SHIP’S CAT [2017]
Protective God of Hope of Travel
Kenji Yanobe and Cats
Different types of animals have made appearances in the works of Kenji Yanobe. In his early work, Yellow Suit (1991), he created a radiation-protective costume for his pet dog at that time. Pets are humans’ soulmates, essential in surviving the end of the century as well as an apocalypse. After he became a father, he produced Cinema in the Woods (2004), a nuclear shelter-type theater for children. The use of animals persisted in the artist’s works after this one. Mice, elephants, the extinct genus mammoths, and imaginary dragons have appeared frequently in his works.
Among all these animals, cats are still the most frequently featured in his installations. While working for the theater performance, Gulliver & Swift, by Pappa TARAHUMARA as a stage designer, he created Cat Doll (2008) where he used cats for the first time. Later, this cat sculpture, with glowing eyes and a helmet-covered face, became vital for his installations, appearing many times since its first feature.
Some of his most impressive installations include his solo exhibition MYTHOS at the Nizayama Forest Art Museum, which was a former hydroelectric power station, in Nyuzenmachi of Toyama prefecture in 2010. This exhibition consisted of four periods that traced the Genesis. In this work he introduced a cat sculpture named Cat Lantern (2008-2010) in the introduction, Chapter 1 “Electric Discharge” and Chapter 2 “Great Flood.” The cat with glowing eyes stands in ruins together with a magic lantern and a discharge device, creating a disturbing atmosphere while simultaneously signaling the beginning of a tale.
In the installation of Chapter 2, an immense amount of water is discharged from a huge water jar, and a rainbow appears in Chapter 3 “Under the Rainbow”. The cat seems to foreshadow this destruction and the salvation in the following chapters. Furthermore, in 2012, he placed Cat Lantern together with Torayan (2004) and other sculptures on a deck of Daigo Fukuryu Maru in the exhibition Daigo Fukuryu Maru and Lucky Dragon at Daigo Fukuryu Maru Exhibition Hall. The visitors might have associated this installation with the ship’s cat.
SHIP’S CAT, Cats Traveling on Ships
The ship’s cat refers to cats from the Age of Exploration. They traveled all over the world, protecting cargos and vessels from rats and warding off epidemics, and at times healed hearts of the crew members as a friend. Initially, the cats were supposed to prey on vermin, such as rats, and rid ships of them. However, they became beloved figures due to their cuteness, or were treated as a tutelary figures due to their ability to sense danger.
The sculpture Cat Lantern a board Daigo Fukuryu Maru, which looks like it is wearing a protective helmet or a diving helmet, seems to be a memorial for the loathsome fate of the ship as well as the navigator of a new journey. Yanobe entrusted the duty to the cat to watch over the Daigo Fukuryu Maru’s new journey; in other words, the future of humanity.
He also placed Jumbo Torayan (2013), a colossal bust of one of his representative characters Torayan, on an observation deck of Jumbo Ferry that links Kobe and Takamatsu to Shodoshima island. He got the inspiration for Torayan from a ventriloquist puppet of his father who was a fan of the Hanshin Tigers baseball team. Torayan wears a yellow-and-black protective suit, positing a tiger as a probable motif (“Tora” means a tiger in Japanese). Historically, there were hardly any tigers living in Japan before the Meiji era, and traditionally, people used cats as references when drawing tigers. Hence, Jumbo Torayan seems to be one kind of the ship’s cat. The ferry that resembles an ark is led by steering Jumbo Torayan to Shodoshima, the island of hope.
The Next-generation of SHIP’S CAT
Yanobe summed up his works with cats into the image of the ship’s cat. A vast cat sculpture, SHIP’S CAT (2017), was initially created for a youth hostel WeBase Hakata in Fukuoka. This concept was inspired by the city of Hakata, which was the first artificial harbor in Japan. It was dubbed Sode no Minato, and was the base for sea voyagers.
