night boat

2012
HDV 08:04










I wanted to record the lives of the local people in Koshikijima Islands during my artist residency program. In Koshikijima Islands, the pond herring fishery is prosperous as a lot of fishing boats go offshore at about midnight every day, and then they simultaneously light fires called Isaribi to lure fish at 2am. Plankton approaches the fire and consequently the pond herring flocks to eat them.
We rode on a small boat and went offshore in midnight. I wanted to capture the light and sound of the Isaribi.
However, it turned out dangerous to go offshore because of that waves were gradually getting rough as well as the sky cloudy. Having stopped the engine of the boat in the middle of the sea, we were gazing at the light offshore vacantly.
In the meantime, our boat was rolling as the fishing boats were going offshore, and the light as the lives of people in Koshikijima Islands looked like a musical score which I was collecting like a conductor.