House of desires : Memories of a Japanese red-light district, episode 5
In Masumi, we found remnants of various articles that seemed to have belonged to the owner and female workers.
In cardboard boxes casually left on the floor, we found a pinup photo of an actress, a debt contract, a résumé of a one of the staff, an installment purchase contract of a luxury watch, several lottery tickets, etc. From those remnants you can glimpse the life of the owner of Masumi. Several magazines such as “Movie and Drama”, “Entertainment Pictorial” and “Jazz Terms Glossary” tell us quite a bit of the owner’s taste and hobbies.
Additionally, we found a note with a record of body temperature taken daily and a scribble that says “penicillin”. The memo probably belonged to a prostitute who got infected with tuberculosis. As we also found some cutouts of four-frame manga comics from the newspaper Osaka Shimbun, these were probably something that she enjoyed reading every day.
There was also an appliance that looks like a metal cylindrical pot with two funnels on top. “Hot sake” is engraved on it. Probably they put fire on the bottom to heat up the sake.
While important buildings from the past are carefully preserved and are part of living memory, appear in history books, a commonplace like this (such as Masumi) which depict people’s everyday life is destined to disappear in the ash heap of history. The role of journalists is to capture the moment and to pass it down to succeeding generations. But we also believe that visualizing what is disappearing and showing its value is also as important. Masumi will be demolished before long. We hope that the memories of this place will be passed down to future generations in the form of this photo book.
## Crowdfunding for publication of the photo book
As we are publishing the photo book of Masumi, we will carry out crowdfunding to cover the publishing cost. Please join us if you are interested.
Website: https://kawazu-projects.com/en/home
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/house__of_desires/
