Last Dance

Theme: Last Dance It’s difficult to accept the fact that this beautiful building was demolished. This was one of the few classic hotels in western Japan, built in 1926 and closed in March 2020. I heard that there were strong calls for its preservation, but unfortunately, it will be turned into a high-rise apartment. Ever since I started taking pictures, I have been shooting buildings which have their own great histories and atmospheres with my own perspective. In the first few years, I couldn’t afford proper gear and had only one used 50 mm lens. In many cases, it was impossible to capture an entire building. With that said, I thought it would be better to leave it to professional photographers specialized in architecture. I focused on capturing the beauty of details created across the ages by dividing them into parts. I’ve been working on it to the present day. I have taken part in the preservation activities of such buildings several times, but most of them have been lost except for a few. For this hotel, I have asked for the advice of experts and appealed for its preservation and reuse by putting photos on social media, websites, and galleries, hoping that a final miracle would happen and it could avoid being 'Lost'. Although a few of the furnishings were moved to the newly opened hotel, it’s indeed regrettable that the fantastic hotel was destroyed completely. A most beautiful building that has been loved for many years in the area is demolished because it is just old and costly to maintain, and it would be more profitable to turn it into a high-rise apartment building, and it does not satisfy the current earthquake resistance standards. How can people love and cherish a city which is no longer what it was used to be when returning hometown? I was born and spent my childhood in the center of Tokyo. All the wonderful buildings that bring back memories of my early days were gone. The 2020, the year of the pandemic, our lifestyle has drastically changed. I thought that we could have time to review the value of important things and could overcome the current hardships if we could change the world better. But it seems we won't have it so easy. These days, everything is carried out online, and people tend to take short views and are obsessed to pursue their own profit. I would like to be a person capable of thinking about the future and the environment with a wide perspective. If we, as individuals, companies, and countries, don't change the mindset, our earth might come to an end in our generation.