The Traveling Tree: Lessons from a Nomadic Life

First published in 1994, and reprinted 57 times (with half a million copies sold), The Travelling Tree by world renowned photographer Michio Hoshino is a literary classic of nature writing. In this enduringly popular collection, naturalist, mystic and adventurer Michio Hoshino recounts his experiences with the wildlife and reflects on and our place within it.

Michio Hoshino's life was changed after coming across a book containing an aerial photograph of the tiny Inupuiak (Eskimo) village, Shishmaref, in a used bookstore in Tokyo. The teenager was immediately enchanted by this tiny cluster of dwellings on the Arctic Sea. What sort of people lived in such a desolate place, seemingly at the ends of the Earth? The photograph intrigued him so much that he decided to write a letter asking if he could visit the village. Not knowing to whom he should address the letter, he made it out to simply, "Mayor, Shishmaref." To his surprise, he received a response from an Inupiak family willing to host him and spent the next summer, at the age of 19, immersed in their way of life.

After this introduction to Alaska, Hoshino was smitten with America's northernmost state and dedicated the remainder of his life to photographing and writing about it. The Travelling Tree is a collection of his writing published at the peak of his artistic prowess, only two years before his career was tragically cut short at the age of 43 by a fatal bear attack while on a shoot in the Kamchatka Peninsula.

The Travelling Tree has gained increasing popularity in the more than 20 years since Hoshino's untimely death. His work has been featured in numerous Japanese television specials and documentaries and an exhibition of his photography has travelled to cities and communities across Japan.