One thing that I appreciate being a Japanese is that this country gives me a lot of chances to appreciate the four distinguished seasonal views.
Please don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating the famous idea of "Japan is one of few countries in the world with four season".
I fully understand that is quite a huge myth Japanese people commonly share.
As a common sense, Japan is not the only country with four season.
Anyways, but this country still looks pretty in every different season and I am truly thankful with it.
Above three photos are from Nikko, which I took in this winter.
All those trees and mountain are covered with pretty white and creates nice atmosphere.
The middle ocean one is from Izu peninsula I visited this spring.
The blue color of the water is such a magnificent view.
Personally I was surprised to see there exists such a gorgeous blue water in the eastern part of Japan.
The bottom one is apparently a picture of Itsukushima Shrine from Miyajima, Hiroshima.
This place is also widely known after the NHK Taiga drama aired the stories of Heishi, founder of the place.
What I would like you to see is the top one and the bottom one.
These photos are about nature but they include some man-made artifacts.
And what I want to emphasize is that they are made to create cohesiveness with nature.
Those human-made objects don't particularly stand out of it. I think they make a good harmony into the nature.
Now I'm not a expert in Japanese cultural studies. But what I know is that the Japanese culture emphasizes the importance of harmony in the nature (often described as "shizen tono chowa").
I think that is one way of the famous concept of wa.
For the old Japanese people, nature was not an object to subdue. It was where you belong to and humans are nothing but a part of it.
Although it is unknown if such idea still exists today, the idea itself is starting to be recognized again since the 3.11 earthquake where we all felt powerless against mother nature.
That's all I can share about the concept of nature in the Japanese culture.