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I don't do drawings, which is why...
I wanted to work with you.
- Looking forward to seeing them. - I'm honored.
As you know, these are all site-specific photos.
So each one contains different sets of information.
As a result, my drawings turned out completely differently for each one.
Wow, that's awesome.
[Returning to the Soil] Masaru Tatsuki x KYOTARO
- And this.... - Wow!
[Deer God] Masaru Tatsuki x KYOTARO
- You've nailed it. - Look, horns.
There's such presence.
I could never have expressed this with my photographs alone.
Photography is the act of conveying the invisible through visible objects.
You've taken the opposite approach and visualized the invisible.
With this picture, I had a strong sense that
the animal was leaving its form.
It was leaving the form of a bear and returning to the soil.
So that's what I conveyed in my drawing.
Right, but you managed to not make it look completely dead.
It looks peaceful, as if it may come back to life.
This part is just great.
With this photo, I sensed that the mask is half-god, half-human.
I know it's a man-made mask.
But the deer motif has traditionally been seen to represent godliness in Japanese history.
I also tried to express the celestial aura that the mask is giving off.
I love how you did the horns.
Perhaps it's a trick of the eye, but the horns seem to appear one moment, and then disappear.
- Right.
But that's exactly what it should look like, really.
One second, it looks like the horns blend into the background.
Then the next second, they reappear from the chaos.
What's amazing is, even if the bear returns to the soil,
the bear's existence will be remembered by the soil that takes its body.
And I think it all connects to the present.
When you die and return to the soil, you become a part of it.
So I don't think death is sad.
Because you come back.
You've managed to depict that determination of life.
The photo probably looks completely different without my drawing around it.
I was picking up the mother bear's vibe when I was drawing this.
This picture captures the moment of death.
I wanted to express that in a tangible form.
As a collaboration, it really works.
It was a mother and cub. The cub was shot far from here.
They were both shot.
At first, when we were walking towards the ridge,
we felt this enormous presence of the bears.
We were on the walkie-talkie and someone had spotted the bears.
The cub and the mother were in different places.
We heard the gun shots and I headed for the mother.
And I found it, sprawled out.
It was huge... and since bears are considered gods of the mountains,
it felt like a mountain god's body I was seeing.
I wanted to see the god die, and I don't mean it in an evil way.
But when I ran towards it, I got yelled at.
Because bears play dead.
And when you come close, they attack you and try to escape.
So we stepped back, and threw rocks and stuff.
And the leader went to check that it was really dead.
This wasn't recreational hunting. They were hunting for meat.
And when you eat meat, it means you're putting god's meat into your body.
Like I said, when you die, you return to the soil.
But it's basically a cycle.
The bear was shot and died physically, but it doesn't end there.
It circulates as food.
Its soul also circulates.
As living beings, we should be aware of that.
This picture taught me that.
- So everything came together. - I know what you mean.
Everything in the mountains is circulating.
That's why it seems to spread out and close in at the same time.
The soil and leaves cover it, bringing it back to the beginning of the cycle.
You get to see both sides.
This mask is for festivals.
But they don't wear these anymore.
The villagers are all elders and the mask is too heavy for them.
So now, they're on display. But they used to dance in them.
I asked the villagers to dance with the mask on.
They obliged because I had come so far.
When the mask is displayed as an object, it's simply a mask.
But what's interesting about masks is that,
when someone puts it on, all of a sudden it comes to life.
Maybe it's because they were dancing,
but they became these spiritual entities. Not human, not quite god.
You can see it in the picture.
It gave me goosebumps.
- Should I put the date in? - Yes please.
I love it.
Great!