Emperor go-Kameyama, 2005
Gelatin silver print, printed 2009
Sheet size: 11 × 14 in.
Image size: 7½ ×9½ in.
Edition of 20
Signed, titled, dated, and editioned in pencil on verso
March 23, 2026
This entire image seems to emanate from the shrine nested in its center. The picture is imbued with a quiet, contemplative, and unmistakably sacred atmosphere, with the shrine's torii gate deftly contrasted against the forest that stands tall behind it.
Eiji Ina's photograph depicts the mausoleum of Emperor Go-Kameyama in Kyoto, and is part of his series EMPEROR OF JAPAN, a photographic typology documenting the tombs of Japan's past Emperors. Made with a large format 8×10 camera, the photographs are not of the tombs themselves but the places of worship at the grave sites. The pictures always depict a torii gate, the traditional gate most commonly found at the entrance of a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to the sacred.
