In the summer of 2007 I was commissioned to photograph Chogetsu, a Japanese house in the Seven Gates area of Martha’s Vineyard island. The house, grounds and interior furnishings were designed by renowned potter, sculptor and designer Teruo Hara.

Born in Japan in 1929 Mr. Hara studied at Tokyo Kyoiku University and shortly thereafter designed and built his first studio in Kyoto. In the mid-nineteen fifties he became involved with the Sodeisha Group, an avant-garde movement, and he began to exhibit his work in Europe, South America and Asia. In 1959 he won the Grand Prize at the Brussels World Fair after which he came to the United States.

In 1961 Mr. Hara exhibited at the Smithsonian and in 1963 became an instructor at the Corcoran School of Art. For the next two decades he continued to teach, design and exhibit his work.

In 1977 he was commissioned to design Chogetsu on Martha’s Vineyard – a project that took four years to complete.

Vital to the design and execution of the plan was the merger of the inside and the outside spaces. His concept was to blend the site’s rolling hills, trees, rocks and ocean – to distill them and draw their expansiveness into the house and gardens themselves. The name “Chogetsu” loosely translated means “moon and tide”, a central concept in both Japanese swordsmanship and Zen practice. The moon on and in the water may be seen as a metaphor for enlightenment.