From world renowned photographer Michio Hoshino and with half a million copies sold in Japan
this enduringly popular collection recounts Hoshino' s experiences with the wildlife and
offers his reflections of our place within it. First published in 1994 and reprinted 57
times (with half a million copies sold) The Travelling Tree by world renowned photographer
Michio Hoshino is a literary classic of nature writing. In this enduringly popular collection
naturalist mystic and adventurer Michio Hoshino recounts his experiences with the wildlife and
reflects on and our place within it. Michio Hoshino' s life was changed after coming
across a book containing an aerial photograph of the tiny Inupuiak (Eskimo) village Shishmaref
in a used bookstore in Tokyo. The teenager was immediately enchanted by this tiny cluster of
dwellings on the Arctic Sea. What sort of people lived in such a desolate place seemingly at
the ends of the Earth? The photograph intrigued him so much that he decided to write a letter
asking if he could visit the village. Not knowing to whom he should address the letter he made
it out to simply "Mayor Shishmaref." To his surprise he received a response from an Inupiak
family willing to host him and spent the next summer at the age of 19 immersed in their way
of life. After this introduction to Alaska Hoshino was smitten with America' s
northernmost state and dedicated the remainder of his life to photographing and writing about
it. The Travelling Tree is a collection of his writing published at the peak of his artistic
prowess only two years before his career was tragically cut short at the age of 43 by a fatal
bear attack while on a shoot in the Kamchatka Peninsula. The Travelling Tree has gained
increasing popularity in the more than 20 years since Hoshino' s untimely death. His work
has been featured in numerous Japanese television specials and documentaries and an exhibition
of his photography has travelled to cities and communities across Japan.
