1. Nobuyoshi Araki, A World of Girls, Byakuya Shobo, 1984
(Image from Self, Life, Death (2005)
2. Shinjuku Gyoen, Shinjuku, Tokyo, December 2020
Some time ago I read that Araki shot the original photograph in Shinjuku Gyoen, a large Japanese garden in Shinjuku. I figured this rephoto was going to be as simple as finding the big rock next to the pond. The thing is, this place has a lot of ponds- most with large rocks lining their banks- and I walked around every single one, looking for the right rock and a willow tree.
Considering if you’ve got a medium format camera setup, assistants, and an 11 year old girl in a full kimono, you (Araki, then) probably going to hike deep into the park’s furthest reaches. Making my way across the park from the far end I spent an hour looking at rocks and trees, only to discover this spot near a bridge just a short walk from the main entrance.
My main interest in Tokyo rephotos isn’t really about the photographers- it’s about being forced into looking for/at things I normally wouldn’t consider. There’s a heightened awarness in doing this- usually overlooked details there in the real world come to the fore. It’s not simply “rocks and trees” because it comes to be willows and all sorts of rocks- as I look there’s the recognition of time passing and the fact that even this traditonal park gets remodled every once in a whle. The freshness of the wood in the bridge here suggests a recent update and that’s defintitnely not the same rock as seen in the original image. The “new” rock is wider and flatter than the one there when Araki made this photograph in the early 1980s. I also thought about how this girl is likely 50 years old now.