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Photographer Captures Autumnal Fairytale Moment Between a Girl and a Deer in Japan

By Emma Taggart on December 11, 2019

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A post shared by @saizou4 on Dec 2, 2019 at 2:53am PST

Japan is known for its breathtaking cherry blossom season, but fall is just as beautiful. As temperatures dip, the colors of the leaves change into vibrant shades of orange, red, and yellow—a magnificent sight that’s known as koyo in Japanese. Photographer Saizou captures the magic of the season with a spectacular autumnal snapshot of a girl and a lone deer in Nara Park, an area where the gentle stags, does, and fawns famously roam free.

Saizou says, “While photographing the fall leaves in Nara, I happened upon this scene right out of a storybook.” The sunlit image shows a young girl named Reina Onishi dressed in a traditional kimono, feeding a young deer. The ethereal scene looks like a still from a fantasy film, where the female character is friends with the creatures of an enchanted, gold-leafed forest.

After Saizou posted the image on Twitter, it soon went viral, with over 370,000 likes and almost 80,000 retweets. The subject of the photo, Onishi, also reposted it to Instagram. “I was born in Nara, and in fact the ‘na’ in my name is written with the same kanji as the ‘na’ in Nara. It feels like fate somehow,” she writes. “All kinds of people have shared their comments, and I’m so happy to know you all saw this picture. I hope I can happen on a place like this again someday, someplace where a story is bound to unfold.”

Check out the magical photo below, plus more images from Saizou’s portfolio.