Here's what the artist told to Bored Panda about his background and photography: "I have loved cats since I was a child. My family environment did not allow me to have a cat, so I had a one-sided love for cats until I was almost 30 years old. Also, I didn't really pick up a camera until I was 30 years old, but I had to use it for my work. At first, I was very bad at it. However, I gradually learned about how fun cameras were and it became a hobby."
"At the age of 36, I was resting in a park during a break from work when I met a cat named "Busanyan Senpai" and fell in love with it at first sight. It was a gray cat with a spiral pattern like an American shorthair. In Japan, such cats are usually kept at home, but this cat was outside. It was also very plump. I wondered how it was living there. I wondered how they lived, and the next day I started to take photos of cats as a serious subject."
"Here's a pic of Busanyan Senpai. When I posted this photo on Instagram, people from overseas praised me so much (*Overseas people praise me more than Japanese people, they say things like "Awesome!") I started uploading one or two photos of cats to Instagram every day.
I started taking pictures of cats as a hobby, but later on, it became my job."
"There are many anthropomorphic works in Japanese culture, such as "bird and animal caricatures" and ukiyo-e prints from the Edo period, in which animals stand on two legs like people and behave like people. Wouldn't it be fun to use cat photos to express this anthropomorphism?"
"I think it would make people love cats even more. I think you will feel more love for cats.
I'm waiting to capture those moments when cats just happen to appear in their natural habitat.
I want people to heal through my photos, and I want you to smile through the anthropomorphizations of cats."
