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I photographed Mr. Ikezaki in front of a store that used to sell colored paper tape. Back before the bridges were built at the eastern edge of Amakusa, the only way off the island was by boat. So when people left town for new schools, jobs. etc. their loved ones would gather at the pier holding a piece of colored tape. The passengers on the boat would hold the other end, and all the strands of tape would stretch out over the water until they slipped out of someone's hands. This was the memory Mr. Ikezaki chose to focus on.
"Soon after graduating elementary school, I transferred to a junior high school in Kumamoto city. When leaving Ushibuka, my father wrote and sent to me the phrase “one day the student will become the master.“ I feel it was encouragement for me to become the kind of person who can surpass their teacher.
When it was time for the Suikomaru ship to set off from the pier, so many family and friends saw everyone off while holding red, yellow, blue, many colors of paper tape. All those colors of my dear hometown made me cry."
Ikezaki Landscape | 池崎風景画
Ikezaki Portrait | 池崎風景画