts

Glenn Sloggett Fibro Dreams

Glenn Sloggett: “Fibro Dreams” – Book made with Love and Love can be fucked

Australia –  It seems obvious to me now, having completed the book, that in hindsight this was something that I ...

Douglas Stockdale on Laura Braun “Metier-Small Businesses in London”

England –  The recent book published by Laura Braun, Metier, investigates the Small Business in London, a region where Braun ...

Federico Clavarino: Italia o Italia

Spain –   Italia o Italia is built over the ruins of an unresolved empire, a place in which monuments ...

Justin Maxon: When the Spirit Moves

USA- “The Sun Village is a place where families shut themselves into their homes; where people sleep in their basement ...

Manik Katyal on Momo Okabe “Bible”

Japan –  “With a crimson red cover, Bible for me is a very dream-like journey of Japanese photographer  Photography feature ...

Jeroen Toirkens: Solitude

Netherlands – In April 2013 Jeroen Toirkens and Petra Sjouwerman travelled by car, boat, bus and snowmobile across the Barents ...

Olga Matveeva: “FEUD” – Winner of the Vienna PhotoBook Award

Russia –  (Crimea 12.2013- 03.2014) Photography feature – Olga Matveeva’s Feud is the fraternal war in which the opposition parties ...

EMAHO Picks the Most Interesting Photobooks of 2014

“Just like every year, more and more photobooks were published in 2014. The importance and awareness of making a photobook ...

Momo Okabe: “I truly wanted to destroy everything I had”

Japan –   Momo Okabe’s photographs depict the bare situation. Be it the sexual act, a wasteland, or the wake of ...