A place that is no place in particular is also any place. With a slight modification, the English word nowhere, used to describe “no place in particular,” becomes now here or the place where one is now. The train station, which is neither Kiyosumi nor Shirakawa, is simultaneously both Kiyosumi and Shirakawa. Once you climb the stairs and exit the station, you may find yourself in the town where I was born or a town in which a stranger lives. Is it possible to intentionally stay in such a place that is both nowhere and anywhere?
- Shinpei Kusanagi

For five years starting in the fall of 2007, Kusanagi published a drawing of landscapes and plants in the Kiyosumi Shirakawa area to accompany each installment of Teru Miyamoto’s novel Mizu no katachi [the shape of water] serialized in the monthly magazine éclat (published by Shueisha). Kusanagi’s first book Kiyosumi kaiwai [Kiyosumi and its Environs] (tentative title) (to be published by Kyuryudo) will feature original drawings made for the serial novel as well as Kusanagi’s own writings.