The following pinhole photographs were taken by an Olympus SLR, OM2 (silver film) with a pinhole of diameter=0.3 mm instead of an interchangeable lens. I started to take pinhole photographs around December of 2002, when I lived at Kamitakada of Nakano, Tokyo. Objects of the photographs were found around my house. Kamitakada is located at the west part of the periphery of the lord’s city Edo in Tokugawa period and there are many historic temples with tombs of famous people. For example, in Koh’un-ji temple where I often took photographs, there are tombs of Kira-Kouzukenosuke Yoshihisa, famous program of Chushingura of Kabuki, and Toyokuni Utagawa, a famous woodblock artist, and so on.
●[1-8] I start from photographs of Ryuhohzan-Manshouin-Koh’unji Temple. This temple was made by uniting two old temples, Kyuhohzan-Manshouin and Ryukokuzan-Koh’unji in1948. Displayed photographs are those of the temple gate, stone images of Buddha and flowers in the temple garden, and children’s playthings of the kindergarten attached to the temple.
●[9-10] This area is a residential ground located on a hill and there are no high-rise buildings blocking our vision. Therefore, we can see office buildings in Nishi-Shinjuku well around the clock.
●[11-14] Around here there are the Kamitakada playground and the Ochiai city park which play the function of the oasis of the city life.
●[15-16] There are also the Kamitakada Hikawa Shrine showing a quiet appearance. This Shrine built in 1453 is dedicated to Susanoonomikoto and at the time of the annual grand festival held in September the portable shrine of this shrine parades through the street in Kamitakada.
