I breathe life into photographs by visualizing the melody of scenery.

I primarily provide landscape and wildlife photography services. I may be hired to do a shoot, or clients may choose from my stock library. It can be fun and interesting to speculate what led a client to choose particular images that they did. As I see it, I got to build a career I have now as a photographer simply through my love for photography. I kept taking photographs, and as I did so, I interacted with so many people and met people who would support me. Their encouraging words and support has helped me work my way to get where I am.

Moving to Hokkaido also proved an important turning point for me. Hokkaido was the first place I felt I could settle in and make my base for photography. All the other places I had lived before then just would not feel right; I was traveling around always looking for "somewhere that isn't here."

It has been ten years since I moved here, and it is clear to me that I am nowhere near being done. The sense that there are so many scenes I still have not captured is reason enough to keep shooting. Before I head off to a new location, I might create a mental picture of what to shoot, maybe even draw pictures on paper. When I am actually on location, however, I often end up using what I have in front of me, making changes and improvising as I go.

Photography feeds my soul, sparks my imagination, and makes me become aware of many things. It has not always been all fun and games working as a photographer, but photography has healing power and has saved me in a lot of ways.
You could also say photography is a wonderful tool to bring you together with others through sharing and empathy without relying on words. It may sound cliché to say this, but I would rather want to share a dream, hope, and zest for life with people.

Photography to me is a means for self-expression and self-realization. I have always made a point of shooting an object that piques my interest. I would sometimes keep shooting the same thing over and over again, day in, and day out. Some people would roll their eyes and tell me I was wasting my time. I would always say in reply that I decide what is a waste of my time and what is not. Once I spent half a year on an island, staying off the internet and devoting myself entirely to photography. Looking back, I realize just how valuable that period was. An accumulation of such experiences of giving my full attention to photography has perhaps become the heart and soul of my photography and my style.

I often shoot or develop while listening to music. With music, the scenery appears livelier. Photographs innately have no sound, but if you could hear a rhythm and melody in one, to see something that is not visible--that is a kind of photograph I strive to create.

Neither I nor the I series accept any compromises where photography is concerned. That is what we share, or at least that is what I aim for and what I want to be like. And what also resonates with me is the way the I series does not appear to have a strong personality but is quietly strong inside, and the way it is so flexible.
This new lens embodies an extraordinary amount of passion for its creators.
If I were to choose just three words to describe the I series, it would come down to being lightweight, compact, and sophisticated. There are not many lenses out there that are a triple-threat, and have so much character like this one.

And when put together, these three words conjure up one phrase: a sense of fulfillment.