The flat where the photographer Koichi Nishiyama lives now is called “Danchi”, a complex of apartments, built during the period of high economic growth in Japan around the 60s and 70s. This place has almost the same age as the photographer. The average life span of Japanese houses is about 30 years. So, the Danchi can be said it’s quite old. Koichi Nishiyama can see three cats from his windows and he developed a close relationship with them over time. Each cat has its own personality. One of them has been living in “Danchi” for around 15 years and has …

The photography of Koichiro Kimura may seem close to the reality show but it is a much more authentique approach and close to the daily diary photography. Looking at his works already published – his son in the toilets or the parents bedroom- we enter the most intimate heart of the family and those images can fascinate or shock you according to your perception of what can be shown or not shown according to your own culture / education. For the Neko project, in Koichiro Kimura’s photography, it seems so obvious that the cat is the heart that beats for …

Kumiko Motoki’s photography has been seen by many French people at La Gacilly photo festival 3 years ago with her beautiful photographs of Sumo.  (check website below) For Neko project, she proposes us an extremely original project of photographs of cats with overprints of Ukiyoe on a cat. Ukiyoe is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. The term Ukiyoe means “picture of the floating world”.  There are many world-renowned ukiyo-e artists, such as Hokusai or Hiroshige. As the photographer comments : « However,  those artists are no match for my cat. My cat’s white fur is …

Yujiro Yoshiyama created this series specially for the Neko Project. When he received the call for the project, his first idea was to ask a female model he knew to pose for him as for him she embodies the spirit of cat. The photographer mainly produces infrared photography but he also practices the drawing on pictures. For this series he writes words on his photographs as part off his state of heart at the moment. On the photo published in the book Neko Project (attached in this article), it is written: やるせない気持ち which means “a sad feeling”. In the series …

Tsuru no Ongaeshi The series was made with a group who has supported to victims of Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. All kimono materials used for this series were sent from a kimono store owner who was a victim, and there kimonos were no longer for sale because of the tsunami disaster. The support group leader has changed the use of kimono to turn them into an object of memory for the victims. She contacted people all around the world to ask them to use these kimonos to make patch work tapestries. Iku Kageyama was asked to use them for a …

“The world according to Shiro” Shiro (literally “white” in Japanese) is the name of a cat that Yasuhiro Ogawa met in one small island called Hatoma-jima, a part of the Ryukyu Islands. The picture presented for Neko Project is made of 9 photos. The one in the center, Shiro’s picture, is the center of a kind of mandala, a spiritual and ritual geometric configuration of a map in Buddhism. The pictures around the picture of the cat are elements of nature related to Shiro’s daily life and its environment. Yasuhiro Ogawa illustrates that way in a more vividly way the life …

In the attached picture, we are at the beginning of March when we can still feel the cold weather. The shovel in the shade is the only remainder of the January heavy snowfall of January. The cat bathing in the sunshine taught me a message : spring is very near! This picture includes winter and spring coexisting. nekoyuhi.blog.fc2.com © Chiaki Yao

Thank you ! « I accompanied my husband to Holland for a year, between 2015 and 2016, for his residency. Unlike my husband who had work to do, I was almost in a housewife situation, and without a daily routine, I was often confused. But one day I realized that a big male cat appeared at about the same time and came to spy on me, and gradually he came closer and ran away right after his meal was over. But it was impossible to tame him. He was even trying to force the small opening of the door. Every day …

About twenty years ago, I took this picture of a park slide and a cat, it was my encounter with photography. This photo was not only that of a cat in a park I photographed, but once printed, it had appeared to me as the whole universe. What I realized when I continued to photograph street cats, is that the places where cats can exist pleasantly, are also the places where mankind can live comfortably. I stopped looking at the world with my own measurements and realized how important it was in truth, from time to time, to look at …

It is a cat that Takahiro Shirai photographed on the shore of the Setonaikai (Seto Inland Sea) in Okayama Prefecture. Let’s feel the moment and listen to the photographer telling the story. « The twilight falls, everything becomes dark. At the moment the cat jumps, I take this picture when the jumping cat appears as a silhouette. Let’s be happy lookig at the picture and feel the beauty of the sea and the movement of the cat. » Another photo shows the silhouette of a cat under the moon. « That night, the sky, without being a sky full of star, rises my …