A Country Bumpkin Raised in Tokyo

To create works in a silver-white world for a works collection, I deliberately aimed for the coldest season, when days of minus 20 degrees continue, and chose Obihiro in Hokkaido as the location.

As advance preparation, to cope with the frigid land, I went to an outdoor shop in the city to buy cold-protection socks, gloves, a hat that pulls down over the whole head, and so on.

The cold-region goods were astonishingly expensive, but judging them a must, I bought socks and gloves at over 2,000 yen a pair, and the like. With the peace of mind that this would let me handle the cold and face comfortable production and shooting, I forgot my surprise at the unexpectedly high cost and grew richer at heart.

The temperature when I arrived at Obihiro Airport was minus 23 degrees—less “cold” than a sensation of the skin drawing taut and aching. In such an environment, a high-school girl I spotted in town was walking in her uniform—a miniskirt—exposing bare legs swollen bright red. For young people, fashion takes priority over cold protection, I suppose—and it was funny that, wrapped in fully cold-proof clothing, I came to feel like a timid country bumpkin up in the big city.

One of the staff said, “I’d like to buy cold-protection gloves, so could we stop by a local home center?” We dropped by a home center that was on the way to our destination.

Here, too, I was astonished. Why, cold-protection gloves were being sold at three sets for 800 yen. I still haven’t forgotten the start of that shocking, lesson-filled shoot, in which I felt all the more like an ignorant country bumpkin come up from Tokyo.