Matt Giraud
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  • A kabuki actor transforms himself into a female character for a performance in Tokyo. It's a meticulous, time-consuming (and definitely ambidextrous!) process, and in every brushstroke, every gesture, you can't help but feel the resonance of centuries of craft and ritual.
    A Kabuki actor puts on makeup, Tokyo, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • On Sado Island, just off the west coast of Japan, a soba master cuts traditional soba noodles. While the ingredients are simple, making soba with consistency, uniformity and speed is not — something I quickly learned when I hatcheted my way through the process after his demonstration. But he made it look so easy: he seemed merely to think soba, and out it would come.
    A soba master cuts noodles, Sado Island, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • A detail from a fence near Tenryu-ji Temple in Kyoto. Meticulous, composed details like this seem to be everywhere in Japan – it's a designer's country.
    Fence detail in a Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • At a welcoming ceremony in Hagi, Japan, the present looks in on the past.
    An official manages a welcoming ceremony, Hagi, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • Stone in balance with bamboo at the historic Kikuya House in Hagi, Japan.
    Stone in balance with bamboo at the historic Kikuya House in Hagi, Japan. | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • For a designer like me, Japan brought revelations at every turn. This tiny little detail — a sheathed tree in the Samurai Quarter of Matsue — is a good example of why.

    Some of it is simply about composition. But even more revelatory, it’s the design philosophy that seems interwoven through so much in Japan: an audacious yet somehow respectful stylization of nature. Here, it’s bamboo, proposed as a clean, orderly, yet still organic interpretation of the bark grain it reaches toward.
    Sheathed tree in the samurai quarter, Matsue, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • I have a sizable collection of images from this trip grouped under "manhole covers of Japan" – so many excellent ones. Another good example of the priority this country puts on design, even underfoot.
    Manholes of Japan, Hagi | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • A placid pond near Tenryu-ji Temple in Kyoto. In Japan, even nature feels like it's been composed.
    A placid pond in Kyoto, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • The deed? Done. Not advisable to enter Busan, South Korea’s boisterous, bustling fish market with fins.
    Korean Fish Market, Busan, South Korea | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • The royal Korean burial mounds at Tumuli Park Flying Horse Tombs, Gyeongju, South Korea
    Tumuli Park Flying Horse Tombs, Gyeongju, South Korea | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • A small, thoughtful gesture at the base of the largest brass Buddha in the world at Tōdai-ji temple in Nara, Japan.
    Lighting incense outside Tōdai-ji temple, Nara, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • A lone worshipper at the Torii gate leading to the “floating” Shinto shrine on Miyajima.

    Because the island was originally considered sacred, pilgrims were forbidden – an obvious design flaw worship-wise. So in a parse worthy of the finest $500/hr attorney, the shoreline at both high tide and low tide was calculated, and in the 6th century, a shrine was built on pilings in between: technically not on the island, your honor! Pilgrims – of any species – come on down!
    The Great Torii on Miyajima, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • Around the side of Nigatsu-do Hall at Nara's Todai-ji temple complex, a railing worn smooth guiding thousands of hands separates two kinds of people: worshippers descending down to a quiet, hidden shrine, and those same worshippers, now in some way not quite the same, as they ascend back into the din.
    A railing down to a hidden shrine near Nigatsu-do Hall, Todai-ji temple, Nara, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • Hiroshima leur amour. A hipster couple from as far away from 1945 as you can get strolls Hiroshima Peace Park, Japan, epicenter of the atom bomb devastation during World War II
    A couple strolls Hiroshima Peace Park, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography

Bound for the Inland Sea

Circumnavigating the west coast of Honshu with a stop in South Korea
A couple strolls Hiroshima Peace Park, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography

When I got a chance to circumnavigate Japan on a tour with a tenured professor specializing in Japanese cinema, I packed my bags. Amplified by his fluency in both the language and the culture, it unveiled to me a Japan I could never have discovered – much less shot – on my own.

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  •    

    A kabuki actor transforms himself into a female character for a performance.

    A Kabuki actor puts on makeup, Tokyo, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
  •    

    A soba master hand-cuts noodles, Sado Island, Japan

    A soba master cuts noodles, Sado Island, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
  •    

    A meticulous detail from a fence near Tenryu-ji Temple in Kyoto.

    Fence detail in a Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
  •    

    An official manages a welcoming ceremony from the past, Hagi, Japan

    An official manages a welcoming ceremony, Hagi, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
  •    

    Stone in balance with bamboo in Hagi, Japan.

    Stone in balance with bamboo at the historic Kikuya House in Hagi, Japan. | © Matt Giraud Photography
  •    

    A sheathed tree in the samurai quarter, Matsue, Japan

    Sheathed tree in the samurai quarter, Matsue, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
  •    

    Proposed series: manholes of Japan

    Manholes of Japan, Hagi | © Matt Giraud Photography
  •    

    A placid pond near Tenryu-ji Temple in Kyoto.

    A placid pond in Kyoto, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
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    The aftermanth at Busan's Fish Market in Korea

    Korean Fish Market, Busan, South Korea | © Matt Giraud Photography
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    Tumuli Park Flying Horse Tombs, Gyeongju, South Korea

    Tumuli Park Flying Horse Tombs, Gyeongju, South Korea | © Matt Giraud Photography
  •    

    Lighting incense outside Tōdai-ji temple

    Lighting incense outside Tōdai-ji temple, Nara, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
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    The Great Torii and a visitor on Miyajima, Japan

    The Great Torii on Miyajima, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
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    A well-worn railing leads to a hidden shrine near Nigatsu-do Hall

    A railing down to a hidden shrine near Nigatsu-do Hall, Todai-ji temple, Nara, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
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    Hiroshima leur amour: strolling the Peace Park

    A couple strolls Hiroshima Peace Park, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
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