Two gentlemen from the city are out hunting in the mountains. All they care about is their appearance, and they show no respect for the mountains, nature, or the animals around them. Suddenly overcome by intense hunger, they somehow stumble upon “Restaurant Wildcat House Western-style Cooking,” which appears as if by magic. Though suspicious, the gentlemen find themselves drawn ever deeper inside, as the restaurant skillfully plays upon both their appetite and their vanity.

Two fashionable and arrogant hunters from the city are set against the trees, the wind, and the Wildcat. How should that contrast be expressed? How does the spell take hold, and how does the vision of the Western-style restaurant unfold? These are fascinating questions to explore in this production. But we must not forget one thing. The Taishō-period was a time when the destruction of nature was becoming a tangible reality. It was when people began to lose their respect for nature and human greed started to reveal itself. In many ways, it may well have marked the beginning of the modern age. At the end of this realistic fable, the two gentlemen are rescued by their dogs, whose loyalty to humans never wavers. Yet their faces, "crumpled like discarded paper" by terror, never return to what they once were. We must ask ourselves what this indelible mark left by terror truly means.

-NAKASHIMA Makoto