For the next three weeks, I won’t be sending out the Five Nudes Friday newsletter. I’ll be in Japan.
I’m walking the second stage of the Shikoku pilgrimage, a centuries-old Buddhist route through 88 temples on the island of Shikoku. I walked the first stage two years ago, and I’ve been looking forward to continuing ever since. It’s a week of solitude and slowness, and for me it’s also a way of reflecting on the past year. There’s something about walking that creates the right conditions for that kind of thinking.
After the pilgrimage I travel to Kyoto, where I’ll be working with Satsuki again. We worked together there in 2024, in a different house. This time we’ll be in another old renovated Japanese house. The project we’re building together is something I hope to eventually turn into a book or a zine. It’s still taking shape, but the direction feels right.
Then Tokyo. Shinjuku specifically, which couldn’t be more different from a week of walking alone through temples. I’m genuinely looking forward to that contrast: the quiet of the pilgrimage, the focused creative work in Kyoto, and then the noise and anonymity of a city like Tokyo. Each part of the trip needs the other ones.
But that’s all still ahead. For now: a Six Nudes Saturday.
Have a great weekend!
Imar, your pilgrimage, may it bring you peace and much comfort. The women in these photographs are comforting too.
Great photos. Have a safe and blessed journey