The Deers from Nara

(video by HANAFUBUKI)

Yoko made this video in September 2008. She went again this September, in 2009, to the park of Nara, to see deers, to play with them and to create a new video.


It is a pity I cannot show you this new video here: its width does not fit with the space in my blog. You should watch it: it is amazing. Just follow this link.


It is this time not only about deers: there are, says Yoko, over 1,200 wild Sika deers freely roaming in and around the park.


And Yoko says more, they are considered sacred.

And here is the thing: this video is about a space that is sacred: the universe of deers from Nara, the world where giant Niō statues guard the gates of ancient shrines, the place where playing with deers is praying intimately to gods.




Look at the images I captured from the video of Yoko. They call in mind the universe created in the movies of Kurosawa: the sacred universe of Japan.

And Yoko Shibata made this universe her own. These images, this incredible mix of mist, and trees, and shrines, and deers, and rocks, and water, it is a world recreated now by Yoko, it is her universe.




I had a thrill looking at this image, so much it's speaking of the world of Ozu's movies:


But here, in these two delicate images, it's just Yoko Shibata alone, she, nobody else, mastering the Nippon aesthetic to the very essence: look at them and try to understand their whole meaning, or better close your eyes and try to imagine them, and you'll realize the essence.






(The Thousand faces of HANAFUBUKI)