In 2009 Eriko Koga visited Mount Koya, home of a monastery 1,200 years old in the mountains south of Osaka, for the first time. Okuno-in Temple exerted an especially strong pull on her: its atmosphere overwhelmed all five senses, and the air, the slow pace of mountain life and the kindness of the people brought a serenity and security that permeated her. She returned many times to record with camera and film what Koya stirred in her, and in 2010, wanting to go deeper than short trips from Tokyo allowed, rented a small apartment in the mountain village and stayed there one week every month for three years. Koya is a destination for Buddhist pilgrims and tourists alike and the home of the Shingon sect of esoteric Buddhism, whose aim is to use the Three Mysteries of body, speech and mind together to reveal one's nature: through gestures and ritual instruments, through sacred formulas, through meditation. Koga's images are the result of a meditative eye joined to a camera, itself a ritual instrument operated with gestures bordering on the devotional, and in Issan she reveals not only the nature of the monastery but perhaps something of her own. The book is available in three cover colours, and in a special edition in a hand-made wooden box.