Taketomi is a small island, a ferry ride away from the city of Ishigaki, the southernmost city of Japan. Taketomi gave me my only sense of rural Japan. I photographed this gray granite tomb on a gray day -- a perfect reason for a black and white image. The conversion to black and white simplified the image by removing the only trace of life – the green branches in the trees at upper right. It reduced the image to contrasting tones of granite –- the light pagoda in the foreground and the black tomb behind and around it. The grave itself is in the wall just behind the pagoda, which appears here as a yawning black opening. The tomb is actually sealed, but to many it symbolizes the death that awaits us all.