Back in my days as a systems engineer,
I was forever chasing deadlines, working late into the night...
What saved my worn-out heart was books of travel photography and photo magazines.
Minori Kai, Orie Ichihashi, the magazine Camera Biyori —
just gazing at photographs of landscapes and townscapes across Japan
made me feel as if I were traveling, and I remember my heart growing so much lighter.
Because travel photographs saved me again and again back then,
I wanted to pass that gift along: to make books of travel and photography
that might lighten someone else's heart, even just a little.
That is how I came to make travel photo books.
Looking back, my love of travel began in childhood —
riding my bicycle to faraway towns, wondering at every corner,
"what view will I see next?"
Perhaps I am still on that same small journey today.
I always bring vintage lenses along when I travel.
It began with an old lens found deep in a closet at my parents' house.
"I used to photograph you with that lens when you were small," my father told me.
When I took it traveling through nostalgic old towns,
I was captivated by the way it rendered the world — something words can't quite reach.
To inherit old things, give them new form, and carry them into the future —
A story of journeys, searching alongside these lenses
for the good old things and the distant memories that are quietly fading away.
That is "Vintage Travel Books".
I hope these books can be of some small use to you.