shashasha

The beauty and ephemerality of Japanese confectionary

At her confectionary shop in Kyoto, Sayoko Sugiyama distills her aesthetic senses and philosophies into edible sweets called wagashi, a traditional Japanese form of confectionary. With the book “What You See”, Sugiyama tries to approach the beauty and ephemerality of her craft with photographs and words, mixing close-up shots of her creations with different types of texts (from short essays to poems and ), one page per confectionary. The book functions as a record of her creations, but it is also an exploration and transformation of this traditional craft.

“Within these treats, we see Sugiyama mold her endearment for ephemerality, the realms of nothingness – or perhaps the quotidian, and the transitions of the seasons – into the forms of these confections. Such creations activate all of our senses in awakening the memory, and then continuing to accumulating within it.” (from the publisher’s description)