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 photo shooting and then she thought the series might have fit with the Neko Project.
There is an old and famous story called « Tsuru no ongaeshi » *, which includes the use of kimonos. So for her series, Iku Kageyama decided to use this background story and added to this the cat’s presence. The cat choice was because of a friend’s cat death experience. After that sad moment, the cat came back to her for only few days because the animal spirit was worried about her who was feeling lonely. This story also reminded Iku the legend of « Tsuru no ongaeshi », an animal coming back to the original owner with a changed appearance to return a favor.
Iku Kageyama is an editorial and commercial photographer, working for magazines and various publications on specific projects. For those specific projects, Iku enjoys writing a script, a story that she will develop through photography. Her objective is more to make the viewer feel more than watch.
In the Neko project proposal, Iku Kageyama portrays a woman well dressed in kimono who seems to turn into a cat among the same beautiful and magical materials of fabrics and kimonos.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsuru_no_Ongaeshi
© iku Kageyama
