Today is my Mother's Birthday! To celebrate the very best mother in the world for me, I decided to celebrate her birthday by commemorating her mother: my grandmother. My grandmother passed away last July. These are some of the photographs that I have from my grandmother's last years with her. (Please read about my grandmother & mother in my past blogs1.2). I also sent her the photographs of her parent's home, where no one lives anymore since my grandmother's passing. My grandparents owned a small typographic printing company in rural Japan. When I used to visit my grandparent’s house, as a young child, there was something very mysterious about typographic printing shop, which was part of their house, there were things that were old, dusty and extremely complicated Chinese letters as if they were from the different world. I loved listening to my mother’s stories of growing up with her siblings in the print shop. Now, it is empty. I snapped a few photographs there after my grandmother's funeral last year, wondering what would happen to these "things."

今日は私の母の誕生日。私にとって母は世界で１番のおかあさん、だと子馬鹿ながらに思っています。：）

母の誕生日のお祝いに去年他界した母の母、私の祖母との写真と母が育った祖父母の家に写真を送りました。母の実家は小さな町の活版印刷屋さんで、祖父母の家にはまるで異次元からきたような難しい漢字の活版、古くて大きな活版印刷の機械がたくさんあって、小さい頃の私にとってそれらは異次元の世界のもののように感じていました。別世界からきたような不思議なたくさんの道具、でも怖くはなかった。。。それはきっと小さい頃によく母から、話をきいていたから。。。

祖母のお葬式のあと昔あんなに近寄りがたく感じていた活版印刷の部屋で写真をとりました。

母と祖母について過去のブログにもかきましたので、よろしければどうぞよろしく読んでいただけたら幸いです。(1,2)

祖母の家／typographic printing shop