Travelling is never just about visiting a place; it often carries a much deeper emotional connection. When you travel to a destination, you don’t return empty-handed; you carry fragments of that place with you, etched into your memories, while leaving behind a small part of yourself.
Some destinations linger longer than others, and that often depends on how they made you feel. Did the surroundings feel familiar, almost like home? Were the experiences meaningful? Did you connect with the food, the culture, and the people you met along the way?
But what truly sets certain places apart is the pull they continue to have long after you’ve left. What is it about certain places that keeps calling people back, again and again?
This was exactly the question on our minds when we began our conversation with Masashi Mitsui, a Japanese photographer whose connection with India runs deep.
He has travelled across India 12 times on a motorcycle, covering nearly 2,00,000 kilometres, and he has done so without using guidebooks, blogs, YouTube, or any other sources of information, relying entirely on chance encounters.
India is home to countless beautiful cultures, traditions and a rich history. While modernisation is erasing many of them, Mitsui says, he wants to preserve these little things through his photography.
Look at any video from Japan on social media, and you might instantly feel that the country is far ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to technology. So, you may wonder what led a photographer from Japan to travel through rural India and undertake 12 motorcycle journeys across the country?
“I first travelled to India in 2001. To be honest, I didn’t like it that much back then,” Mitsui tells us.
However, everything changed in 2006 when he returned and discovered the joy of travelling by motorcycle. He realised that the true soul of India lies not in its big cities, but in the countryside; not in famous tourist spots, but in ordinary, everyday towns. Above all, it is the people who stand out—kind, honest, and deeply beautiful.
He never imagined that he would end up doing 12 full rounds of the country. To be clear, these were not 12 separate trips. He travelled around the entire country 12 times.
“I found myself pulled deeper and deeper into India’s charm, constantly discovering new places to see and untold stories to capture.”
India is one of those countries where you travel a few kilometres and everything starts to change. The language sounds different, the clothes look different, the food tastes different, and even the culture feels new. Moving from one part of the country to another can honestly feel like stepping into a whole new world each time. With so much variety packed into one place, it’s only natural for a traveller to slowly start forming favourites along the way.
For Mitsui, there are far too many to choose just one favourite place . “While places like Varanasi and Ladakh have obvious ‘eye-catching’ appeal, India’s beauty goes much deeper. I am personally drawn to non-tourist areas.”
He adds, “The remote mountain villages of Odisha, the ancient streets of Gujarat, or the rural farms of Rajasthan—that is where I find the ‘real India’ I am searching for.”
The country’s diversity has naturally found its way into his photography as well, allowing him to observe and capture how dramatically life shifts from one place to another.
Mitsui mentions that the diversity of India is a central theme of his work.
“My photos reflect the myriad of ethnicities, cultures, and languages that coexist here. But what is truly fascinating to me is that in a nation of 1.4 billion people, where someone from the North and South might struggle even to communicate, there is an unmistakable ‘Indianness’ that binds everyone together.”
He feels that his challenge as a photographer is to express that common thread not through words, but through visual imagery.
When you scroll through Mitsui’s work, one question is bound to strike you. At a time when India is rapidly advancing in technology and infrastructure, why does he remain so deeply engaged with rural India and the people of its villages and small towns?
“Simply because they are overwhelmingly more interesting,” he states.
To him, big cities are boring, whether they are in Japan, Europe, or India.
He mentions, “Sometimes people see my photos and assume I am focusing on poverty, but that is completely wrong. What I want to capture is the energy and the inherent beauty of Indian life. By following that vitality, I naturally find myself in rural villages and small towns, pointing my camera at people engaged in traditional livelihoods.”
When you travel to the same place so many times, you begin to understand it deeply. You get to know its ins and outs, what makes it unique, and what sets it apart from the rest.
As a photographer, what fascinates Mitsui most is the “colour.”
“India is incredibly vibrant. Specifically, the way Indian women wear saree is remarkable. Even as everyday wear, they embrace bold, primary colours like brilliant reds and deep blues. You don’t see this anywhere else in the world.”
While casual fashion like T-shirts and jeans has become a global norm, even in India’s urban centres, rural Indian women have continued to preserve their colourful identity and sense of beauty. And he truly hopes they are able to carry this forward in the years to come.
In a country that is constantly moving forward, Mitsui’s work serves as a quiet reminder to pause and look closer. Through his repeated journeys, he captures not just places, but people, colours, and moments that often go unnoticed in the rush of progress. By returning to India time and again, he documents a version of the country that is deeply rooted, human, and alive, one that continues to exist beyond headlines, highways, and modern skylines.
Throughout the article, you see India through Mitsui’s lens, in photographs he has captured over the years. The photographs have been exclusively shared by the photographer with India Today Digital.
