June Project "Windows"

[Loupey]

Earlier this year I returned to Japan to pay my respects to my two uncles who were very ill. They are my mother’s only brothers and each had no children to carry on the family name.

This photo of a part of the family home - passed on to the oldest son of each generation and parts of which are approximately two centuries old - was taken on the day I left. The house was home to numerous generations including my great grandfather, the last samurai in the family.

Both uncles passed away a short time later. The fate of the home, farmland, and bamboo forest remains uncertain.