Tsunami Trees

TSUNAMI TREES
Naoya Hatakeyama

Following the publication of Kesengawa (2012) and Rikuzentakata (2015), here is the long-awaited third book of Japanese photographer Naoya Hatakeyama's photographic series on the aftermath of the tsunami that struck Japan on 11 March 2011.

Fifteen years after the 2011 tsunami struck the coast of northeastern Japan, repercussions are still felt in the landscape, in people's minds, and in nature itself. Following the publication of the books Kesengawa and Rikuzentakata dedicated to the more direct human and material consequences of the tsunami, Naoya Hatakeyama focused on the fate of trees as the coastal region was rebuilt. He observes the metamorphosis of the landscape, which is inevitable due to redevelopment and the return of human activity.

Aux détours de ses marches du Sud vers le Nord, il repère un arbre encore debout, balafré d’une grande entaille, comme coupé en deux entre une moitié recouverte de feuilles et une autre, nue et sans vie. C’est là que le projet Tsunami Trees prend racine.

Swept away by the wave, a large number of trees were completely destroyed and litter the land like the remains of a vanished world. Others gradually dried up, affected by the salt water, while some were cut down and used for reconstruction. Finally, there are those that remained between life and death, half-growing back. Naoya Hatakeyama experiences this valiant recovery in the changing light and passing seasons, a perpetual cycle whose beauty the photographer simply reveals.

His text (available in english also) at the end of the book sheds light on his approach which bears witness to the structural transformations of a landscape after devastation. He connects our place as humans in a world of “transformed nature”, which we shape with roads, dykes and buildings, disconnecting ourselves from the enduring yet ephemeral dynamics of nature. A world that can be wiped out in an instant by the relentless power of a wave. But one that also knows how to readjust after chaos and destruction, and which is gradually reborn.

This work is published with the support of the Sasakawa French-Japanese Foundation and the support of the translation and publication programme of the Japan Foundation.

The book is currently available for pre-order at a reduced price of 40€ in our online shop. Until 19 February 2026.

Technical features

You can view or upload the press kit (visuals, cover, book layout in PDF et press release).