Dialogue - iai -

Were you interested in fashion and clothing design when you were a teenager or a student?

Isao : I was interested in fashion from an early age, and loved clothes as a child. When I was in elementary school, I was interested in the clothes women wore, and I visited the women's clothing section more than the men's clothing section. Looking back now, I think I was attracted to the appeal of women's clothing, which has a wider variety of styles and styles than men's clothing.

After graduating from high school, you moved from your hometown of Fukuchiyama, Kyoto Prefecture to Tokyo to find work. How did you feel about your hometown at the time?

Isao : After graduating from high school in Fukuchiyama City, I got a job at the Tokyo Fire Department, and I was looking forward to living in Tokyo. Perhaps it was because of a subconscious desire to be "free with fashion," but after work as a firefighter, I would dress up in what would be considered eccentric clothes and go to Harajuku and Shibuya frequently to be photographed in street snaps. As I bought and wore a lot of secondhand and ready-made clothes, I had the idea that "I want to do this part a little more like this," and I started to make modifications to my clothes. When I was 19, I bought my first sewing machine and started remaking clothes. Even while living like that, I still thought about my hometown, where I was born, and whenever I returned to Fukuchiyama City during long holidays, I felt that it was a place where I could relax.

When you were living in Tokyo, what was the big trigger that led you to do the work you are doing now?

Isao : I became passionate about making clothes, and after my work as a firefighter, I started attending "Coconogacco" to learn the concept of "what is fashion". Some of the people who attended made objects that were more like art than everyday clothes. When I thought about what kind of clothes I wanted to make, I had doubts about the speed of the mass production cycle of fashion, and I wondered if I could make everyday clothes for one person rather than making them for the majority. During that period, a major event occurred: the Great East Japan Earthquake. The scenery that the victims grew up in will never return. I began to think more about my hometown, decided to do what I love, and retired from the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

Before moving to Fukuchiyama City, I had the opportunity to go back to my hometown. I was deeply touched by the beauty of the villagers' hard work in the fields, the houses filled with the light of their daily lives, and the dirt and colors of the people who wear them. I began to think that there was no point in me living in Tokyo, so I decided to return to Fukuchiyama City.

What were your thoughts and feelings when you moved back to Fukuchiyama from Tokyo?

Isao : After experiencing the earthquake, I decided to face my current life because I value the present. At the time, I was talking about living with my wife, and I had a strong desire to enrich our lives. I wanted to grow crops with my own hands, renovate our old house, and breathe life into every detail of our lives. Next, I thought I would make a living by making clothes.

You do everything yourself, from design to fabric selection, dyeing, sewing, and finishing. At what moment do you get the idea that you want to make a certain type of clothing?

Isao : I don't think about it in my head, but ideas often come to me while I'm working with my hands. For that reason, I don't draw any design sketches. By standing in the store at exhibitions and other events, I can see the faces of the customers who try on my clothes, and I can imagine what kind of clothes they will be wearing next year. The only times I get the idea "I want to make clothes like this" are from the everyday scenery and environment I live in this village.

Please tell us what you pay particular attention to when dyeing with plants, as it is difficult to predict the color.

Isao : I didn't intend to make natural dyes from the beginning. When I lived in Tokyo, I wasn't interested in dyeing, perhaps because of the influence of the environment. I started living in a village and wondered if I could dye clothes with the local plants and flowers. When I walk around the village, I am moved by the strength of life in our daily lives, such as the colors of the mountains and the swaying expressions of the ears of goldfinch growing in the rice terraces. The breathing of nature is truly beautiful. The soil of the land, the soot from burned trees, the plants of the mountains, and the plants and flowers growing in the village. They give color to our clothes little by little. The process is beautiful. I don't think of adding chemicals or other things to get closer to a certain color because I like it, but rather that they are beautiful as they are. Since they are given to us by nature, we don't use chemicals to return them to nature as much as possible. Since we use water from the river in front of our house to dye our clothes, we dye them in a simple process so as not to burden the water as people who live in this area.

The work of plant dyeing is left to the discretion of the plants, trees, and soil, and the colors that the plants, trees, and soil have, which have developed various personalities depending on the climate, are unpredictable. Should I use water from the river, or collect rainwater? Should I use wood ash from burning old wood that the villagers used to heat the bath, or should I go into the forest and burn fallen cedar trees? Should I use sun or shade? Should I dye with today's temperature, or tomorrow's temperature? Among these, I try to use the plants when they are at their most radiant. Rather than using them from the roots, I prepare the environment so that they will continue to have life next year, and then use their life. Even for things that would come up in a few seconds if I looked them up, I think with my head and move my body to find my own answer. I don't want to overlook the important things in the scenery that I wouldn't have been able to see if I had taken a shortcut. I'm starting to learn the natural flow of the village's climate, such as the fact that there is little water in the stream today, and a little more today.

What was your motivation behind starting the "Seikatsu no Hana" initiative, which loans out clothes free of charge for a year and then returns them after a year, with the clothes remembering everyday habits?

Isao : Beautiful, not beautiful. Cool, not cool. Rather, I wanted to see clothes that remain when confronted with a natural way of life. The figures of grandparents who work single-mindedly in the village continue to shine. Clothes that are covered in the grime of beautiful work and life. The evidence of life is strongly reflected in the objects, and I wanted to see that for myself.

How do you feel that life in a mountain village has influenced your clothing making and your daily life?

Isao : The mountain village is where all the sources of creativity lie. Since I started living in the village, I've gotten into the habit of taking walks. The same scenery breathes a different air every day. The moments when I suddenly find a garment that seems to lead to a new frontier are an accumulation of everyday life, and I want to keep these beautiful moments in my heart as much as possible, so I walk through the village every day between work and calmly head to my workbench.

When I lived in Tokyo, when I first moved here, and even now, I think there are expressions that could only be born at that time. The step that I take now, knowing it is the right one, will also change. Just as the seasons change, humans are also part of nature, so change is natural. That's why I put the feelings I have at each moment in my daily life into my clothes.

What kind of future do you envision for yourself?

Isao : I don't look too far into the future because I don't know what will happen. Since my child was just born, I want to watch him grow up next year. I want to continue to face things without rushing, accept and absorb, develop a soft heart, and spend as much time as possible on self-sufficiency. I want to express to the fullest extent the clothes that can only be created with this purity, by following my own senses, touching with my hands as if my feet are on the ground, wearing them on my body and cutting them.