Towards the End of the Night (Japan, Maibara)

In the heart of Shiga Prefecture, the city of Maibara is crossed by zones of extreme climatic contrasts , due to its position between the snow-capped mountains of the hinterland and the more temperate plain that borders Lake Biwa , the largest in Japan. On the same horizon, we often observe a clear break between landscapes engulfed in snow and soils that have remained dry , a phenomenon accentuated by variations in altitude and thaw mists .

This territory is marked by strong hydraulic activity: rivers , agricultural canals and channels draw arabesques which shape the land and condition its uses. In the region, these secondary watercourses are also used to regulate winter floods, via mobile dikes installed since the Edo period.