La Planète Sauvage - Shikoku. A road trip to another planet, WIP.

[lynnb]

Thank you Gentlemen for your support, indeed my goal from the very beggining was to make at least something worthy putting a pdf together. Dunno how about a printed version, I may be to cheap for this 😉 Right now I'm somewhere halfway thru with processing the raw scans, then there is a long journey with selection and editing...

Interesting - not the sort of track I'd want to drive on! I assume you walked? I really like your eye for this format.
Tokushima Pref.

 

[lynnb]

I think these images have the interest, quality and coherence - including the "difference factor" of the Widelux format - to make an excellent book.

I'm much enjoying this thread and looking forward to seeing more.

 

[jbielikowski]

I think these images have the interest, quality and coherence - including the "difference factor" of the Widelux format - to make an excellent book.

I'm much enjoying this thread and looking forward to seeing more.

Lynn thank you, I'm flattered and not very good at receiving complements, but the positive feedback here on RFF keeps me working on this project.

 

[peterm1]

Gorgeous pictures. And I like your artistic choice of BW.

I am interested in visiting Shikoku myself - it's a remarkable part of the world. There are at least a couple of things I am keen on experiencing.

The first is to stay at a traditional kominka (a traditional folk house) like Chiiori in the Iya Valley of Shikoku. (see link).

Chiiori | Discover the Charm of a Traditional Japanese Kominka | Authentic Japan: Setouchi

Kominkas are traditional Japanese farmhouses. In the Setouchi region, many kominkas have become hotels and restaurants that offer visitors a rural experience opposite from the big city life.

www.setouchi.travel

The second is to experience one of the traditional old pilgrimage trails like the Kumano Kodo for a week or so. Like the Camino de Santiago in Europe the Kumano Kodo is a World Heritage listed walk.

Kumano Kodo Walking Tours | Guided & Self-guided Walk

Hike the Kumano Kodo trail, a 1200-year-old pilgrimage on the Kii Peninsula, Japan's spiritual heartland. Book a Kumano Kodo walking tour with Auswalk today!

auswalk.com.au

Maybe with a diversion to the "big Island" to experience the Nakasendo trail (a traditional feudal "highway" - in reality a walking trail which originally ran from Tokyo to Kyoto through the central hills and mountains) for another week or so of walking and exploring.

Walking the Historic Nakasendo Samurai Trail

www.japan-guide.com

And of course I would be packing heat...................well, a camera! 🙂 Just before COVID hit the world I was seriously looking into this but that threw everything into a 'cocked hat". Since then life has become busy with other stuff. But it's still a possibility. (Fingers crossed.)

 

[jbielikowski]

Gorgeous pictures. And I like your artistic choice of BW.

I am interested in visiting Shikoku myself - it's a remarkable part of the world. There are at least a couple of things I am keen on experiencing.

The first is to stay at a traditional kominka (a traditional folk house) like Chiiori in the Iya Valley of Shikoku. (see link).

Chiiori | Discover the Charm of a Traditional Japanese Kominka | Authentic Japan: Setouchi

Kominkas are traditional Japanese farmhouses. In the Setouchi region, many kominkas have become hotels and restaurants that offer visitors a rural experience opposite from the big city life.

www.setouchi.travel

The second is to experience one of the traditional old pilgrimage trails like the Kumano Kodo for a week or so. Like the Camino de Santiago in Europe the Kumano Kodo is a World Heritage listed walk.

Kumano Kodo Walking Tours | Guided & Self-guided Walk

Hike the Kumano Kodo trail, a 1200-year-old pilgrimage on the Kii Peninsula, Japan's spiritual heartland. Book a Kumano Kodo walking tour with Auswalk today!

auswalk.com.au

Maybe with a diversion to the "big Island" to experience the Nakasendo trail (a traditional feudal "highway" - in reality a walking trail which originally ran from Tokyo to Kyoto through the central hills and mountains) for another week or so of walking and exploring.

Walking the Historic Nakasendo Samurai Trail

www.japan-guide.com

And of course I would be packing heat...................well, a camera! 🙂 Just before COVID hit the world I was seriously looking into this but that threw everything into a 'cocked hat". Since then life has become busy with other stuff. But it's still a possibility. (Fingers crossed.)

Thank you Peter for stopping by!

