Zōkyō

Setsubun was yesterday, the day before the first day of spring. Its a Japanese household ritual to purify a family’s home of all the evil spirits and bad luck of the previous year, and bring in all the good spirits and fortune of the new year. Usually the father of the house wears an Oni (demon) mask and  Japanese kids throw roasted soybeans at him that they have collected at the local shrine earlier in the day. They shout “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” which means, “Out with the Demons In with the Hapiness!”. Then its customary to eat one bean for each year of one’s life plus one more for bringing good luck for the new year.

These are all the kids earlier in the day at the local shrine trying to catch the beans thrown from the monks that they will throw at the Oni later. I couldn’t help but think of a park pond’s gold Koi fish swarming the bridge’s bread crumb thrower.

New Hokkaido series up at brianscottpeterson.com

Since late last year, right around the time of our dear savior’s birth, I have been working literally non-stop on a new project called Magnesium Photos (.com), The world’s most respected photo agency™ with a few photographer friends. It intends to be a new kind of photo agency and despite having started it just 3 weeks ago, I am very impressed and proud of what we have put together so far. The idea has been incubating for over 3 years and is finally coming to fruition in a whirlwind frenzy. We are still working out the kinks but looking forward to a good year. Keep your eyes on it…

Here’s a little excerpt from a piece I am working on for it:

For more about it, check out magnesiumphotos.com.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Happy New Year from Fujisan!

Happy 2010!!! 2009 has been one of the best years of my life. I have a Fuji Mountain of thanks for all I have been blessed with this year. I’ve been surrounded with people I admire so much, I’ve travelled to San Francisco, Hong Kong, Indonesia, to Kobe and Isu and Hokkaido. (Thank you to my beloved adopted home of Tokyo who hast hosted me for five years now.) I’ve taken some of the best photos of my life and learned so much. I’ve shared so many new friendships and have taken many big strides in 2009 to make 2010 one of the best years in my life. all with a woman that I wholeheartedly love.

My Family and old friends are far but close in heart. I miss them all dearly and look forward to the very moment we meet again.

Despite all the craziness in the world, I have remained optimistic about our future and tried to keep the people around me happy. As we go through life, we must learn to accept eachother’s differences and learn to live life in peace. I do have hope that we can get there and I vow this year to work towards getting us closer. 

This photo was taken just a few moments right after the clock struck midnight. This year already looks like it will be a special one. To all my loved ones, near and far, I wish you the happiest year in 2010.

Happy New Year 2010 from Fuji san.
With Love Always, 

Brian 

Yesterday, I dropped by my mate Koga san’s awesome bookstore cafe, Tegamisha in Tsutsujigaoka and had a coffee and some sweets. The cafe is located in an unsuspecting location in the courtyard of a giant drab apartment complex.
The people living in the area are very lucky to have this enclave of goodness at the center, serving up its amazing concoctions with extreme attention to beautiful detail in the way only Japanese do. Although I didn’t eat anything, every dish that came out of the kitchen made me giggle with mouth-watering delight seeing such wonderfully thought out dishes.

The coffee was amazing and served in a beautiful hand-made ceramic cup that kept my hands warm while I perused many of the awesome old books there.

I found one old book from maybe the 70’s that featured 100 Japanese photographers. I got to a page that looked somewhat familiar by an artist known as Hiromichi Moriyama.

Upon closer inspection there was no mistaking it was Daido.

Here are some close-ups.

Haha, so cool…

Anyway, you should go check this place out. Its really cool and well worth a walk over. Here’s a map.