Seashore

Notes from a Tokyo Bullet Train I took the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto, the high-speed line that traces the edge of the seashore. Outside the window: a blur of coastline, the flicker of pine trees, and clusters of wooden houses looking out at the sea, humble and weathered. There was something tranquil and poetic about them, something unpolished, unhurried that stayed with me long after we arrived. That journey stayed with me. Later, in the studio, it returned in fragments, the hush of the train, the shimmer of water, the stillness of things left undisturbed. Seashore was born from that memory. A wallpaper made of tide-washed shells and pale, mineral tones, as if standing at the edge of Japan, looking out to sea. The wider collection, A Journey Through Japan, tells the story the other way around, looking back at the island from afar. I always return to that window. The hush of the train. The slow sweep of the shore. Japan, passing quietly by.