A quasi-sequel to Hiroshi Takai's photobook Yato no Januke (2023), the series looks at the complex beauty of a simple life in rural Japan through the eyes of an outsider. Takai, who lives in Hyogo Prefecture in the western part of Honshu, travelled to small settlements around the city of Fukuchiyama in neighbouring Kyoto Prefecture and photographed the daily life that unfolds there. In the afterword he observes that there is almost no arable land in these settlements: people can only farm small plots on gentle slopes, and the first-born son traditionally takes over. The title is the photographer's own coinage: yato is a valley in satoyama country, and tachimori, from the first and last days of the month, stands for time. The pictures are a quiet, deep and affectionate gaze at the area known as Moto-Ise.