7 Islands: 7 Weeks

'An extraordinary glimpse into Japan.' Shamada Hiroo


'The sort of journey I've always dreamed of taking but never had the opportunity.’ Takashi Yoshie


'You have to have both deep knowledge but be an outsider to write and photograph like this. It's the little things that define any country, and Thomas-san seeks these out with an eagle's eye.' Chrissie Rie


For a variety of reasons I had planned to travel to a number of islands stretching from Hokkaido in the north to Kyushu in the south. Then it dawned on my rather slow brain that I would be visiting 7 islands across a seven week period, and that it might be of some interest to record a swathe of Japan in a single moment of time: that moment being the summer of 2019. Of course there is nothing profoundly original about this as an idea. I remember a surge of books published in the 1980s that captured a ‘day in the life’ of a city or country; A Day on the Life of Japan was published in 1985 for instance.


Seven is an auspicious number too in Japan as it is meant to symbolise togetherness in Japan, although I have failed to grasp why. Buddhists believe in seven reincarnations; parents celebrate the seventh day following a baby's birth, and everyone mourns the seventh day and seventh week after a loved one’s death.


2019 was also a momentous year for the nation: a new Emperor was enthroned, the country hosted the Rugby World Cup for the first time, it rained and rained, and it began to dawn on the authorities that perhaps holding the Olympics during the height of summer was not a good idea - not because of the rain but the stifling heat and humidity.


And that’s when I undertook this journey.