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Hisashi Mochizuki is a freelance photographer who works regularly for ANA’s Wingspan magazine, He also traveled to 60 countries in six years for the series, “The Roots of Vegetables,” which appeared in Shukan Bunshun. He was one of 10 photographers chosen to shoot the Beijing Olympics, and is chairperson of the Japan-China Photography and Cultural Exchange Association. He has held several exhibitions of his work.

MY MEMORIES OF taking pictures 40 years ago, holed up in a shelter atop Mount Hachimantai in the middle of winter waiting for the weather to clear up, are as clear to me as if it all happened yesterday.

Blizzards so strong they seemed to lift the shelter off the ground continued for days on end. Just as I was getting fed up with the blizzard that had lasted for two weeks, the eastern sky colored deep red with the morning sun. It was the most moving thing I have ever experienced. Also, the memory of my elation at seeing the yellow color of the stripe in the

middle of the road after descending from the nearly pure white world is still vividly in my mind. The shapes of the rime covered trees extending far off into the distance and the morning moon sparkling above the trees gave a romantic, dream like impression as though I were on another planet.

Perhaps due to climate changes, it is now difficult to view large, photogenic examples of rime covered trees, but even now, I head off toward the mountain top through the deep snow with a heavy pack on my back, and my only desire is to feel those emotions from 40 years ago in the middle of a blizzard.