shashasha

A visual rumination on deep time and connectedness

The reason the photobook “Kakera” by Masaru Tatsuki opens with a long essay by an anthropologist (Toshiaki Ishikura) is its subject matter: Tatsuki photographed earthenware created in the Jomon period, an era that lasted from 14,000BC until 300BC. The earthenware itself tells archaeologists and researchers about life in the past. But with his images, Tatsuki documents a link to this deep past: he presents these ancient artifacts alongside the newspaper pages in which they had been wrapped and stored away in hundreds of boxes after having been excavated.

“The newspaper in the flat box that I was shown happened to be dated March 13, 2011, just two days after the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred. It features a black-and-white photograph showing people being served meals at an evacuation shelter – those unforgettable days. Multiple layers of time were piled ip inside the flat box which reminded me of the scene of the excavation site the other day. Multiple geological layers that make up the strata. The time that connects the surface layer and the bottom layer.” –– from Masaru Tatsuki’s afterword