Cuny Janssen: Yoshino

Since that day,

When I saw the blossoming treetops in Yoshino's mountains, my heart left my body behind!" wrote the Japanese poet Saigyõ in the 12th century. And indeed, the flanks of the Yoshino Mountains, planted with over 30,000 cherry trees, must have already offered the overwhelming sight at that time that still today makes them an eloquent testimony to the harmonious shaping of lush nature by man that is so characteristic of Japan. For over 1400 years, the temples, the mountain slopes and the river in Nara Prefecture have therefore been part of the Buddhist pilgrimage calendar during the cherry blossom season in spring; in the past, the aristocracy came, today Yoshino is a popular tourist attraction.
With 19 large landscape-format photographs, Cuny Janssen has not only collected enchanting and sensitive images of nature from Yoshino, but has also included a small anthology of Japanese poetry compiled by Jos Vos in her unusual photo book, which the Dutch Japan specialist concludes with his travel essay "A Fox in Yoshino". Cuny Janssen knows how to design her books according to the subject matter like almost no other contemporary photographer. In Yoshino, she enhances the tranquillity and contemplative mood of her photographs with a selection of brittle poetry that sings the praises of this Japanese place of longing.