World Heritage in Japan

Overview

Sydney's weather's not the nicest right now, and forecasts reckon it's going to keep on. Time will tell. In the meantime, in Kazuyoshi Miyoshi's photos the weather is beautiful, the water still and the sky is clear. In 1985 Miyoshi won the Kimura Iehi award, and in 1998 he was commissioned to photograph Japan's world heritage sites by UNESCO. Though it may have taken a while to get here, that collection is touching down near one of our own World Heritage sites to settle in for a month of viewing at the Japan Foundation. As will Miyoshi, who talks at the exhibition Thursday evening.

The show touches on the serene. Covered in gold, the Kinkakuji Temple which has been the subject of a Hiroshige woodblock, took ten years to build, and while it was originally put together for Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's retirement, it became a temple after his death. Ashikaga's life itself was somewhat less peaceful than his temple. The water-footed Miyajima Torii Gate also features, as does Hiroshima's Genbaku Dome — the only building still standing where the atomic bomb dropped, a reminder of its human cost. Miyoshi's photography should help you keep it, and the other sites, fresh in your mind.