Beauty of the Yasujiro's Ozu frame

Film director Yasujiro Ozu known for his distinctive visual style. Use of normal lenses, static low angle camera placement, geometrically balanced compositions and subtle color coordination creates beautiful images. They can live itself outside of film's context and carry strong emotional and aesthetic energy projected by master filmmaker.

Safe House

While I was wondering in Kyoto my attention attracted buildings with small, deep-set windows with heavy cement shutters. Windows of this design called takamado are unique to the kura (storehouse). Build as separate structure of the machiya, or city merchant house, they was used to protect valuables from fire, in particular.


This distinctive architectural form based on the unit of single tatami mat (around 90cmx180cm) emerged in Edo period, which spanned more than 250 years from 1603 to 1867.