Masahito Koshinaka Art Works 越中正人

TITLE

冥婚 / ghost marriage
SIZE / TIME

17 : 20 mins
MATERIAL

HD video & sound
YEAR

2017

冥婚 / ghost marriage

English text

This art work is based on a custom found in Japan and other parts of Asia called “ghost marriage” in which a person who dies unmarried is forced to seek out a member of the opposite sex who has also died unmarried and marry him or her after death, out of pity for the bereaved family and fear that it might shut down the family’s prosperity. Marriage can be said to be a factor of diversity where various backgrounds such as history, race, economy, etc. meld together, but in this custom, I felt that there was an absolute “rightness” to the behavior that accompanied the values and concepts of marriage. “It is an absolute principle that they are doing it because it is the right thing to do. Taking this example of “rightness”, this video work is a mixture of emotions and thoughts of men and women in “ghost marriage”, as well as men and women today, whose notions of “rightness” are sometimes universal, and sometimes specific.

Cast
重野滉人 Hiroto Shigeno
佐原麻衣子 Maiko Sahara

Special Thanks
高座加奈子 Kanako Koza
大山玉美 Tamami Oyama
関町卓郎 Takuro Sekimachi

Translation
ロッシ・グレタ Greta Rossi

Japanese Text

この作品は「冥婚」という未婚のまま亡くなった者を、その遺族が不憫さや一族の繁栄を閉ざすかもしれないという恐れから、同じように未婚のまま亡くなった異性を探し、死後婚姻させるという日本やアジアに見られた風習を題材にした作品です。婚姻とは、歴史、人種、経済などの様々な背景が溶け合う多様性の因子であるとも言えるが、この風習では結婚に対する価値感や概念には絶対的な「正しさ」を伴う行動を感じた。「冥婚」は正しいから行っている絶対的な原則、ということだ。この「正しい」という一例を取り入れ、本映像作品は冥婚の男女、そして現在の男女の感情や考えが入り乱れ、その「正しさ」という概念は時には普遍であったり、特殊なものに変化する。