Autumn leaves: Jochi-ji

Winter is gradually deepening and the living things in the gardens are quietly preparing for this cold gray season to survive to next spring.

Deciduous trees sense the sharp drop of temperature and cut off the supply of water to their leaves. These dehydrated leaves change their colors from green to red and gold. Thanks to this splendid change of colors, fallen leaves can easily decay on the ground to return to dust.

In the biting cold of winter, living things take a long tranquil rest while dreaming of the arrival of the warm and fertile spring.

Autumn leaves: Jyochi-ji

The garden of autumn colors: Tokei-ji

Fallen leaves: Tokei-ji

Autumn leaves: Tokei-ji

Autumn leaves: Tokei-ji

Autumnal colors: Engaku-ji

Autumn leaves: Engaku-ji

The garden of autumn leaves: Engaku-ji

Autumnal tints: Kita-kamakura

Autumn leaves: Engaku-ji

Autumnal colors: Chojyu-ji

Autumn leaves: Engaku-ji

By the afternoon sea: Yuigahama-beach (Kamakura)

The surface of the sea is sparkling pacifically in the sun, while swaying slowly to reveal the undulating rhythm of life before our eyes.

The surging bright waves of the vast blue sea can let us become conscious of the existence of our Mother Earth once again.

Standing by the water's edge, people can go back to their own childhood, in which they could keep playing in that sinless world with heartfelt joy.

By the afternoon sea: Yuigahama-beach (Kamakura)

In the far distant past, our remote ancestors came ashore from the sea.

We come into existence in the seawater of the mother.

The sea is our eternal birthplace and always gives us a wave of great nostalgia for the forgotten past.

By the afternoon sea: Yuigahama-beach (Kamakura)

By the afternoon sea: Yuigahama-beach (Kamakura)

The beams of light: Yuigahama-beach (Kamakura)

Like the untold merciful words from above, the rays of the declining sun are coming down through the openings of the thick gray clouds and are softly illuminating the calm sea.

By the afternoon sea: Yuigahama-beach (Kamakura)

Shumei-giku (Anemone hupehensis var. japonica) flower: Tokei-ji

Rindo (Gentiana) flowers: Kaizo-ji

Autumnal tints: Kaizo-ji

Hototogisu (Tricyrtis) flowers: Kaizo-ji

Tumagurohyomon butterfly: Kaizo-ji

The gardens of Zen have just begun to acquire the brilliant colors of early autumn.

A vivid orange butterfly with leopard's spots is flitting from flower to flower in a hurried manner to prepare for her best season of life.

The pale purple of Sion (Aster tataricus) flowers is magically in harmony with the radiant color of this autumn butterfly.

A butterfly visits the finest flower which perfectly befits itself and a flower invites the butterfly which is worthy of its beauty and color.

In a stealthy way, the nature of our universe is manifesting itself in the scenery of the seasons passing away fleetly.

Hagi (Lespedeza) flowers: Kaizo-ji

The magenta flower cascades of Hagi are hanging down inconspicuously along the empty pathway to the moss-covered stone steps.

Sion (Aster tataricus) flowers: Kaizo-ji

The flowers of Sion are at their best in the quiet garden of this modest temple.

Every year these elegant flowers always bloom in this time and silently let us notice the beginning of autumn. 

Higan-bana (Lycoris radiata) flowers: Kaizo-ji

Sion (Aster tataricus) flowers: Kaizo-ji

Hototogisu (Tricyrtis hirta) flowers: Kaizo-ji

White clouds: Yuigahama-beach (Kamakura)

Moss and stream: Kencho-ji

Lotus leaves: Kencho-ji

Byakusin tree: Kencho-ji

Stone wall: Kencho-ji

Glowing clouds: Yuigahama-beach (Kamakura)

After a lightning storm passed, the deep blue sky of late summer returned above the distant horizon once again.

The silky white clouds were quietly drifting high in the air to adorn the infinite space of blue.

The dazzling summer sunlight was gently dispersed by the countless waterdrops in the clouds and exquisite spectral colors were faintly added to the pure white clouds.

White clouds: Yuigahama-beach (Kamakura)

White clouds: Yuigahama-beach (Kamakura)

Image of Bodhidharma: Kencho-ji

A granite image of Bodhidharma in meditation is sitting firmly in the isolated grove of midsummer.

Numerous cicadas are devotedly singing their songs of courtship as if to have noticed the approaching end of summer and their lives.

Ripples on the water: Engaku-ji

In the fierce sun breaking through clouds, like a gentle living being which is silently singing a tender song about life, the water of the pond is ceaselessly undulating to form innumerable twinkling ripples on it.

Roots: Engaku-ji

Fuyo (Hibiscus mutabilis) flowers: Kaizo-ji

Ivy leaves: Kita-kamakura

Garden: Kencho-ji

Bamboo grove: Jochi-ji

In the bright light of midsummer, a bamboo grove becomes most beautiful and full of life.

The subtle composition of its rigid trunks and vivid green blades discloses the particular life force that only this brilliant season can bring to us.

The upright bamboo trunks, each of which grows almost one node per day in summer, are taking on various colors like wild flowers.

Seasons are passing swiftly like the wind while leaving their own invaluable but transient pictures on our minds.

Bamboo grove: Jochi-ji

The wood-siding wall of the Buddha hall: Kencho-ji

On the weathered wood-siding wall of the Buddha hall, a landscape of a quiet grove was drawn with the green moss and the brown rain stains.

Sacred lotus flowers: Kencho-ji

In front of the Chinese-style gate, white lotus flowers are peacefully basking in the bright summer sunshine.

The trunk of an old Byakusin (Chinese juniper) tree: Kencho-ji

In the gardens of Zen temples, a Byakusin tree is an emblem of the ascetic life for spiritual awakening.

Its flouncing trunk and evergreen needle leaves symbolize the harsh discipline and the perfect enlightenment which Zen monks must pursue.

The gate fittings of the Buddha hall: Kencho-ji

With the quiet passage of time, that which comes into being must fade and decay in its own beautiful way.

Fuyo (Confederate rose) flowers: Kaizo-ji