Title: The Whiteness of a Whale
Photographer: Zhao Renhui & Satoshi Kataoka
Date of publication: 2010
Place of publication: Singapore
Edition size: 500
Language: English
Dimensions of book: 170 x 240 mm
Number of pages: 24
Retail price: $20 SGD
Summary of Project:
“Omishima is a fishing village in the southwest of Japan which in its heyday was home to about 6,000 people. Omishima residents were ofter referred to as The Whale People or kujira no hitobito; the people who lived among whales. The Whale People got their name because of their obsessive and bizarre worship of all things whale-related. Huge temples in the shape of whales were erected and statues of flukes – a whales upright tail – can still be seen along the coast. Huge whale statues are built everywhere. They had elaborate rituals which allows them to observe, touch and be with the whales.” – Zhao Renhui