Chapter III
03 / Story
Somewhere in Shimokitazawa lies a strange town of those possessed by cats.
On an autumn night, as I look up at the moon, a man calls out to me — a poet, he says. Drawn along, I begin walking a straight night road that was once a railway, guided by moonlight.
In the crowd, I begin to sense pale, glowing figures. Am I seeing them by my own will? Or am I, without knowing it, being shown?
On an autumn night, as I look up at the moon, a man calls out to me — a poet, he says. Drawn along, I begin walking a straight night road that was once a railway, guided by moonlight.
In the crowd, I begin to sense pale, glowing figures. Am I seeing them by my own will? Or am I, without knowing it, being shown?
Before you know it,
you are being drawn into "Cat Town."
you are being drawn into "Cat Town."
About the work — Sakutaro Hagiwara and "unconscious transformation"
What Sakutaro Hagiwara depicted in "Cat Town" was not the terror of straying into an alien world, but the quiet terror of walking in the same direction as everyone else and, without noticing, becoming part of that order. This production overlays that "unconscious transformation" onto our present days — guided by AI and algorithms, drifting without knowing it. Is it truly the town that is changing, or is it you?
This work is a fiction in homage to Sakutaro Hagiwara's 1935 short story "Nekomachi" (Cat Town).
