青幻舎 SEIGENSHA Art Publishing

This forest is quietly, but surely, alive.

——from the book

Beyond the urban sections of Nara Park spreads a deep, dense expanse of trees known as the Kasugayama Primeval Forest. Located within the sacred precincts of Kasugataisha Shrine, it has been protected from hunting and logging for some 1,200 years, giving rise to a most wonderful rarity—a virgin forest in close proximity to a modern city. For this quality it was designated a National Natural Monument in 1955; its cultural integration with Kasugataisha Shrine, moreover, earned it a place in the list of UNESCO Cultural World Heritage sites in 1998 as part of the “Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara.”

It was his work with Nara Park’s iconic deer that led nature photographer Kazuto Sato to this very special place that is another of Nara’s natural wonders. Stepping inside, he found himself in a realm where an astounding array of life resonated with one another as though the forest itself were one great being. Growing attuned over time to sensations outside those in his ordinary experience, he trained his senses on the whiff and whispers of living creatures—on the faintest suggestions of their existence in the silence—and went about recording the workings of life here in photographs of singular perspective and loving detail.

The result is a book that not only captures the forest and the life of its creatures through the shifting seasons, but also explores the synergy of life here and affirms that this place remains quietly alive to this day.

Published by Seiseisha; distributed by Seigensha

Kazuto Sato, born in 1984 in the city of Nara, trained under photographer Haruo Nakano before establishing his own practice in 2008. He focuses on deer, fantastic images of clouds and skies, and forest creatures among other natural themes. His activities range from work for magazines and tourism pamphlets and posters to media appearances, lectures, and photography classes. He heads the Kazuto Photo Office.