博多での出張を終えた週末、足を延ばして熊本へと向かった。その道中、ふと立ち寄った有明海の岸辺で、大潮の引いた海と出会った。私は通常「絶景」だけを追うことは少ないが、潮が大きく退いた広大な干潟と、果てしなく空が映る浅い水面の奥行きに息を呑んだ。

有明海は九州の西側に広がる内海で、日本でも最大級の干満差を持ち、大潮時には潮位の差が約6メートルに達することがある。その結果、満潮時とは一変し、海底の広い泥の干潟が遠くまで姿を現す。こうした潮の大きな動きは、島原半島や筑後川をはじめとする多くの河川からの堆積が生んだ浅い海底の形状と、月と太陽の引力が織りなす複雑な潮汐のリズムによるものだと言われている。この満ち引きが生む光景は、海と大地、時間の重なりを体感させる圧倒的な“間（ま）”を持っていた。

今回のこの光景は、その撮影のために行ったものではなく、期せずして出会ったものである。今回この光景に出会い、有明海に大変に興味を持った。今回の撮影は八代市の北側のごく一部分で行った撮影だが、再度訪れて違う場所、違う季節、違う光で撮影し作品としてみたい。

After wrapping up a business trip in Hakata, I extended my journey over the weekend and headed south to Kumamoto. Along the way, I made an unplanned stop at the shore of the Ariake Sea — and found myself standing before a vast tidal flat exposed by the ebb of a spring tide. I rarely chase so-called scenic spectacles, yet I was stopped in my tracks: the immense mudflat stretching to the horizon, and the shallow, mirror-still water reflecting an endless sky, filled me with a quiet sense of awe. The Ariake Sea is an inland sea on the western coast of Kyushu, known for having one of the greatest tidal ranges in Japan — the difference between high and low tide can reach as much as six meters during a spring tide. When the water retreats, what emerges is a vast expanse of mudflat, an entirely different world from what the sea presents at high tide. This dramatic rhythm of the tides is said to be shaped by the shallow seafloor — built up over centuries by sediment from the Shimagahara Peninsula, the Chikugo River, and many other waterways — interacting with the complex gravitational pull of the moon and sun. The landscape this creates carries an overwhelming sense of ma — that distinctly Japanese feeling of space where sea, earth, and time seem to layer and breathe together. This was not a visit I had planned for photography. It was a chance encounter. Yet it left me deeply drawn to the Ariake Sea. What I captured here covers only a small stretch of shoreline on the northern edge of Yatsushiro — and I find myself already wanting to return: to different places, different seasons, different light.