Cats thrived in ancient Egypt, but later they spread throughout the world because they were on ships to get rid of rats, and consequently, landed on harbors all over the world. Cat had also arrived in Japan by the Yayoi period. There is also a high possibility that many cats were on board to protect Buddhist scriptures when Japanese envoys were sent to China during the Sui and Tong Dynasties, and that these cats, who traveled from Hakata, were the ancestors of the many cats we see in Japan today. The cats also began their journey from Hakata to the world.
In other words, cats inherited genes to voyage and adventure just like the people in Hakata. It is well-acknowledged that even when cats become pets, they don’t lose their wildness and continue to serve as inspirations to people. SHIP’S CAT was inspired by the affinity and mystique of cats, and created to symbolize journeys.
SHIP’S CAT is a vast cat sculpture that connects the inner and outer parts of the building. The huge white cat peeks out of the building, and it looks like it is about to jump out to the outer world. The cat wears a helmet that functions as a flashlight, and a suit that looks like a spacesuit or a diving suit. The sculpture foreshadows the hopeful future of human beings traveling to outer space. In addition, the sculpture was created based on the hope that it would be a guardian in this chaotic world, give the people security and beautiful encounters, and aid the voyages of the youths.
Not only is the sculpture a symbol for the hostel but also a new-generation ship’s cat, entrusted to take over the first harbor in Japan and guide Hakata as the hub city of the world. WeBase Hakata called on students from the local Hakata elementary school to give a nickname for the sculpture. “Nyapy” was chosen from the many suggestions, and an award ceremony was held on September 18th, 2017.
Travelling Maneki-Neko
In Chouyou–Nihonmatsu Art Festival 2017 in Fukushima, SHIP’S CAT (Black) was installed where the Honmaru (the castle’s keep) of Nihonmatsu Castle stood. Black cats are considered as a symbol of happiness since ancient times in Japan. Yanobe developed the work based on this traditional image of cats, as a tool to ward off bad luck and usher in happiness.
In Dannohorin-ji Temple in Kyoto, black cats are considered as messengers of Syuyajin, the Guardian of Night, that can get rid of fear and difficulties, salvage all living things, illuminate all existing things and open the path toward spiritual awakening. A sculpture of a cat lifting its right hand upright was made at the temple in the Edo era, and this became the prototype of the maneki-neko (beckoning cat) today.
Placed on the east turret at Honmaru of Nihonmatsu Castle where one could look over Nihonmatsu City, SHIP’S CAT (Black) created a new landscape, reflecting the surrounding scenery on its stainless steel body. Another type of the SHIP’S CAT(Harbor) was produced and installed on a large bollard in Kamakura. The narrative of SHIP’S CAT originating from Hakata transformed into various things, spread across Japan just like the cats did. They will invite happiness from all over the world into the ship called Japan and entice people to go on a voyage of hope.
Cat Visiting Ginza at Christmas
SHIP’S CAT continued its journey throughout Japan and a round the world. In November and December 2017, SHIP’S CAT (Harbor), SHIP’S CAT (Black), and SHIP’S CAT (Armor) were exhibited as part of Cats, Art and Christmas, the first Christmas event organised by the Tsutaya Ginza Bookstore in Ginza Six.
Ginza Six was built on the site of the former Matsuzakaya Ginza department store; since its opening in April 2017, it has been a symbol of Ginza as a commercial complex. In addition to retail facilities, it has cultural facilities and incorporates artworks in various parts of the building. For example, installations by famous artists, including Yayoi Kusama, in the SIXIÈME GINZA shop’s atrium in Ginza Six are renowned. The Tsutaya Ginza Bookstore is also one of the shops that attracted a great deal of public attention in Ginza Six, providing a vision for a lifestyle with art, and SHIP’S CAT became the centrepiece for this vision.
SHIP’S CAT (Harbor) was revealed for the first time a t the bookstore. It soon became known as the symbolic sculpture of the SHIP’S CAT series since the statue riding on a bollard is easily associated with ships and travel.
