A fascinating interview with Alex Kerr from Gianni Simone at Tokyo Calling
Gianni Simone (Tokyo Calling) has published a fascinating interview with Alex Kerr about his recent book:
Hidden Japan is part of an ongoing series I’ve been working on with a Japanese publisher. One of our earlier collaborations was Theory of the Japanese Landscape—a book that, though only available in Japanese, explores the kinds of landscape issues I’ve long been interested in.
For Hidden Japan, the publisher proposed something compelling: “Why don’t we choose ten unusual places and write about them?” For me, it was a dream project. I’d long wanted to create a modern update of what Shirasu Masako had done in the 1960s and ’70s—particularly in her iconic book Kakurezato (Hidden Hamlets).
Shirasu was an important mentor to me, but her writing—deeply scholarly and steeped in classical references—can be a bit dense for contemporary readers. My aim was to craft something more accessible and more attuned to the present moment.
In some cases, I literally followed in her footsteps, revisiting the same locations she once wrote about. In others, we selected entirely new places. That was the genesis of the book. All told, it took about two years to travel to and write about each of the ten sites.
Shirasu’s book focuses on places overlooked by large tour groups and the typical tourist—locations so tucked away they might never be discovered without intention. That was the spirit I wanted to revisit, but I also hoped to go further.
It wasn’t just about pointing out another picturesque temple or a lovely garden. I wanted to ask: What are these places, really? What do they tell us?
In the major tourist destinations, the deeper meaning is often lost—diluted by crowds and commercialism. But in these forgotten, out-of-the-way places, untouched by time, something essential still lingers. That's where the original spirit survives.
