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Gods enshrined in round stones in a small mountain village in Japan.

The town of Fuefuki in Yamanashi Prefecture serves as the location for Takuro Yoneda’s photobook “Maruishigami” (lit.: “round stone gods”). Yoneda wandered the city in search of “maruishigami”, round stones which each enshrine a different god. The stones range from small ones that fit into the palm of one’s hand to large boulders over a meter big. More than 700 of these are said to be found here, in front of temples and shrines, in gardens, on top of walls, lying in meadows or placed into wells. Yoneda found 650 of these stones and recorded them in photographs. A selection of one hundred, printed on postcards and collected in a box, comprises his photobook “Maruishigami.” The photos show the wide diversity both of the stones themselves and the locations in which they are found. Not much is know about the origins of this practice, and the enshrined gods are neither traditional shinto gods nor found in buddhist teachings. Together with a map on which Yoneda marked the location of each found stone (and an extensive essay in Japanese), “Maruishigami” allows its readers to follow the beautiful traces of a peculiar rite around the town of Fuefuki.