SPACE SHIP'S CAT

SPACE SHIP'S CAT (Zitto & Gatito) is a project by Kenji Yanobe, one of Japan's leading contemporary artists, and MIKIDOZAN (aka DOZAN11), one of Japan's leading reggae musicians.

Active since the 1990s, Kenji Yanobe is a pioneer in incorporating Japanese subculture into contemporary art and is known for his mechanical and giant sculptures with social messages.

"SHIP'S CAT" is a series of Kenji Yanobe's representative sculptures which have been produced since 2017. Since ancient times, the many cats who have traveled around the world in boats with humans have been known as the “ship’s cat.” The sculpture series “SHIP’S CAT” is based on those feline travelers. They have been exhibited both in Japan and abroad portraying the cats that protect people both young and old during their travels and adventures, as a giant cat, bringing happiness to communities around the world.

In particular, "SHIP'S CAT (Muse)" (2021), permanently installed at the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka, which opened in 2022, is recognized as a symbol of the museum and the city.

MIKIDOZAN is Japan's most prominent reggae musician, whose 2001 release Lifetime Respect sold over 900,000 copies and ranked No. 1 in the weekly Oricon rankings. In addition to songwriting and live performances, in 2021 he produced a rhyme picture book Riddim-kun to Melody-chan (illustrated by Rob Kidney, KENELE Books), in which the sentences are rhyming lyrics. He is a well-known picture book author, and in January 2022, was ranked No. 1 in Amazon Picture Books and Children's Books.

SPACE SHIP'S CAT (Zitto & Gatito) was specifically written by MIKIDOZAN for this project based on the world of Kenji Yanobe's artworks and illustrated by Yanobe. (SHIP's CAT) which features cats wearing helmets and suits inspired by diving suits and space suits, is a vision for the young people of the future who will travel to the deep sea, outer space, and virtual space. Inspired by this, MIKIDOZAN tells the story of a cat and a boy on a spaceship who become buddies, embark on an adventurous journey, and meet aliens. It also suggests the theme of encountering, exchanging, and reconciliation with different cultures.

The core content of this project is a picture book written by MIKIDOZAN with illustrations by Kenji Yanobe, which will be developed into NFTs, artworks, figures, etc. The picture book will be produced on 7" paper (the same size as a 45 EP record) to serve as liner notes, and a music video consisting of text and pictures will also be produced and sold.

The music clip production and NFT art production will be handled by marimosphere, a well-known VJ and NFT artist, to extend the vision.

First, 222 NFTs will be produced based on illustrations from the book, followed by 2,222 NFTs created by transforming characters from the book into PFPs (profile photos). The characters and stories of the picture book will take the reader on an adventurous journey between real and digital worlds in a variety of art forms.

NFT PRE-SALE

Allowlist Presale: 0.222 ETH(nya nya nya)
Public Sale: 0.333 ETH(mya mya mya)
(Japanese cats say “nya nya nya” and also sometimes “mya mya mya” instead of “meow meow meow.” Due to the number two being pronounced “ni” in Japanese, “222” can be read as “ni-ya, ni-ya, ni-ya.” Also, the number three can sometimes be pronounced as “mi,” making “333” sound like “mi-ya, mi-ya, mi-ya.”)

ROAD MAP

NFT ART launch
January 22, 2023

Picture book release
February 22, 2023

NFT ART & picture book launch event

Exhibition
March 29-April 3, 2022

Profile

Kenji Yanobe

Contemporary artist. Since the early 1990s, he has been creating mechanical sculptures with practical functions under the theme of "Survival in Contemporary Society.” The starting point of his creation is the "future ruins" of the former Osaka Expo site, which he used as his own private playground throughout his childhood. His works, which incorporate social messages into humorous shapes, are highly acclaimed both domestically and internationally. In 2005, he created Giant Torayan, a 7.2-meter-tall sculpture. In 2008, he became the director of Ultra Factory, a common studio at Kyoto University of Arts, and in 2011, after the Great East Japan Earthquake, he created Sun Child, a monument of hope, which toured both in Japan and abroad. Three versions of Sun Child were produced, one of which has been permanently installed in Ibaraki City (Osaka). In 2017, he began creating the SHIP'S CAT series, a traveling guardian deity based on the motif of a "Ship’s Cat". SHIP'S CAT (Muse) has been gaining notoriety as a permanent installation at the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka, which opened in 2022. His picture books include "Torayan's Great Adventure" (Akaakasha, 2007) and "Torayan's World: Lucky Dragon's Story" (Sun lead, 2009).

https://yanobe.com
https://twitter.com/yanobekenji
https://www.instagram.com/kenji_yanobe/

MIKIDOZAN (DOZAN11)

Musician. Debuted as MIKIDOZAN in 1996. One of the driving forces in the early days of Japanese reggae music. In 2001, Lifetime Respect sold over 900,000 copies and became the first Japanese reggae album to reach No. 1 on Oricon's weekly ranking. Retired from singing in 2002. Began writing and producing under the name DOZAN. In 2014, he resumed his singing career by releasing an album Japan be Irie !!! under the name "DOZAN11". In 2022, his first picture book, Riddim-kun and Melody-chan (illustrated by Rob Kidney, KenEle Books), was ranked No. 1 on Amazon for both picture and children's books. His early participation in live performances in the Metaverse, one-of-a-kind PFPNFT collaborations with NFT artists, producing high-spec luxury sake for the 20th anniversary of Lifetime Respect and distributing its label design as an NFT, and actively challenging the Web3 domain were featured in NHK's Metaverse special.
General producer of reggae festival organized by J1 Sagan Tosu.

