Mami Kiyoshi
 
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Murooka Katsutaka at home
(Nakano-ku, Tokyo prefecture, 2018)

Murooka Katsutaka is a kite photographer. An architect by profession, he likes to invent and make objects. His interest in kite photography began with the desire to take photographs from a high point of view to study the land on which he was to build. He also wanted to be able to photograph his buildings from the top, and discover the topography of places whose entrance was forbidden to him, such as the Kofun of Sakitama (ancient burial mound). He has published several books on kite photography; we see one on the stairs and another one on the ground next to him.

When a challenge comes up, he fills out notebooks with his ideas, sketches and calculations to solve the problem. His latest notebook, the 62nd, is on the ground in front of him. On the stairs in the foreground on the right are his tools, including his sewing machine, an essential object for the making of his kites. Indeed, even though Murooka Katsutaka uses traditional Japanese iconography for his kites, he creates a mix of genres using contemporary materials, such as ripstop for the sail and carbon fiber or fiberglass for the bones. The kite he holds in front of him is his latest invention. The notebook on the ground is open to the page explaining its design. It is an inflatable kite, or in other words a kite without bones, made of pieces of Japanese paper entirely sewn.

Murooka Katsutaka’s motto is to mix traditions and modernity to create new traditions!

Copyright © Mami Kiyoshi