::Futago:: Limited Edition Digital Print
Print Size : 210mm x 297mm 
Andrea Innocent(a.k.a innocentgirl), 2006.

All images © Andrea Innocent 2005 - 2008

A popular television series. “Hajimete no 
Otsukai” (a rough translation being ‘My first errand’) follows the adventures of young children 
as they embark on their first errand, alone. In Japan, when children turn three or four they 
are often sent on an errand by their parents to go grocery shopping by themselves for the first time, 
preparing them for the years ahead in which they will have to walk to and from school everyday. 
This, once being a rite of passage, is now less common following the recent rise in kidnaps and 
murders of young children in Japan. The program itself is extremely elaborate, the 
camera operators have cameras disguised in briefcases, baskets, hats, etc and will follow these 
children on their successful or unsuccessful missions. Often children lose their way, buy the 
wrong items, fall asleep, wander aimlessly while talking to themselves or get side-tracked by other 
more interesting adventures, such as playgrounds or building snowmen.
 
The twins, ‘futago’ in Japanese, depicted in this work were the protagonists in one such episode of  
“Hajimete no otsukai’. The two little girls “Shuna”and “Hina” dressed the same, finished off each 
others sentences and even seemed to walk in unison until one point at which they reached a fork in the 
road, one turned left, the other right and they then spent the next 30 mins arguing over which direction 
they both thought was the right way. They returned home crying, but after being consoled by their 
mother, they then set off again and returned victorious but with far too many cakes than were on 
their list.