樹齢400年を超える巨木を携えた深い森。数千トンの水を蓄える広大な池。上野動物園は、東京の都心とは思えないほど豊かな自然が繁茂する場所です。園内で飼育されている生きものの数はおよそ400種類3,000個体おり、さらに園外からもカワウやアオサギ、オオバンなど数多くの野生生物が四季を通しておとずれます。
そんな、ひとつの惑星にも例えられそうなくらいに多様な生態を携えている上野動物園という場のもつエネルギーを、微細な線の積み重ねによって1枚の絵の中に集約してみました。また、目線を人間ではなく空を飛ぶ鳥の視点に置き換え、見慣れた動物園をいつもとは異なる感覚で眺めてもらう試みも行っています。
日本で最も長い歴史を持ち、最大の来場者数を誇るがゆえにほとんどの日本人に「もう知っている」と思い込まれがちな上野動物園。しかし、別の角度から捉え直すと、実は知らないことだらけの未知の世界に見えてくる。そんな新たな価値の発見を試みたプロジェクトです。

Ueno Zoo doesn’t feel like it’s in the center of Tokyo. The thick woods have massive trees, some of which are more than 400 years old. And there’s a big lake holding thousands of tons of water. There’s such a wealth of luxuriant nature. The zoo takes care of about 3,000 individual creatures, representing 400 species. Apart from these residents, there is also a thriving population of wildlife that varies around the year, including the cormorants, herons, and coots that regularly visit the zoo. In fact, Ueno Zoo has such a diversity of life that it resembles a planet in its own right. Based on that realization, I attempted to consolidate its energy into a single picture, making a line drawing with a massive number of fine lines.
To provide a different perspective, I abandoned the familiar human view and drew the zoo from the viewpoint of a bird flying above. Ueno Zoo is Japan’s oldest zoo, and has the largest number of visitors. That makes it very familiar, and most Japanese people feel that they already know the zoo well. But by looking at it from a different angle, it becomes an unknown world, a place full of all sorts of things that you didn’t know about. This project was an attempt to discover the new values that are hidden there.