The Work of Catsulayichi


  • Photographer
    Tamarah Cohen
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Date of Photograph
    Nov 2013 - Feb 2014
Story

Not yet a Kyoto tourist attraction, this colony of hundreds of stone structures rises from an undeveloped rocky riverbank in the industrial section of Kyoto’s Kamogawa River.

It is the ongoing work of a man I first saw in the dead of winter, sitting in his signature position (on his butt, legs extended outward), surrounded by hundreds of little (and not so little) rock towers and thousands of rocks, building and meditating. His name is Catsulayichi.

Catsulayichi’s towers may suggest the practice of piling up stones to commemorate deceased children …a tradition descended from the ‘Sai no Kawara’ myth; but in a translated interview, Catsulayichi describes his work as:
Not ‘Sai no Kawara’. Purely an artistic expression.
Building with natural stones; a beauty nature produces; the beauty of coincidence.
If I build with a certain intention, it may be interpreted differently by others.
That’s where it’s interesting; I build just as I feel.

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