How I met Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario

It is Tokyo, 1993.
I am in the final hour of the opening party for my photography show. A friend who lives near the gallery has kindly allowed me the use of his apartment for the post-opening party.He calls to remind me to get the key from him before he leaves to go back to his hometown. This was expected.

At 11, Tsuda-san, the saint who runs Mole gallery closes the gallery and we head out into the night. There is a parade of us, a mixed dozen or so:males and females, Westerners and Japanese.
We buy more booze.
We walk through the maze of houses. The streets are small and I am worried about noise.We eventually snake through the last set of alleyways. MOST of the parade is quiet.
We get to the house. The house is dark. It is winter and everyone wants in. "My friend is gone" I say, "just give me a second to find the key."
I have no idea where the key is.

I look everywhere. Under the doormat, mailbox, underneath various pieces if wood...everywhere. As the crowd is getting loudly impatient, I desperately run my hands above a window-and find a key!
It is a rusty key, probably forgotten since the Meiji era.
I try it and it works and I usher everyone in as though there had been no problem at all.
A minute later I crack open a beer. The phone rings.
I answer it.

On the other end was People magazine who were calling to look for a photographer who used to live at the house but had since moved to Russia.....

Well... the next day I was on a bullet train to Kyoto, hungover, off to shoot Shigeru Miyamoto, the man who invented the Mario character-among other incredible gaming achievements.

The shoot went very well. People magazine used two shots and later the photos went into syndication.

Miyamotosan was a pleasure to shoot. We did some shots inside the Nintendo building, but the atmosphere just wasn't right. Fortunately, he had time.

Over a cup of tea he told me that he often went to a nearby temple to look at the garden there to clear his mind.
Off we went!
It was only about a 15 minute walk away. We sat for a moment to enjoy the view, then I posed him and Mario and back we went. In the yard of Nintendo, we did a few more, with Miyamoto-san playing his banjo while Mario looks on.
Miyamoto-san is a fantastic banjo player!

Since that time I have enjoyed that garden many times. No matter what season, there is something to see. I was very happy to return there in 2002 when I was shooting for Kazuko and Chihiro's Secrets of Sushi book.
I do not meanto turn this into an advertisement, but there is a full page shot of the temple in the book in which you can see the rock garden through the sliding shoji doors.

The photos you see here are prints that have been in a scrapbook. When I get back to my negatives, I will scan a shot or two of the whole garden.

Oh..and now you know why I have two banjo CDs in my collection. I traded with a friend to get them and thought I would send them with the published photos.
Later the writer told me she had already done that... and I still have the CDs.