Interesing how similar sentiments we have, Chiiori (and whole book by Alex Kerr) was my main reason to focus on Shikoku, before reading it I was planning just a long road trip across Japan. I wish I could afford staying in one of the thatched roof houses in Iya Valley, but I'm not sorry I didn't, sleeping in a campervan was so liberating and much easier for photography.

Back in 2017 I walked the Nakasendo Trail, in early spring so it was quite secluded, and two days with backpack was perfectly enough for me. Sure the Shikoku Henro looks interesting as a experience if you have spare a month or two.

Good luck with your plans, and don't forget to pray in Shinto shrines, local Kami will watch over you.

 

[DownUnder]

Gorgeous pictures. And I like your artistic choice of BW.

I am interested in visiting Shikoku myself - it's a remarkable part of the world. There are at least a couple of things I am keen on experiencing.

The first is to stay at a traditional kominka (a traditional folk house) like Chiiori in the Iya Valley of Shikoku. (see link).

Chiiori | Discover the Charm of a Traditional Japanese Kominka | Authentic Japan: Setouchi

Kominkas are traditional Japanese farmhouses. In the Setouchi region, many kominkas have become hotels and restaurants that offer visitors a rural experience opposite from the big city life.

www.setouchi.travel

The second is to experience one of the traditional old pilgrimage trails like the Kumano Kodo for a week or so. Like the Camino de Santiago in Europe the Kumano Kodo is a World Heritage listed walk.

Kumano Kodo Walking Tours | Guided & Self-guided Walk

Hike the Kumano Kodo trail, a 1200-year-old pilgrimage on the Kii Peninsula, Japan's spiritual heartland. Book a Kumano Kodo walking tour with Auswalk today!

auswalk.com.au

Maybe with a diversion to the "big Island" to experience the Nakasendo trail (a traditional feudal "highway" - in reality a walking trail which originally ran from Tokyo to Kyoto through the central hills and mountains) for another week or so of walking and exploring.

Walking the Historic Nakasendo Samurai Trail

www.japan-guide.com

And of course I would be packing heat...................well, a camera! 🙂 Just before COVID hit the world I was seriously looking into this but that threw everything into a 'cocked hat". Since then life has become busy with other stuff. But it's still a possibility. (Fingers crossed.)

Peter, my response to what you wrote in two words - ditto, ditto!!

I have bookmarked this. So much good information. Visiting Shikoku, possibly late this year, is now on my agenda.

Thanks to both you and the OP for starting this wonderful thread. I hope to do the same in (the not too distant) future, but these will be hard acts to follow.

 

[FrankS]

Japan is a fantasy land for photographers!

 

[peterm1]

Thank you Peter for stopping by!

Interesing how similar sentiments we have, Chiiori (and whole book by Alex Kerr) was my main reason to focus on Shikoku, before reading it I was planning just a long road trip across Japan. I wish I could afford staying in one of the thatched roof houses in Iya Valley, but I'm not sorry I didn't, sleeping in a campervan was so liberating and much easier for photography.

Back in 2017 I walked the Nakasendo Trail, in early spring so it was quite secluded, and two days with backpack was perfectly enough for me. Sure the Shikoku Henro looks interesting as a experience if you have spare a month or two.

Good luck with your plans, and don't forget to pray in Shinto shrines, local Kami will watch over you.

Yes it looks as if we do have similar sentiments. 🙂 I have read Alex's book too and likewise it got me interested in Shikoku - together with discovering the Nakasendo which started me researching walks wider afield than this (as in Shinkoku). The other book that was seminal in my fascination with Japan was "Japanese Inn" by Oliver Stadler - set in Okitsu outside of Shizuoka on another walking trail (which sadly hardly exists anymore - the Tokaido). It is a semi factual, semi fictionalized story of the history of Japan told through the history of the Inn, "Minaguchi-ya," a Wakihonjin inn in Okitsu. But I have also been into Japanese history for quite a while - both feudal and modern. One of the interesting things about this otherwise undistinguished town of Okitsu is that back during the Edo period it was one of the famous 53 stations of the Tokaido and is pictured here in a print by Hiroshige. It was also represented briefly in early scenes in the 1962 film telling of 47 Ronin / Chushingura with ( in a moment of lightness in an otherwise tense film) the owners of the local Honjin premises (accommodation for the highest ranks) in Okitsu grumbling about how "tight" the feudal lords and Nobles from Kyoto are with their money compared with their demands for service and the other trials of running an inn on the Tokaido road. Sadly the Minaguchiya is no more and Okitsu has suffered the fate of many Japanese towns with few remnants of its heritage.

