The Wall by Masato Ninomiya
徳川秀忠時代に江戸城の城壁のために利用されていた真鶴岬の採石場。現在このシリーズは、真鶴岬の安山岩のもとになった箱根火山を撮り足して、特定の岩や植物のフロッタージュなども試みたりしながら、コピー用紙で作った上記ビデオのサンプル本をもとに、改めて百均のトレーシングペーパー、竹尾のオフセット印刷用紙、阿波和紙や美濃和紙などに顔料もしくは染料インクでプリントして、和綴じの自家製本を試作中。
400 years ago, a quarry at Cape Manazuru, a headland on the south-western edge of Kanagawa Prefecture, provided stone for the walls of Edo Castle (now the Imperial Residence). The remnants of the site have been left undisturbed by human hand. The headland was created hundreds of thousands of years ago by lava from an erupting Mount Hakone. Here, in the time of the shogun Hidetada Tokugawa, stone hewn from the naturally formed rock was cut, loaded onto ships and carried to Edo Castle. This kind of scene, if it included stonecutters, samurai and sailing ships moored on the beach, might feel as quintessentially Japanese as the ukiyo-e of Hiroshige Utagawa. What I focused on, however, was the shapes given to the rocks, traces left by stone-cutting, rocks washed by the waves and other aspects of the geological environment. These may not seem specific to this or any other country, but they can give us a sense of human activities at that time. There do not seem to be many sites in such an undisturbed state as this quarry left in Japan. And today, in the area around Edo Castle, rows of buildings stand like walls, as if symbolizing the centuries-long urbanization of Edo-Tokyo.
Photographs and text by Masato Ninomiya
Translated by Michael Normoyle and Yoshiko Furuhashi at M&Y Translations (Rotherham, UK)
Dye and Pigment hybrid print
Copier paper 75 gsm
148mm × 200mm
22 photos, 48 pages (Including cover)
Unbound
Contained in cardboard box
