This photo book is taken at 17 locations in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, featuring white cat figures placed throughout the town.

These white cats are art objects created by the artist Yoko Ando for her installation art series “Hyaku no Neko to Collaboration” (“Collaboration with a Hundred Cats”). They were crafted at nearly life-size scale, using ultra-light paper clay as the material, with a total of about 150 pieces.

Ando referred to the assembled group of cats as the “performers” of Hyakuneko Ichiza (“The Hundred Cats Troupe”), positioning herself as the troupe’s leader (za-chō), and developed her artistic practice through this conceptual framework. The artist passed away in 2024, leaving behind Hyakuneko Ichiza.

Photographer Katsumi Kawashima transported these cat figures across various places in Sakai—locations where the artist had lived for many years—and captured moments where the sensibilities of the photographer and the artist appear to resonate and synchronize.

As readers turn the pages, they may find the white paper-clay cats gradually evoking personal memories or experiences, to the point where they might feel as if they are real cats. Children might even begin inventing stories while reading. Although the book does not contain a structured narrative like a picture book, it is presented as a “photo picture book” with the hope that each reader will experience their own story-like interpretation.

At the end of the book, there is also a small section introducing the facilities and businesses that cooperated in the photography.

Table of Contents:

• Let’s ride the tram and go out.
• What is a god’s home like?
• A department store feels like a labyrinth!
• Let’s play at the kindergarten.
• Drawn by the smell of freshly baked bread.
• A coffee shop with a roasting workshop is fascinating.
• Hide-and-seek in a plumbing company’s warehouse.
• A “beckoning” cat at the greengrocer’s storefront?
• I always wanted to ride a fire truck and an ambulance.
• Dressing up at an exceptional beauty salon.
• A strangely comforting flower shop.
• Curious about the bicycle shop.
• Unbelievable! There is a cat inside the bank.
• A children’s center like a toy box.
• Let’s explore a temple.
• The Hundred Cats Troupe steps onto a Noh stage.
• Dropping by a standing bar on the way home.
• Riding the train home—where shall we go tomorrow?
• Foreword
• List of collaborators
• Portraits of the people and cat performers

Details