サンクスギヴィング/ムラカミ/神道

DAVE ITZKOFF “Art Inflation: Macy’s Murakamis” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/arts/design/25murakami.html


紐育メイシーのサンクスギヴィング・デイ・パレードに、村上隆*1のキャラクター、「カイカイ」と「キキ」が登場したという話。
パレード前に村上が執り行ったというShinto ceremonyの記述が興味深かった;


On Wednesday afternoon, on a stretch of West 81st Street in Manhattan where brightly colored, 30-foot-tall inflatable versions of his characters Kaikai and Kiki were wriggling and writhing underneath a huge net, Mr. Murakami, the Japanese pop artist, held a brief Shinto ceremony for purity and luck. He stood at a table where he poured out a glass of water and a glass of sake in front of two plates, one of white rice and one of sea salt. He gave two bows and clapped twice, then declared the ritual complete.
取り敢えずは正統的なお清め。
米国のお子様の反応は、

Watching the inflation of Kaikai and Kiki on 81st Street, Tami Marsden and her son Alex, 6, were less sure about what they were seeing.

“We don’t know who that is, but he knows Kung Fu Panda,” Ms. Marden said, indicating another nearby balloon. “I thought it was a Pokémon thing.”

She added: “I hate to say it, but boys really don’t like anything that’s pink.”

因みに、ここでいうinflationは経済用語ではない。