Images: Photographing the Four Unavoidable Sufferings: Death Begins at the Moment of Birth

This picture was taken 42 years ago. During the period of rapid economic growth, it was a landfill site, but today it has been reborn as the Yume no Shima (Dream Island) Park in Kōtō, Tokyo. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

As a pregnancy approaches term, it is nearly time for the fetus to leave its floating home in the amniotic fluid (which has the same salinity as seawater) and set off on its journey through life. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

The cord blood that remains inside the umbilical cord and placenta is rich in blood-forming stem cells, and has many uses in regenerative medicine. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

Two ears: on the left, the ear of a one-year-old infant; on the right, the ear of a centenarian. Of the five senses, hearing is said to be the one that lasts until the moment of death. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

People release lanterns onto the Hinokinai River as part of the midsummer Obon festival in Kakunodate, Akita Prefecture. The lanterns light the souls of the ancestors on their journey downriver and back across the sea, to the land of the dead. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

Close to the mouth of the Naka River in Tokushima Prefecture, Shikoku. A dog’s skull lies among the flotsam washed downriver. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

A small part of the vast constellation of medicines available today. More than 25,000 types of drugs are licensed for use in Japan, one of the world’s top nations in terms of medicine consumption. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

Rather than lamenting the illness that has overtaken them, these people embark on a course of physical rehabilitation, trusting in the latent strength that still lies within them. The power of dreams can open up new possibilities for the future. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

Neon light glints on the Dōtonbori canal in the heart of downtown Osaka. In the words of the Heart Sutra: “Form is emptiness and emptiness is form.” (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

As this persimmon leaf decays, it develops colors of a strange otherworldly beauty. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

Transferring the bones to an urn after cremation at a Buddhist funeral in Japan. The physical flesh of this world becomes the biomineral of bone as the soul crosses over to the other shore. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

In Japanese Buddhism, the souls of the dead cross the Sanzu-no-Kawa to get to the afterlife. The eerie glow of this photograph was achieved by using a long exposure at dusk, at the Yahagi River in Aichi Prefecture. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

Children hunting for insects during their summer vacation. A lot of the dreams you have in old age seem to draw on memories from childhood. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

Sometimes if I look into the sunlight for long enough as it streams through the canopy of trees, I feel as if I have slipped back in time to the birth of the universe. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

Chrysocolla is a mysterious mineral that can sometimes bear a strange resemblance to images of our blue, watery planet of earth seen from space. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)