We created “Tsumari Story” between 2012 and 2014, deeply influenced by the overwhelming cycle of water in the primordial landscapes of Niigata. Since then, the presence of “life-giving water” has continued to flow quietly at the foundation of our creative practice.
 
When we moved to Kyoto in 2015 and began photographing once again, the city, as seen through the lens of “us,” revealed itself as a space overflowing with layered phenomena. In order to understand this complexity, we kept photographing―tirelessly, together. And yet, the more we photographed, the less we seemed to understand what photography really was. Drifting between affirmation and denial, and at times even despair, we continued photographing with various cameras, refusing to let go.
 
Kyoto, a thousand-year-old capital where history, culture, and climate intersect and accumulate, has cultivated a landscape of great depth over time. When we came to understand that the circulation of water lies at the heart of this multilayered scenery, we realized: we need not cling to a single answer. The answer itself expands, shifts, and continues to change.
 
We entrusted our hearts to the deep time and space evoked by stones, returned our love to the fallen trees of the natural world, and found joy in the repetition of everyday life and the ever-changing flow of the Kamo River. “Jifei Kyoto” is “Jifei Photography”―it is a process, and also an inevitable future that awaits us.
 
As part of this series, we have photographed fallen trees. The phrase “槁木死灰 (Gǎomù sǐhuī)” refers to a state of utter emptiness, like withered wood or extinguished ashes. But the term “Gǎomù” carries a deeper meaning: it is not simply dead wood, but something that only appears inert―when in truth, it is a fertile ground for new life and explosive regeneration. In nature, it is a symbol of renewal.
 
From the expression of stones in dry landscape gardens, we sense a feeling of presence that transcends time and space. It evokes an ultimate spirituality connected to the cosmos―a surreal stillness, as if foreseeing the future of the Earth after all natural life has vanished. Engaging with that sensation, we continue walking the path of “Jifei Kyoto.”
 
We are deeply grateful to architect Yo Shimada, the team at Tato Architects, STUDIO AQA, and our collaborators at KG―Yusuke & Lucille, Tamaki, and the entire team―for their support in realizing this experimental exhibition space that bridges “interior” and “exterior.”
 
The phrase “To see the mountain as a mountain, and the water as water,” inscribed along the corridor, represents a deepening of the act of seeing. Along with the shifting optical interference of light between inside and outside, this passage becomes a threshold: a passageway from an open, exterior installation toward a return into inner light―a point of entry into the world itself.