Makiguchi Atsushi at home
(Shirone, Niigata city, Niigata prefecture, 2018)

Makiguchi Atsushi is a kite collector and a fervent participant in the Giant Kite Battle of Shirone (Niigata city), which takes place every year in June. His collection, which consists only of kites, includes roughly 600 pieces. What he likes is to buy the kites, take a picture, give them a number, and put the information in a file. In his practice, there are no other steps after that. Some of his files are spread on the ground in the foreground.

In Shirone, the kite culture consists of a battle during which the kites finish crushed in the river after flying only a few seconds. In Shirone, the kite as an object is not meant to be kept, exposed, or contemplated. During the kite battle, the inhabitants of the east of the river oppose those of the west. Atsushi’s team, called "Kenshin", is from the West side. In the corridor, a “Kenshin” team kite faces a kite from the "Yakusha" team, from the East side. The Tsugaru kite at the bottom in the middle of the photograph is the first kite that Atsushi bought; it was during his honeymoon. The Shinboika kite in the background, to the left of the Tsugaru, is the original kite that was photographed and reproduced in the book Nihon no tako (Kites of Japan) published by the collector Niizaka Kazuo in 1978. Atsushi received it from Niizaka himself.

This room at the end of the corridor is his. This is where he puts his treasures. This space has a secret base aura about it, like those built by children.