Interview

Hideki Hoshino

Freelance photographer in the area of Iiyama City;
originally from Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture.

“I first studied climbing, winter mountaineering and other outdoor activities as a student at Doshisha University. After working as a photographic assistant to a major photographer, my love for the beech forests in the Iiyama area continued to grow. So in 2014, I bought an old house in Iiyama and moved in with my family, all five of us.”

“In the past, buna, the beech, were used as building materials, particularly for the columns and beams that supported the weight of the snow. The materials in my house, for example, are 100 years old, and were made from beech trees that stood in the forest for 200 years.”

“My house stands at a point where the buna forest and human civilization touch. We have to remember that living where there can be a four-meter snowpack is not a carefree thing. Life in winter even today is often a fight against the snow, and it can be a threat, and a source of fear. But this is a place where people raise both their children and crops as well, and there is real beauty in the area.”

“I’d suggest that people take a walk on skis on a sunny winter day, as my kids and I did last season. We walked along a ridge; the roofs of houses stuck out below, like little islands in a white ocean. We stopped as I made a hot ramen lunch; we saw a kamoshika, a Japanese sorrow, across the valley, enjoying the sun just like us. The beech trees soared up like towers into the blue sky. The snowy world spread out all around us—wouldn’t you like to join us out here, too?”