France, Japan, Egypt: Ancient and Modern, East Meets West
The year 2018 marked the 160th anniversary of the friendship between France and Japan, and many events took place to celebrate this occasion. Yanobe worked on the exhibition SHIP’S CAT as part of the 60th anniversary of the Pact of Friendship between Kyoto and Paris as the associate program Japonismes 2018, organised by the Japanese government at the Carrousel du Louvre, an underground mall near the Louvre. The exhibition was co-organised by Raysum Co., Ltd. and the Kyoto University of the Arts and held from 22 to 28 August.
While transporting SHIP’S CAT (Harbor) and SHIP’S CAT (Black) from Japan to France, he collaborated with Eriko Horiki, an artist who uses washi, a traditional Japanese paper. They created Picture Scroll of SHIP’S CAT, a giant shoji screen depicting a scene where the ancient Egyptian sun goddess Bastet meets Yanobe’s SHIP’S CAT, and the washi totem pole of SHIP’S CAT (Totem). The Louvre, which houses the second most extensive collection of ancient Egyptian art after the Egyptian Museum of ntiquities in Cairo, has a statue of Bastet represented as a figure of a female cat. In Japan, the beckoning cat is a popular symbol of good fortune, and it can be said that ancient Egyptian culture came all the way to Japan by sea. As such, SHIP’S CAT was transported by ship from Japan to the Louvre, turning literally into a “ship’s cat”, which made Yanobe feel a strong sense of inevitability and destiny as if he was returning to the origin where he started his journey with SHIP’S CAT. By transporting the cat sculpture produced in today’s Japan, he enabled an encounter between the ancient Egyptian and contemporary Japanese art in France.
Picture Scroll of SHIP’S CAT and SHIP’S CAT (Totem) were permanently installed at WeBase Kyoto, which opened in October 2018. SHIP’S CAT (Harbor) returned to WeBase Kamakura after its long journey with a huge success.
For Women in Shanghai
In November 2018, SHIP’S CAT (Sailor) in a sailor suit was permanently installed on the rooftop of Shanghai Joy City, the city’s largest shopping mall. Yanobe elaborated a design of a sailor suit since the shopping mall champions a concept of supporting women. The sailor suit was traditionally a uniform for seamen. But, it was later developed into a popular clothing style for women at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, just as Shanghai began to prosper as one of the world’s leading port cities. The sailor suit thus became a symbol of women’s power. Yanobe produced this work hoping that it would guide women to be actively involved in the front lines in Shanghai and globally.
Takamatsu and Hiroshima: Cats Travelling by Ships
In November 2018, SHIP’S CAT(Returns) was permanently installed on WeBase Takamatsu’s rooftop as its symbol. The work shows a large cat with its face turned around towards the street from the rooftop. People noticing it on the street are often surprised and do a double-take.
Takamatsu in Kagawa is the birthplace of Japanese Buddhist monk Kūkai, and the tradition of pilgrimage still exists in Shikoku. The motif of the cat looking over its shoulder has a new meaning of “return” and “repayment,” with the hope that people will come back again and again.
In 2019, SHIP’S CAT (Diver) was exhibited as part of the Shukusai-Celebration, an associate event in Setouchi Triennale 2019, presenting the image of a cat in a diving suit with an oxygen cylinder diving into the water.
In the same year, WeBase Hiroshima opened with the built-in work SHIP’S CAT (Fortune), which shows the cat’s face from the ceiling. Yanobe envisioned the hostel as the Dragon King’s Palace, often compared to the Itsukushima Shrine in Hiroshima. Here, SHIP’S CAT (Fortune) invites people to dive into the deep sea and journey into the palace. The cat, sticking its face out from the ceiling, looking down into the palace, watches over the encounters visitors face in their journey.
This is how the journey of the SHIP’S CAT, starting from Fukuoka, then afar in Paris, Shanghai, all the way to Takamatsu and Hiroshima, finished with its return to Osaka, the home of the artist.
