DEKOTORA

There is often a distorted image built in people’s mind because of the unknown reality.

For that reason, I have been documenting a number of subcultures, often feared or misunderstood. I like misfits, outcasts, those who don’t follow the norms. Recently I have been following an alternative culture in Japan called Dekotora. I started this project as I was living in Japan in 2015 and went back in 2019 to continue. As soon as the borders reopen to Europeans, I plan to return to complete the project for a book.

Dekotora has a duality of attraction and repulsion: attraction, as it revolves around heavily decorated trucks full of colors and lights; repulsion, as people don’t know much about it, besides the visual aspect, and the truckers tend to have a “bad boy” reputation. Dekotora stands for “Dekoreshon Torakku” which is the Japanese version of “Decorated Truck”. This culture started in the 70’s. Initially, those trucks were painted for advertising purpose: for example, a truck selling fish from Hokkaido would have a traditional painting showing so. Today, because of the regulations forbidding such decorations and the bad image it could give, only a few small businesses, such as fish or flower delivery use those trucks for work.

I mainly spent my time with the group Utamarokai, the largest, oldest and only group to have chapters all around Japan. The president, Tajima san, owns a very famous truck: Ichiban Boshi (first star) which starred in a series of movies called “Torakku Yarō” (Truck Dude), with celebrity actor Bunta Sugawara. The ten movies made this culture quite popular. You can find Dekotora today in a music video, a video game, a coffee or tofu commercial. Although this subculture is a closed world, they regularly have public events where they proudly show their creations. A lot of them are for charity, such as relief for 2011 Earthquake victims, still in very precarious situations.

With this project, I want to reflect the esthetic, the mood and the essence of the Dekotora community. They are extremely proud and warm people, with a very traditional lifestyle. I find particularly interesting the contrast between the trucker’s world, often assimilated to a raw and hard world, and the poetry and nostalgia linked to the Dekotora scene. It’s a real journey into the sphere of dreams and ancient Japan:

A man’s journey is lonely

The path of the woman is that of the return

Either way, that’s not a path I would take

To flirt and we are at the crossroads

Ah ah

Ichiban Boshi, you look at my heart from the sky

I was born on impulse

I lived on impulse

What is behind these words

The mechanism of the heart, a trap

Ah ah

When the first star appears in the sky (Ichiban Boshi), my heart is restless

When I was a kid I could make wishes

A habit that I have lost

Today, I rather scrutinize the end

How fleeting stars are!

Ah ah

My heart cools down as soon as the first star appears

- Ichiban Boshi burus (Ichiban Boshi’s blues – song from the film series "Torakku Yaro” – Ichiban Boshi is the name of the main truck in the movie series and means “First Star”)

Moreover, this work archives a part of Japanese culture that will one day disappear. Within 4 years, I already noticed a drastic change and the community getting much smaller.