STANDARD
A very tidy friend of mine who I never thought would have anything to do with pets suddenly decided to get a cat.
I asked him what kind of cat but the breed name he mentioned wasn’t familiar. To be honest, that wasn’t surprising. All I know about cats is that street cats
seemed to have short hair, and pedigreed cats, long hair.But he was so enthusiastic about his new pet that I also became interested.
One day, he told me that he was going to enter his cat in a cat show. This I had to see, so I decided to join him. There were cats everywhere, each one in their own cage.
So many cats were in the show that my eyes began to itch, and my nose ran the minute I walked in. Despite the sudden allergy, I stayed and watched what happened.
Each cat would be taken out of their cage, when it was their turn, and placed on a table. There, judges would pet them, examine their tails, the shape of their head, their fur. They even played with them using cat teaser toys.
This is judging? I had no clue as to what was going on.
And to my eyes, each cat was beautiful.
Apparently at cat shows, each animal is judged against the standards of its breed. This “standard” describes features that best represent that particular breed. It is
not based on a living cat, but rather on a set of idealized features for that specific breed.
Breeders breed their cats according to how they interpret these idealistic standards. The whole cat show revolves
around how closely each cat matches with “what’s right” with each breed.
To me, it seemed arbitrary, and completely unreal. I used to think animals are natural, but now I am not so
sure. What does “being natural” actually mean? Does it mean keeping to one’s original state? How far do we need to look back in order to see the original state? It’s
almost impossible to judge.
Soon, I was starting to make cat teaser toys to draw the attentions of the cats while I photographed them.
スタンダード
ペットとは無縁だと思っていた、きれい好きな友人が突然猫を飼い始めた。
猫の種類を聞いてもまるで聞いたことがないものだった。野良猫は毛が短くて、高級な猫は毛が長いくらいしかの認識しかなかった。そもそも猫に関心はなかったが彼が熱心に話しているのを聞いていると興味が湧いてきた。
彼がキャットショーに猫をだすというので一緒についていく。アレルギーなのか会場に入ると鼻水と目の周りのかゆみが止まらない。会場にはたくさんの猫がいて、順番が呼ばれるとケージから出され審査台に運ばれる。しっぽを撫でられたり、頭の形を手で触り確認されたり、猫じゃらしで遊んでいる。行われていることの意味がまるでわからないし、どの猫も十分に美しいように思われた。
キャットショーはスタンダードいう理想によって審査される。スタンダードとは、ある生きている猫を描写しているのではなく、決して到達できないような理想が言葉で書かれている。その言葉の解釈によってブリーダーは猫を繁殖する。つまりはスタンダードという正しさに向かってキャットショーは進行していく。
動物は自然のうちにあると当然のように考えていた。しかし自然であるとはどのようなことなのか、本来のあるがままの姿が自然なのか、あるがままの姿とはそもそもどの時点でのことなのか。自然であることとそうではないもの境界は曖昧で明確な線引をすることはできないように思えてくる。
いつの間にか手芸店や釣具屋に出かけては猫の撮影時に気を引くための猫じゃらしを自作するようになっていた。