Red and Yellow Autumn Maple Leaves in Japan

About the Picture

That day I planned to visit Kawasaki Daishi, walk around the temple grounds and take some pictures. After I finished the visit, I started walking back and found these trees along the way.

They caught my eye straight away. Red, orange and yellow. All mixed together.

For me, this is one of those small scenes that looks exactly like autumn in Japan. Or maybe already the very end of it, because I took the picture in mid-December, when autumn was slowly turning into winter.

I really like close-up photography, especially close-ups of leaves on a tree. You don’t need a wide landscape every time. Sometimes a few leaves are enough.

That is probably what I like most about pictures like this. You take a very small piece of the world and somehow it can still hold a lot inside it. Colour. Season. Place. Mood. Almost like a bigger scene compressed into one small frame.

The colours were the main reason I stopped. Not only red leaves, but yellow and orange too, with some shades changing between them. It looked natural. A little messy as well. I like that.

Autumn colours are a big part of how many people imagine Japan at this time of year, especially the red and orange shades of Japanese maple leaves. In Japan, the changing autumn colours are often called kōyō, and going out to enjoy them is known as momijigari.

I did not go there looking for autumn leaves. The plan was Kawasaki Daishi. That is probably why I remember this little stop so well. I was already done with the place I came to photograph, and then found another picture on the way back.

This autumn maple leaves photo can work well in articles about autumn in Japan, seasonal travel, nature, Japanese scenery or simply autumn itself. It could also fit a seasonal blog post or a quieter Japan travel article where a landmark picture would be too obvious.

You can download the bigger image size from this page.