https://twitter.com/DOZAN11
https://www.instagram.com/dozan11/

Mari Asada (marimosphere)

VJ, Crypto Artist. As a VJ, she has performed at various festivals in Japan and abroad, including J-WAVE INNOVATION WORLD FESTA, FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL, BOOM FESTIVAL (Portugal), and SXSW (US), where she handled live performances and visual space production. Around 2017, she turned her attention to crypto, convinced of the potential of web3 to bring innovation to society. In 2019, she started to experiment with 3D scanned avatars and NFTs; was also an early advocate of NFT integration. In February 2021, she founded the cryptoart community NFT & CRYPTO ART JAPAN. In June of ‘21, CAJEXB, the first NFT crypto-art exhibition in Japan, was held. For two consecutive years hosted/organized CAWA in TOKYO (July 2021) and CAWA TOKYO 2022 (September-October 2022). She has won top prizes at numerous hackathons in collaboration with engineers, and has supported numerous NFT projects, including artist Mariko Mori's first NFT project, Eternal Mass.

https://twitter.com/marimosphere
https://www.instagram.com/marimosphere

PROJECT MEMBERS:

Advisor / Engineer
SOCO

He started his career as an engineer, then in 2017, began working as an illustrator and creator. Created the character "Coin Monster" (aka "Koimon"), who has been credited for his clear explanations of difficult crypto assets. After deepening his understanding of web3 technology, he released his own generative collection WATCHER - Eyes of Heroes in 2022. At the same time, he has worked as an engineer and advisor for prominent projects such as ASAGI, Hard Animal Generative, and NEO STACKEY. He is still involved in supporting many NFT projects in addition to his creative activities.

https://twitter.com/soco_art

Engineer
Fricky

Engineer with over 15 years of experience in Web 2.0. In 2021, he became interested in the new culture surrounding NFT’s and began working as an illustrator. He was also attracted to the possibilities of web3 development and started developing Solidity and mint sites. In 2022, his first generative collection RaGEN sold out in one hour, and he has participated as an engineer in NFT projects such as Oppara, DDP, NFTCOLOR, and NeoStackey.

https://twitter.com/freakyyyy_frick

Planning, Editing, Color Design
Manabu MIKI

Writer, editor, color researcher and art critic. Based on his unique research on images, he writes and edits across genres such as contemporary art, architecture, photography, color, and music, and across media such as books, exhibitions, and applications. He has co-edited　Dai-Osaka Modern Architecture (2007), Colorscape of France (2014), Modern Architecture in Osaka 1945-1973 (2019, all Seigensha), and Reimaging Curation (Showado, 2020). Exhibitions and curations include The Artist's Rainbow - Colorscape, Aichi Triennale 2016 (Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, 2016) and New Phantasmagoria (Kyoto Art Center, 2017).

https://twitter.com/culturepot

Picture Book Design
Yusuke Mimasu, Syoko Sekiya (ym design)

Design firm in Kyoto, Japan. Working mainly in collaboration with cultural and artistic institutions, involved in advertising art, art direction, graphic design, and web design. Major works include BACK TO 1972 (Otani Memorial Art Museum, Nishinomiya City, 2022), Miro: Dreaming of Japan (special site design) (Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, 2022), Circular Design (Seigensha, 2022), Minoru Onoda: My Maru (Himeji City Museum of Art, 2021), Rainbow Time: Nijiro Murakami and Tomokazu Yamada (CCC Media House, 2021).

https://www.ym-d.jp
Instagram@___ymdesign

WEB DESIGN
Kiki and Rum

They mainly assist artists and provide consultation and support in the production and operation of art-related websites, while also facilitating requests for general corporate website services.
They also use a 360-degree VR camera to film galleries, museums, and exhibitions, to produce POV video tours. In addition, they have extensive experience in compiling web specifications necessary for bidding at public institutions such as museums, and also for launching, operating, and managing artist’s membership sites, etc. They also specialize in working together to solve web-related operational problems that are not immediately discernible, as well as problems faced by relevant shareholders.

Translation
Todd Goldman (Daily Flick NY), Nao Tazaki (GODU)

Based in New York and Tokyo, they provide English-Japanese translation support for art-related projects such as assisting in the translation of statements and titles written primarily by artists, with the goal of translations being conveyed to native speakers of English or Japanese. Goldman has been active in the film industry, providing cultural advice for Woody (Kinema Junpo, 2017), written by David Evanier and translated by Sawako Omori, and assisting in the translation of the English dialogue for Izuru Narushima's Familia, a film to be released in 2023.

Terms and Conditions

This work and all works derived from it are joint works by Kenji Yanobe and MIKIDOZAN, who own the intellectual property rights including copyright. Mari Asada and Manabu Miki also retain some rights to secondary works.

1. Copyright:
The purchaser retains ownership rights in the work, but no copyright is transferred.

2. Alteration and commercial use prohibited.
The use of any or all of the images, designs, music, videos, etc. in this work may not be altered or used for commercial purposes without permission.

3. Saving and using NFT image files:
Only the purchaser is allowed to download and save the NFT image files of this work to his/her own computer, smartphone, etc. In addition, they grant permission to use the work in our own profiles on social networking sites, etc., and to display on digital devices.