Inner river, outer river (Japan, Kyoto)

On the banks of the Kamo-gawa in Kyoto , the city fades away. The current follows a geometry imposed by urban planning— stone dikes , engineered waterfalls , stabilized banks —but the water itself retains its ancestral rhythm . Sitting on the edge, a passerby contemplates, absorbed by the coming and going of the flow. This type of scene, so commonplace in Japan, refers to a coded social practice: that of contemplative isolation in public spaces, which can even be found in Zen gardens ( karesansui ).

The river becomes a mental mirror : each wave is thought, each turbulence an echo. Between natural fluidity and human order , this urban landscape embodies a form of silent mediation , where one grants oneself the right to do nothing— ma間—just be there, between two worlds. A simple bench or a ledge then becomes a threshold, an interface between interiority and landscape .