This film is adapted from “Muō no Rigyo” from “Ugetsu Monogatari” by Akinari Ueda, a magical realist tale written in Japan’s Edo period, also known as the source story for “Ugetsu,” the film by Kenji Mizoguchi. I paradoxically emphasized the subtle “kai’i (怪異)”—a Japanese word indicating something mysterious, strange, eerie, and sometimes dangerous—by reconstructing the storyline to make it rational and interpretable. I used photogrammetry to obtain its distinctive bumpy texture and create the strange scenery of a dream. By adapting the story of “Muō no Rigyo,” one of the tales in Ueda Akinari’s “Ugetsu Monogatari,” and using photogrammetry to render it as a 3D animation, I created this work. By extensively altering the uncanny tale of irrational events so that it could be interpreted as rationally as possible, I attempted to paradoxically present the remnants of contemporary mystery that still could not be fully filtered out. In addition, by using 3D models with distinctive textures obtained through photogrammetry, a somewhat imperfect technique that is weak in handling reflections, transparency, and motion, I attempted to create an eerie, dreamlike scene. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ # Synopsis of the base story “Muō no Rigyo”

Once upon a time, there was a monk who was an excellent painter. He would buy fish caught by fishermen, release them into the river, and paint the them. He even painted the carp he saw in his dreams and called them “Muō no Rigyo” (A Carp That Appeared in My Dream).
One day, He fell ill and died. Three days later, He revived and visited one of his parishioners, where he tells the following story:

“Not knowing I was dead, I wandered out into the cove and swam in the water. As I was thinking that I was not as free as a fish, a great fish and a messenger of the sea god came and gave me a carp's robe. I, now a golden carp, cruised around the Lake Biwa and felt dreamy.
Suddenly hungry, I bite the bait from a fishing line dropped by one of my parishioners and am caught. ‘How dare you try to harm a disciple of the Buddha!’ I shouted, but to no avail. I awoke just as I thought I was about to be cut down.”

When people heard this story, they wondered much, as they were just about to eat the carp they had caught, and they abandoned the carp dish.
The monk lived until the end of his life. It is said that the carp he painted started swimming when someone put it in the water.


# 原作のあらすじ

昔、三井寺に絵の上手な僧がいた。漁師の捕らえた魚を買い取り、川に放ってその姿を描くような人物で、夢で見た鯉を絵にしては「夢応の鯉魚」と呼んでいた。ある時、僧は病に伏せ息絶えてしまう。3日後、弟子たちが見守っているなかで僧は生き返り、ある檀家の家を訪ねると次のようなことを語る。

僧は自分の死んだことも知らず、入り江に彷徨い出た。ふらふらと水を浴びて泳ぎ回ってみたが、魚の自由さには及ばない―と思っていると、大魚と海神の使いがやって来て、僧に鯉の衣を授ける。金色の鯉になった僧は、琵琶湖の風光を巡り夢心地になる。急に腹が減った僧は、檀家の垂れる釣り糸の餌を口にして釣り上げられてしまう。「仏弟子を害する例やある。我を助けよ」の叫びも虚しく、ついに捌かれると思ったところで目が醒めた。

この話を聞いた檀家の人々は、ちょうど釣ってきた鯉を食べようと思っていたこともあって大いに不思議がり、鯉のなますを棄てる。僧はそのあと天寿を全うするまで生きた。僧の描いた鯉の絵は水に着けると泳ぎだしたという。