Waterlilies always come in Buddhist sculpture. The Buddhas all stand on lotus pedestals, because the lotus is grown from the mud. The mud represents ….

[I'm concerned with] aesthetics and this idea of how the passage between life and death goes. I can visually present that by borrowing this Buddhist ….

To me photography functions as a fossilization of time..

Photography is like a found object. A photographer never makes an actual subject; they just steal the image from the world... Photography is a system….

The Seascapes are before human beings and after human beings. The Seascapes were there before our presence, and when our civilization is over, seasca….

I'm thinking about the end of civilization. We may not keep growing like we are now. There must be an end of civilization. That's what I did as a sho….

The 1,000 Buddha, to me, is almost like a contemporary art piece..

Many people [still] believe that at the time of your death, 1,000 Buddhas show up and welcome you into the paradise state..

We need to have nature back in our atmosphere. There might be a turning point of going backward - within a few thousand years we are going back to th….

I'm inviting the spirits into my photography. It's an act of God..

[Takashi] Murakami, do you think he is spiritual? He is more like de-spiritualized. De-spiritualized might be the most contemporary aspect of the hum….

I try to never be satisfied; this way I will always be challenging my spirit..

Art is technique: a means by which to materialize the invisible realm of the mind..

If I already have a vision, my work is almost done. The rest is a technical problem..

Life is one passage and then you keep moving into another state. It's like you might be reborn, but the process of being born you won't remember - th….

Mystery of mysteries, water and air are right there before us in the sea. Every time I view the sea, I feel a calming sense of security, as if visiti….

I have no policy for my collection. For example, there's a bunch of meteorite [on the windowsill in my studio]. I touch it and I feel the energy from….

Art resides even in things with no artistic intentions..

Fossils work almost the same way as photography as a record of history. The accumulation of time and history becomes a negative of the image. And thi….

Life is one passage and then you keep moving into another state..

I didn't want to be criticized for taking low-quality photographs, so I tried to reach the best, highest quality of photography and then to combine t….