Relay Column: On Wearing Cardboard – The 'Box Man' as a Costume (Wataru Banba)

Copied to Clipboard

*The text-to-speech feature is generated by AI,
so there may be errors in the reading.

PROFILE

Wataru Banba

Originally from Nishitama District, Tokyo. Graduated from the Department of Arts Policy and Management, College of Art and Design, Musashino Art University. In his graduation thesis, he discussed the poet Gozo Yoshimasu's film work 'gozoCinè' in connection with the geographical conditions of Fussa, where the poet grew up. He is primarily interested in the whole spectrum of areas involved in the creation of works such as novels, films, and art.

Wearing something changes our behavior and actions to a greater or lesser extent. What we can or cannot do changes depending on what we're wearing.

For example, if you're in a ski resort in the middle of winter and all you're wearing are shorts and a T-shirt, you won't be able to stay there for long because of the cold. But if you're wearing ski gear, the cold won't be a problem; you won't get wet from the snow. In your ski gear, you can immerse yourself in skiing as much as you want. Your body temperature remains comfortable, making you capable of long-term activities in a cold environment.

There's a novel called "The Box Man" (箱男)[1] written by Kobo Abe. The novel is about a man who wanders the city with a cardboard box over his head and lives with it on. The box of the 'box man' has a peephole[2] on each side, each about 42 cm wide, through which he looks at the outside world. The 'box man' keeps his cardboard box on not only when he goes out, but also when he's in his room, completing all aspects of his life from eating to sleeping inside the box. For the 'box man', the cardboard box he wears is not something he can easily give up once he puts it on.