Humans seem to have a need to have their experiences confirmed - often through writing (diplomas conferring the experience of education, for example), or the visual record (particularly photography). In Kamiyama, Japan, Buddhist pilgrims flock to Shosan-ji as part of the island of Shikoku's 88-mile Kobo Daishi pilgrimage. Some pilgrims spend two months walking the arduous 1,023-mile circuit, while others take one-week bus tours. At Shosan-ji (temple #12 of the circuit), I have observed pilgrims videotaping, photographing and collecting temple stamps (called hanko) and priestly calligraphy as evidence of their pilgrimage. The collecting of hanko - rubber stamp impressions - in blank accordion books made precisely for this purpose is something of a national hobby in Japan. Hanko can be collected from secular sources (town halls, museums, tourist destinations, roadside rest stops) as well as religious sites, and the designs range from utilitarian to sublime. Of course, no piece of hanko or calligraphy can truly describe a spiritual experience any more than a diploma can "prove" that a person has had the transformational experience of learning. These pieces of paper function as illusions, or possibly symbols, of authentic experience. Yet, we easily confuse symbols with experience. The Kamiyama nature pilgrimage points out the illusory nature of documentation by depicting, in hanko format, transitory natural phenomenon such as the sound of water and the weight of ripe persimmons bending their branches. I drew a series of designs based on Kamiyama's natural (but transitory) beauty, which were then commercially prepared into rubber stamps. Kamiyama artists Toshiharu Kusunoki and Masaki Mori collaborated on this project by creating all-weather wooden hutches (based on my drawn designs), which have been placed around Kamiyama. An ink pad, and one of the seven rubber stamps has been placed in each hutch. Viewers receive blank books (reminiscent of the specially made blank books for hanko) and a map from a central location, and are invited to visit the hutches to experience their own nature pilgrimage and stamp their books. The books have spaces for each stamp, and a bilingual description of the project. Through the physical act of collecting hanko, viewers are confronted with the pleasure of collecting a beautiful stamp to capture a moment, while realizing that the event depicted on the stamp (appreciating the color of a field of rice, for example) is not necessarily the one that they might find most poignant about the day. It allows people to recognize that attempting to truly capture and document something transitory is a human fallacy. This piece was created in response to a request for art proposals regarding the contemporary relationship of man and nature. Of 195 international proposals, four artists were selected by the Kamiyama Artists-in-Residence program to fly to Kamiyama, Japan and create and install the works. This is one of two major projects I completed during the 7-week residency in Fall 2003. The other one is Pink and Green: 36 Views of Kamiyama.