Snapshots celebrating Japan's rural beauty

The Japan Times Satoyama Consortium held a photo contest to further expand interest and awareness in satoyama — a Japanese term referring to woodlands in rural areas maintained by area residents. The general public and relevant parties, including local governments, submitted photos in hopes of capturing the beauty of satoyama.

Here, we introduce the two Grand Prize winners — one each from the general category and that of the municipalities — in addition to four Excellence Award winners — two each from those categories. The winners were announced at a satoyama practitioners' event held in the town of Jinsekikogen, Hiroshima Prefecture, on Oct. 20. The event was organized by the consortium, the Chugoku Region Governors Association and Jinsekikogen.

The 879 submissions — 828 in the general category and 51 in the municipality category — were narrowed down in an initial selection stage by judges and the consortium secretariat. Readers cast ballots to choose winners in the final stage.

Grand Prize, general category