Five Landscapes of Japan

Not photographs — landscapes built by hand

The shape of the mountains, the color of the water, the plants of the season. Each scene is drawn from scratch in code, without images, using what makes each place itself as a guide. It is not real elevation data, so the positions and heights of the mountains differ from the real ones. For the real air, please go and see them.

• Shiretoko

  The eastern tip of Hokkaido, a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site since 2005. At the end of winter, drift ice crowds into the Sea of Okhotsk.

• Oze

  A high moorland spanning Gunma, Fukushima and Niigata. After the snow melts, skunk cabbage blooms along both sides of the boardwalks.

• Kamikochi

  Matsumoto, Nagano, about 1,500 m above sea level. From Kappa Bridge over the Azusa River, you look up at the Hotaka peaks.

• Lake Biwa

  Japan's largest lake. At Shirahige Shrine on the west shore, a vermilion torii gate stands in the water.

• Aso

  A caldera about 25 km north to south and 18 km east to west. Nakadake is an active volcano that still sends up steam.