Shapes of Wonder つやま自然のふしぎ館 全剥製Shapes of Wonder - All the Specimens of Tsuyama Wonder Museum
岡山県津山市にある私設博物館「つやま自然のふしぎ館」全剥製801体のポートレート写真集。
「すべての生物に優劣はない」という理念のもと、自らの臓器も含めて平等に展示しようとした博物館の創設者・森本慶三にならい、1ページに1体、同じ大きさの図版で掲載。
”ふしぎ館が60周年を迎えた2023年、館の協力のもと剝製全点の撮影を行い、はじめて剝製ひとつひとつと向き合ってその目の中を覗き込んだ。剝製の中で唯一 “本物” ではないガラスやプラスチックの目は、こちらを見ているようでいてどこか遠くを見ているような、こちらの感動や同情や恐怖をすべてはね返しながらも受け入れるような、深い闇、眩しすぎる光のようだった。そして、見ることと祈ることは似ているような気がした。
まるで何かを熱心に見ているような剝製たちを見ている私たち。視線があちこちに谺（こだま）するあの場所は、祈りの満ちる場所なのだろうか。
信じることができない私にも、ただ見る／祈ることはできるかもしれない”（「見ること、祈ること」より）
A portrait photography collection featuring all 801 taxidermy specimens from Tsuyama Wonder Museum (Tsuyama Shizen no Fushigi-kan) , a private museum located in Tsuyama City, Okayama Prefecture.
Following the philosophy of museum founder Morimoto Keizo — who believed that ‘no living being is superior or inferior to another’ and sought to display all specimens equally, including his own organs — each specimen is presented one per page, at uniform size throughout.
‘In 2023, when the Fushigi-kan celebrated its 60th anniversary, I photographed every taxidermy piece in the collection with the museum’ s cooperation, coming face to face with each specimen for the first time and peering into their eyes. The glass and plastic eyes — the only parts of a taxidermy mount that are not ‘real’ — seemed to be looking back at me and yet gazing somewhere far away; they felt like a deep darkness, a blinding light, simultaneously deflecting and absorbing every feeling of wonder, sympathy, and fear I brought to them. And it struck me that seeing and praying might not be so different after all.
We, looking at the taxidermied creatures who seem to be gazing so intently at something. Is that place — where glances echo back and forth in every direction — a place filled with prayer?
Even for someone like me who cannot believe, perhaps I can still simply see / pray.'
(from ‘On Seeing and Praying’)
