Gama Caves

Photographs: Osamu James Nakagawa
Text: Essays and poetry by Anne Wilkes Tucker, Mariko Takeuchi, Isao Nakazato, and Ben Takara
Publisher: AKAAKA Art Publishing, Inc.
88 pages
Pictures: 33 images
Year: 2013
ISBN: 9784865410083
Price: $65
Hardcover, 9.7 x 14.6 in

From the banta cliffs of Okinawa, mabui - the spirits of the land, of the deceased - led me into the gama caves below.
These caves are the sacred home of Okinawa's spirits - its ancestors, its history, its memory.
I enter hesitantly - through the eeriness of the cave's dark, heavy air, through the remnants of war scattered on the ground.

Enveloped total darkness, what could I possibly see? Yet inside the earth's womb, deep in this darkness, the conversation continues.

With just a flashlight in hand, I search for anything I might find, unable to entirely illuminate my surroundings.

The shutter wide open, I enter into the image, my flashlight in hand, floating and conversing with mabui as the cave's interior slowly seeps into the camera.

What am I hearing? What can I express for them? How will these images of darkness speak to others?

These questions continue to resonate in my mind as I return from the blackness of the caves to my studio to draw out the spirits of this place.

―Osamu James Nakagawa