Inspired by Snowflakes – Challenge of Taking Photographs of Water Crystals!

One day I encountered a book on snowflakes by Professor Ukichiro Nakaya of the University of Hokkaido. “Snowflakes are letters from heaven. There is no snowflake that is identical to the others.” This is according to the book.
“That’s it! If each snowflake is unique, water must form a unique crystal as well. Snow is also water. What if I freeze water and take photos of the crystals of water?” I thought.
In 1994 a young man who was inspired by my book “Prelude of Hado Era” came to work for my company. That is Mr Kazuya Ishibashi, who studied science at the University of Kumamoto. “You will be in charge of this water crystal project.” I said to him and gave him a mission to complete.
As a scientific person, Kazuya might have thought it was impossible to create water crystals. He did not seem very keen on this job, so I encouraged him to do this work every day.

The World’s First Photograph of Water Crystal!

Two months later, Kazuya brought me great news.
“Director, I’ve done it! I took a photo of a water crystal!” He was jubilant. This first successful photo was from the frozen micro – cluster water. It was the moment my prediction became the reality.
Around that time, Mr Taguchi from Nichirei Ice Company was involved with my work. Because of his job he had been going around the world and from the holy water in Lourdes, France to the tap water in New York he sent me water from different places. Then Kazuya took photos of water crystals of those samples. Once he succeeded, he took a lot more photos of water crystals with very interesting shapes. These photos are published in my book “Message from Water”.

I tried to recruit more photographers by placing advertisements at the Tokyo University of Art and other art and photography colleges. I wanted people with artistic sense in my staff. Also around that time I experimented with different methods such as playing music or showing photos to water. The work with water crystals photos was going very well. In 1994 I published another book called “The Truth of Hado” in which photos of water crystals were introduced for the first time. Many readers showed their interest.
Although I actively introduced water crystal photos in our newsletters and at my talk events, I also wanted to release them at more official places where specialists could share their opinions with me. For this purpose I sent Kazuya Ishibashi to“The Japanese Society of Snow and Ice” where he became a member and gave a talk with the water crystal photos. However, the response from the audience was rather cold.
I also joined Society for Mind-Body Science, which was established in 1993. In 1998 I had the fortune to give a talk at a conference held at the University of Tenri in Nara city.
The reaction, however, was quiet again. Feeling disappointed I was just about to leave the venue when a gentleman approached me.
“It was very interesting. Please keep up the good work.” he said to me. That was Professor Kazuo Murakami from the University of Tsukuba. Professor Murakami’s words were strong encouragement for me. He made me feel that I would not give up.

The Legendary Book “Message from Water” – The Unknown Story of the Birth of the Book

The amount of water crystal photos steadily increased in number. In June, 1999 “Message from Water”, the world’s first collection of water crystal photos, was published. No publishing company was interested in publishing it though. It was my wife’s secret savings that made this publication possible. She had worked very hard and saved money for many years and we were able to self-publish the book with my wife’s funds. The first order was only 380 copies. I thought I might be in big trouble however thankfully soon more orders came from the people who had already bought the book. People told friends about my book and it was spreading rapidly by word of mouth just like ripples of water.
Through my book I made contact with Mrs. Shizuko Ouwehand who lived in Europe at the time. In the year 2000 Mrs. Ouwehand made a huge effort to invite me to visit Austria, Germany, and Switzerland to give talks.
This European tour became the foundation of my world travel as MASARU EMOTO, the Water Messenger.

The Enormous Influence that the Technology of Water Crystal Photography has given to the World

Taking photos of water crystal is infinitely more important than I first thought. I did not realize this at the beginning, however as I met many people around the world, I began to understand the importance.
My work has been welcomed by various religious people and has been 100 percent accepted by them.
One day I was sitting at the hotel lobby in a small country hotel in France. A young couple came into the hotel and said “We have been told by our leader to pass this to you, Dr Emoto. It is up to you as to what to do with this.” What they gave me was something extremely important in the Islamic faith called “Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of Allah”. After giving me this, they just left.
Then I knew that my work, making the invisible visible, was accepted by the Muslim people.
Other religions groups such as Daihonkyo in Japan have been supporting my work. Great faiths of the world including Shintoism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and many religious or spiritual leaders around the world have invited me to visit their countries.
Why is this? By taking photos of water crystals, I have been realizing my work to make the invisible world into the visible. This is a very important concept for mankind beyond countries, religions or race. This is the reason.