"The Rule that exists only in that place"
At about 5:00 a.m., I left the house.
The twilight of summer came early.
A new day breaks in no time.
I walk the inside where it drizzles.
My destination was decided.
It is the place where I cannot go at night.
I took a train to get there.
I disembarked at S-cho Station and wandered into the depths of the N alley.
The vista beyond me had a grocery store, a diner, an orchid pub and the ruins of what seems like an inhabited house…
I deviated from the street and advanced to the rear.
I began strolling down the path while surveying the street that had a knot of busy people in hustle and bustle for the opening of stores.
A slope approached. As I took a descending step, everything around me abruptly changed.
Dawn approached beyond the mountains.
Humid and warmth made me perspire and my skin sticky.
But my mind ponders and dreads on something else.
Might I have come to the place where I must not?
Even though I was in the same town, the homes here are different relatively to those above the incline behind.
They looked more like tenements rather than houses.
They path here was very straight, clearly leading to the vanishing point. Bars on the either side of the road formed a straight line that met on the horizon.
In the first building, there was an inattentive middle-aged woman at the disarrayed counter.
A helpless drunk visitor was in bed in the next.
I carried on so that Koya of the space cannot count it.
In each room that followed, a woman stood as still as the morning air.
Will all the women be going to breathe in wind of the morning?
Or will it take all the women by air of the morning?
The women threw a small door open and are oblivious to the fact that they still have their makeup cosmetics on their face.
The people who have inhabited this place for many years were waking up to breakfast.
Suddenly, I was overwhelmed with unspeakable feelings.
People in their homes were seen doing something which I should not watch.
I continued walking while wishing Good Morning to everyone I passed. Nevertheless, most people either completely ignored me or shut their doors when I greeted them.
I ignored the mews of an undomesticated cat lurking in the alleyways as I went on.
I had an intuition that this place is not only unreceptive but also unwelcoming.
The locals looked at me with cold eyes to denote that I’m an outsider as they approached.
I was at a loss.
Maybe coming here wasn’t such a good idea after all?
But since I have, I will do what I came to do, that is to photograph this vicinity.
I decided I had to be defiant in order to get my work done.
However, the locals were even more insubordinate. They yelled, “No Photos!” in broken Japanese and slammed their doors at my face. I lowered my head and solemnly murmured a thank you at the already shut doors.
I decided to walk back to where I came from. I stopped at the still mewing cat and took several pictures of it. That moment, an old lady asked, “You like cats?” from behind. She then laughed. I smiled and asked her if it is not allowed to photograph here. I told her that I really liked this place and would really appreciate taking pictures of it. The answer was clear.
While laughing, the lady said, "This is not the town which you can photograph. It’s a place filled with constant sexual acts and liquor. Since olden times, this town had had that certain rule.
Was there the yakuza who patrolled it each time to let you protect it in
many places? "
“People here are committed to sexual habits and alcohol. As for me, I don’t care much to follow the living style here. If you wish to photograph this place, try your best.”
She then laughed before carrying on, “I wish you luck. Who knows, you may succeed?”
I retraced the way again.
I did not want to photograph a cat and a tenement particularly.
However, I was still young to photograph a woman and the sexual intercourses of this town.
I realize now that it was rude to carry a camera in a place like this. In disappointment, I began my way home.
"Perhaps sometime, I will revisit this place… In some other dawn, when I am older and more matured…
P.S: This place was demolished for development in March 2000.
There is no longer any place like this in the world today.
※ English translation : thank you for
Janiee and her friends!
