A Kyoto Autumn in 144 Pages: Kyoto no Ishō — Kōyō

If you have stood at the gate of Kansen-ji in Tokyo, looking at the maple framed inside the gateway like a picture, you have probably thought the same thing I did: what does the original look like, in Kyoto?

There is a book that answers that question in 144 pages. It is called Kyoto no Ishō: Kōyō — “The Design of Kyoto: Autumn Colour.”

What It Is

A photo book by Katsuhiko Mizuno, who has photographed Kyoto’s gardens for decades, together with his son Hidehiko Mizuno. It gathers 133 places in Kyoto where the autumn colour is worth seeing, each with the photographers’ own commentary. It was published on 12 September 2024 by Mitsumura Suiko Shoin, a publishing house in Kyoto itself.

The format is a modified B5 — large enough to do the photographs justice, small enough that it will not fight with your suitcase.

The Captions Are in English as Well as Japanese

This is the part that matters, and it is why I am recommending this particular book.

Most Japanese photo books are in Japanese only. You can give one to a friend abroad, and they will say it is beautiful, and that will be the end of it. This one is different: the commentary is printed in both Japanese and English, so you can read which temple you are looking at, what the tree is, and why the view was composed that way.

That makes it one of the few Japanese photo books that works properly as a gift.

It Explains What You Saw in Tokyo

The framed view at Kansen-ji happens almost by accident — a square gateway that happens to hold the hall and the maple inside it. In Kyoto, that effect is deliberate, and centuries old. The word ishō in the title means design, or intent, and that is what the book is about:

• why a tree was planted at that particular angle
• why white gravel and moss sit next to the red
• why a paper screen or a window frame was cut at exactly that height

A composition you found “somehow beautiful” in Tokyo gets a name and a reason.

Being Honest About It

• It is a book about autumn, so it is a seasonal object. This is not something you will look at in June
• 133 places is arguably too many. There are not many photographs per location, so if you want one temple in depth, this is not that book
• It has the weight of a photo book. Bring it home when your luggage has room

Even so, as a way to see the whole of Kyoto’s autumn — before you go, or instead of going — I do not know a better one at this price.

How to Have It Delivered to Your Tokyo Hotel

Amazon Japan and Rakuten can both deliver directly to the hotel where you are staying. Ordering a few days before your flight home works well, and you can collect the parcel at the front desk. When you order, please set the shipping address to your hotel, and add the hotel name and your guest name as it appears on the reservation.

• Please check with your hotel in advance that they accept parcels for guests
• On Amazon.co.jp, the English display toggle is at the top right of the screen. Rakuten is a Japanese-language site, so your browser’s translation feature is the easy way through

Who Is This For?

Anyone who has seen a Kyoto autumn and wants to check it against their memory, and anyone who has not yet and is deciding where to go. As a gift for someone at home, the English captions make the difference between a beautiful object and a book they will actually read.

→ The article this came from: Kansen-ji: Kyoto-Style Autumn Colour, Inside Tokyo, for Nothing

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