Rural Japan: Radiance of the Ordinary = Soboku Na Kagayaki

Taken on the islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu between 1986-1989, these exceptionally beautiful photographs capture the ``astonishing resilience'' of ancient rural customs amid the ever-increasing modernization of Japanese society. In 15 short episodes, Butler ( Inner Light: The Shaker Legacy ) tells of her experience traveling the coasts and countryside, detailing her encounters with farmers, fishermen, village people and mountain folk, some reticent, others gregarious. The text is charming and insightful, but it is the pictures that fascinate. In black and white, Butler shows us the otherworldly textures of an earthenware floor and the radiance of hanging radishes in Iwate-ken; the drizzling beauty of spring rain in Aichi-ken; the intense concentration of a Shinto priest and the eeriness of squid drying in the sun in Shimane-ken; the rippling water and stormy skies of a fishing wharf in Aomori-ken; and the camaraderie of a group of laughing gateball players in Yamagata-ken. Whether shooting a portrait or a still life, Butler uses her camera to distill the pure cultural and aesthetic essence from these rural areas. (May)