Statement
Since I was very young, I have been thinking:
"Why was I born?"
"Am I allowed to live?"
I felt that if I did not have a reason or value for existing, I would not be allowed to exist.
As a young child, I searched for where I belonged in this world (my surroundings, in my young worldview) and fantasized, "What is this world like in the first place?"
Then I paint imaginary worlds and place the girls in them, giving them roles. The girls are not simply "kawaii girls" posing as in portraits, but are performing some action.
To move the world in the painting, that is the reason for the girls' existence. I give the girls the "sense that it is okay to be her" that I have wanted since I was a child.
Growing up surrounded by Japanese manga and animation, it was natural for me to be influenced by them. I use oil paintings to create realistic representations of girls who look like characters from manga and animation. My work will be accessible to children. I believe that you can see the harmony of East and West in the mysterious realism of "kawaii" girls.
As my roots, I also value ancient Japanese culture.
I sometimes place girls in traditional paintings. In particular, Ukiyo-e's bold compositions, flat compositional colors, and drastic poses of figures shocked the art world as Japonism.
Ukiyo-e is illustration of the Edo period, with literature, plays, and advertising activities spread behind it. By "honka-dori" (capturing the true meaning of the poem), what would be considered inappropriate expressions today can be leapfrogged into a deeper sense of the world as compositions and poses that are unexpected in a good sense of the word.
The girls depicted in this way are representatives for me and ask you the questions I have been asking myself.
"Who are you?"
"What is your place in the universe?"
"Where are you located and what is your function in this cosmic mechanism?"
When you are asked these questions, are you moved? Do you have to face yourself instead of just living?
Or would you not even look at it?
Without the questions and answers, human beings can live. Just the fact that one is alive may be the value of one's existence, even if one has no role to play.
It is with this thought or wish that I sometimes paint only girls or only faces.
My spiritual journey continues. I hope to share with you in a positive way the question of asking and not asking this question through art, transcending borders, cultures, generations, and eras.
What good will such a thing do? Can I help someone? That is the kind of painter I want to be.