Okitsu-juku - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[peterm1]

Peter, my response to what you wrote in two words - ditto, ditto!!

I have bookmarked this. So much good information. Visiting Shikoku, possibly late this year, is now on my agenda.

Thanks to both you and the OP for starting this wonderful thread. I hope to do the same in (the not too distant) future, but these will be hard acts to follow.

Glad you like it Downunder. 🙂

 

[john_s]

Beautiful photos, thank you.

It reminds me, when looking at very wide angle photos that look distorted, if a print/image is big enough, and the viewer is close enough, the "distortion" goes away as you look from one side of the image to the other.

 

[jbielikowski]

Yes it looks as if we do have similar sentiments. 🙂 I have read Alex's book too and likewise it got me interested in Shikoku - together with discovering the Nakasendo which started me researching walks wider afield than this (as in Shinkoku). The other book that was seminal in my fascination with Japan was "Japanese Inn" by Oliver Stadler - set in Okitsu outside of Shizuoka on another walking trail (which sadly hardly exists anymore - the Tokaido). It is a semi factual, semi fictionalized story of the history of Japan told through the history of the Inn, "Minaguchi-ya," a Wakihonjin inn in Okitsu. But I have also been into Japanese history for quite a while - both feudal and modern. One of the interesting things about this otherwise undistinguished town of Okitsu is that back during the Edo period it was one of the famous 53 stations of the Tokaido and is pictured here in a print by Hiroshige. It was also represented briefly in early scenes in the 1962 film telling of 47 Ronin / Chushingura with ( in a moment of lightness in an otherwise tense film) the owners of the local Honjin premises (accommodation for the highest ranks) in Okitsu grumbling about how "tight" the feudal lords and Nobles from Kyoto are with their money compared with their demands for service and the other trials of running an inn on the Tokaido road. Sadly the Minaguchiya is no more and Okitsu has suffered the fate of many Japanese towns with few remnants of its heritage.

Okitsu-juku - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Now I need to find the "Japanese Inn" somewhere, thanks!

Beautiful photos, thank you.

It reminds me, when looking at very wide angle photos that look distorted, if a print/image is big enough, and the viewer is close enough, the "distortion" goes away as you look from one side of the image to the other.

John, the pleasure is all mine.

I'm lucky enough to have an access to a huge, curved 21:9 screen and it shows the effect you mention perfectly.

Lake Biwa, Ōmihachiman, Shiga Pref. (Honshu)

 

[jbielikowski]

Daishin movie house, Yasuda, Kōchi Pref.

 

[jbielikowski]

Muroto, Kōchi Pref.

 

[jbielikowski]

part two:

Muroto, Kōchi Pref.

 

[jbielikowski]

same location but in color:

Muroto, Kōchi Pref.

 

[Retro-Grouch]

With your picture of Lake Biwa, you've achieved Perfection! Exquisite!

 

[jbielikowski]

Kamiyama, Tokushima Pref.

The Michi-no-Eki in this village is called "Onsen no sato" because there is a very old Onsen there (Kamiyama Onsen Iyashinoyu), so I had high hopes for it. Turned out it's closed for renovation till August...

 

[DownUnder]

Me and my Rolleiflex Ts could never achieve such striking panoramic images as you have done...

Kudos, thanks and utmost felicitations to you for having taken the time and made the effort to scan and post all these.

 

[jbielikowski]

Me and my Rolleiflex Ts could never achieve such striking panoramic images as you have done...

Kudos, thanks and utmost felicitations to you for having taken the time and made the effort to scan and post all these.

With a Rollei you can archieve much more than what I did- encapsulate the timeless beauty and Zen of Japan.

I recently finished postprocessing the "worthy" scans (around 160) and still have ~70 to post here.

What I want to do, mostly because of the massive positive feedback here from you guys, is to put together a cheaply printed zine and make some darkroom prints so I can add one to elevate the quality and "value for money". This will take time as I'm not an editing expert at all, and pictures need time before you can look at them neutrally.

meanwhile...

Yanase Reservoir, Kōchi Pref.

 

[DownUnder]

Yes. I am now seriously planning a visit to Japan, possibly in October this year. Autumn at its finest, for me the best time to travel.

One Rolleiflex T and my remaining stash of B&W films (also a few color rolls) will surely be in my cabin bag. I hope the scanners at Tokyo Airport don't fry all my ancient 120 rolls...