I photographed this scene in the plum grove of Kenrokuen Garden, one of Japan’s three most celebrated gardens.
In this historic garden I sought to capture the passage of time played by the plums and the quiet vitality hidden within them, rendering both with a dreamlike interplay of light that blurs dream and reality.
A single drooping branch holds a few delicate pink blossoms, and countless floating orbs of light—bokeh—wrap around them.
Those many bokeh spheres symbolize layers of time linking past and future and the glitter of innumerable lives. I composed the shot to lead the eye to the central blossom, emphasizing its fleeting beauty and refined dignity.