“We are students of Tokyo University of the Arts,” one of the four, Taichi Moriyama (22) told me, “this is our project.” Using large wet sponges in the shape of an ancient elephant, they were recreating the walk of a Naumann Elephant to his favorite drinking spot.

Mei Fujita (21) creates wet footprints in Tokyo’s Harajuku

“When Meiji-Jingumae Station was built in Harajuku in 1972 they found fossilized remains of a Naumann Elephant,” explains Moriyama,” and where Cat Street is now there used to be a river. So we are making footprints with water from where the fossil was found to Cat Street, as if the elephant has come back to life and is going for a drink.”

The Naumann Elephant was a predecessor of the mammoth and lived in Japan between 20,000 and 300,0000 years ago. Fossilized bones of this species have been discovered at about 200 locations throughout Japan, including in Harajuku.

Naumann Elephants, a predecessor of the mammoth

As you can see in the photographs few people noticed the art project going on. Everybody passed by as if it was the most normal thing of the world that people were leaving wet footprints on the street. I asked Moriyama if other people besides me had asked them what they were doing. “Just a few,” he answered.

I can understand why, the four of them were so involved in what they were doing that it appeared as if they were working. I actually needed some courage to approach them. They looked so serious and avoided all eye contact; I felt that they didn’t want to be disturbed. I am glad I did disturb them, though. Pretty cool project.