Selecting judge: Takashi Yasumura

The 34 super enlarged photographs make us feel that the seemingly exaggerated title — Yes, The River Knows — Arakawa River — is not exaggerated at all. Over a period of four years, the artist photographed both banks of the Arakawa River, from upriver in Oku-Chichibu to downriver in Kasai, for this work that meticulously documents people's activities in and around the river.
I believe these photographs stand out as special places like nowhere else because of how well they blend the relaxed, hazy time of flowing alongside a river without signs of flooding or other dangers with the time inherent to panoramic photographs that arises from gazing at, almost surveying, the broad horizontal frame. The structure of the work is also attractive, with the river acting like a binding cord that gently pulls each photograph together. The scenes along the Arakawa River created by the artist's highly orthodox use of photography are punctuated by the artist's commitment to observation and documentation.