From October 01, 2020 to October 31, 2020
Zaido (Dedicated to My Late Father...)
Nothing had prepared me for my father's death. He was taken by a blood cancer before the
family knew he was seriously ill. After his sudden death, I had a two big accidents and
suffered serious injuries to my face and legs.
They seemed fatal, but I somehow managed to escape death. The process of recovery
was slow and just as me and my family were about to return to our daily lives, the 2011
Tohoku earthquake and tsunami struck.
The whole of Japan was shaken, feeling unimaginable despair. All hope seemed lost in
one single moment.
As if nightmares appearing one after the other, these new realities bruised my body and
soul, leaving me feeling as if I had taken a severe beating. With no strength left whatsoever,
I found it hard to even get out of bed in the morning.
On one such day, my deceased father came to me in a dream and said, "Go to the
village hidden in deep snow where I lived a long time ago". I followed my father's
instructions and arrived at a dream place, covered with deep snow.
There, an ancient 1300-year old shrine ritual called "ZAIDO" was being performed.
During the 1300 years of its existence, there are said to have been times when it had a
difficulty surviving. It is a beautiful, but harsh ritual. Before it, the noshu (performers) are
required to undertake a very strict purification. In the longest documented cases, some of
these noshu are known to have gone through 48-day long periods of complete abstinence.
From our modern society's viewpoint, shojinkessai (self-purification) seems like a very
hard thing to do.
Japan is a country surrounded by sea from all sides. That is why, a specific way of life
and culture, unlike that of any other country, exist here. This, however, is not the only
difference between Japan and the rest of the world. Sadly, natural disasters such as
earthquakes, tsunami, typhoons, and volcanic eruptions are also much a part of the
Japanese everyday life. These days, I fear that the culture that has been preserved and
passed down from generation to generation through many sacrifices, is sadly starting to
disappear. And yet, regardless of how many hardships they have to endure, how many times
they have to fall down and get back up, there still exist people who are willing to continue
protecting it. It is through their dedication and the great impact it left, and continues to
leave, on me that I am able to find a meaning to life again.
*This book was published by STEIDL in 2020.
Curator: Sandrine Hermand-Grisel, Founder All About Photo
Yukari Chikura born in Tokyo, Japan. After graduated from university of music. She became music composer and computer programmer. She is the winner of STEIDL BOOK AWARD and her work has been published by STEIDL. She was selected as FOTOFEST Discoveries of the Meeting Place 2018. She won LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards 2016, Sony World Photography Awards , Photolucida Critical Mass TOP50 2016 & 2015 among others. Her work has been published by New York Times, Guardian among others. She held 12 places solo exhibition and group exhibition at museum, gallery around the world. Some projects have collected in Griffin Museum in US and Bibliotheque National de France.
