March 2011. Hit by an earthquake and tsunami in rapid succession, the Tohoku region of Japan had more than 20,000 of its precious lives snatched away in barely a moment. This event had a not inconsiderable influence on my attitude toward my photo subjects.

Since ancient times, Japan has been visited repeatedly by major natural disasters. While this may seem strange to people outside of Japan, but here, there are no disaster victims who develop a feeling of hatred toward the sea even if it took away their family. We don't hold a grudge against the sea that robbed us of our parent, sibling, or lover. On the contrary, almost everyone wants to continue living in harmony with that sea.

There is a concept expressed in the saying: "Mountain and river, grass and tree, everything without exception attains Buddhahood." It means that the Buddha-nature and a spirit dwell in all things, from mountains, rivers, seas, trees, to plants. I believe this is less of a religious belief, but rather, a part of Japan's custom and practice of treasuring the natural world.

I would also like this to be the central concept for my work as a photographer.

While being mindful of this concept, I considered the theme for this project, "Eternity at a Moment." This led me to select sea waves as my main motif. I wanted to capture the near side of the waves as being the world of humans, and the area beyond that as being the domain of the gods. The torii gate is said to expresses this idea, that "that side" is the gods' territory and "this side" is human territory. That is what I sought to depict. I wanted to capture the solemn and awe-inspiring phenomena of the natural world, and reaffirm the natural world as being something to which the Japanese people show reverence.

I wanted to do this because I believe that when we face the domain of the gods with a sense of gratitude and reverence, we feel a new flow of strength that will carry us beyond the great disaster.