#toshiya's creativity

[thepriceofbeingaroseisloneliness]

【Toshiya's Creativity】 Serialized in STER EDGE Contents 004 Vol. 1  The Five Senses 018 Vol. 2  Healing 032 Vol. 3 My Favourite 046 Vol.4 Touch 060 Vol.5  Japanese 074 Vol.6 In Those Days 088 Vol.7 Looking Back  On My Life 102 Vol.8 Relaxation 116 Vol.9 Take a Walk 130 Vol.0 Journey  140  Question 50 142 An Afterword 

[queenlunaposts]

STER EDGE 010

Toshiya in Finland Part 2

› go to Part 1

other scans of Toshiya

› STER EDGE 009 - Part 1 & Part 2

› photo book of »DIRT 100% Natural Dirty 2015-2020« Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3

[robiconic]

[SCAN] Toshiya’s Creativity Vol.0 Journey (2)

[relialin]

TRICKSTER AGE vol. 32, 2016/10/15 Toshiya’s Creativity VOL.01 -The Five Senses-

Translated by DIR EN GREY - Italia

Please DO NOT repost or use any parts of the translation without permission.

Toshiya, bassist of DIR EN GREY, the rock band that achieves an overwhelming support all around the world and, of course, in Japan. He currently conducts the production of the apparel brand he launched by himself, “DIRT 100% Natural Dirty / DIRT 100% Dissolutive Dirty” and he started a series in this magazine. This time, as a kickoff memento, we must look for his interests and preferences, as he’s doing well in both music and apparel, so we did an interview having the five senses as theme; sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch.

SIGHT

What are the things Toshiya has been seeing until now? The things that left an impression on him were many during his boyhood, as he’s curious about many different hobbies. That influence still goes on now…

“Sight”

Movies, Gundam, manga: childhood memories.

I haven’t watched any movie recently, but if I have to tell a movie that left an impression on me, that’s “E.T.”. It’s the very first movie I watched in a theatre since I was born. That time, since we were expecting my brother or sister to be born, I went to the theatre with my father, just the two of us, for the first time to watch that movie. Even if I was a child, I remember being greatly impressed by it. I said “Won’t he [E.T.] come to our house?” (laughs). I wanted to become his friend, I wanted to play the famous scene when they put their index fingers together.

I’ve been telling this since before, but I started liking Gundam when I was at the elementary school. The one that had an impact on me was “Mobile Suit Z Gundam”. The contents were clear, in the end the protagonist turns into a vegetative state and while watching those inappropriate things for a children I was like “what the hell is that?” (laughs). It was very different from the things about robots and heroes I’ve been knowing since that moment. I didn’t even understand the plot properly at that time, but to some extent, ever since I can remember, when I watched it I thought that it was a surprisingly deep story. I think it’s a story not suitable for children in which the good are rewarded and the bad are punished, in which there are opinions on both sides and each side fights for the things they must protect. I guess I liked it also because of that. Even if I started watching it in real time starting from “Z”, my favourite mobile suit was Qubeley. The robots I knew had an angular shape but, since Qubeley had a round shape, that streamlined feature was innovative.

I also went buying the gunpla with the pocked money I received. The first one I bought was a Char’s Zaku and, just in half of his body, you could expose the mechanics it had inside. Then there were supposed to be some kind of miniature bulb you had to insert where its eyes were so they could shine properly. That’s why I felt like it was more a thing to display instead of a thing to play with. But it was too difficult and I couldn’t build it well, so I remember asking my father to build it for me. Last year I went to the “Gunpla Expo Worldtour Japan” and there was a modeler named NAOKI who I became acquainted with, but that person is amazing. Recently, when I made a temporary store for my fashion brand, I was given a Qubeley gunpla as a present and I was so happy about that.

The mangaka I like is Morohoshi Daijiro. When I was in elementary school or so I went to play at one of my relatives’ place and at that time he had the Weekly Shonen Jump volume in which “Ankoku Shinwa” was serialized. I started to like the atmosphere of the pictures and the contents a lot since I read it. As for the plot, its basis were ethnology and archaeology and it also had quite a SF atmosphere… Besides, having the mystery factor, it was a worthwhile reading. Also, the unique design was good too. In addition to this, I also liked sports manga, a little bit of everything, I read pretty much everything.

HEARING

“Hearing”: something you can’t miss being an artist. According to Toshiya, it’s a valuable sensation that shakes many different emotions and also makes childhood memories come back alive.

“Hearing”

A sound in which one feels comfort, and then music.

I guess a sound in which I feel comfort is the sound of public baths. I hear it when I use the baths, the voices and the sound of daily existence echoing make me feel good. But this good feeling I get by using the baths may be just a bit deceiving. Talking about public baths, lately [the number of] stylish health centers has increased, isn’t it? Somehow health centers have a mechanical image. Like, they are way too beautiful… Getting into the bath and then eat one thing after another, it seems like a task that just leads to mere sleep. I feel like that’s completely different from public baths, they have an heart-warming aspect, I feel like they’re somehow close to onsen. Well, it doesn’t necessarily means that I hate health centers because I said so. When I go to other regions because of the lives, I go [to health centers] with the staff. There I get my body scrubbed. But, to my surprise, it happened I got it done by young girls and therefore I was a bit in panic (bitter smile).

The sound I hate is the noise of road construction in the middle of the night. When to that sound when I’m just about to fall asleep while lying down willing to sleep, I end up waking up bothered by it. Because of that my drowsiness disappears and I can’t sleep at all even if I’m willing to. I really want it to stop once for all.

I’m totally fine with high frequency sounds that are often labeled as detestable like the one you get when you scratch on a blackboard. Everyone around me was just like “Argh!” and seemed they hated it, but I was fine.

I was born in a rural area in Nagano and, since the mountains were close to where I was, I prefer the sound of nature instead of the peacefulness of the town. Even the sound of the frogs in the summertime could calm me down (laughs). As there were rice fields all around, you could hear them croaking the whole time. That reminds me that in the past I have a feeling there were some kind of Notostraca in the fields, but lately I can’t really see them. Even if it’s something that I recalled by chance. It’s not like I look in the fields all the time (laughs). I look at them when I stare out of the shinkansen windows while travelling to another region or when I go back home to my family. Then, I can’t see fireflies anymore. When I was a child, they often used to come to rest on the window screen and shine. I strayed a bit from the topic, but when I think about sounds, memories of a long time ago come back to my mind like this. I guess it’s because the things I felt from my childhood still remain just like this.

Talking about music, I can listen to everything. Or, in a better way, I listen to a wide range [of genres]. I listen to pop music and enka as well. When I was a child, my mother liked Sawada Kenji and Anzen Chitai and their music was often playing in the house. Then there was Yamaguchi Momoe, I think. I remember listening to her along with the others. That’s why, instead of pop being a recent thing, it’s more a thing of long ago… I tend to feel like listening to nostalgic things. Talking about really old song, I think I can know their melody too.

SMELL

“Smell” and “scent”. The one that impacts Toshiya the most is the former one. He says he hasn’t a very sensitive sense of smell. He doesn’t even have a good nose.

“Smell”

Food and places… smells that linger together with memories.

[The smell] I like… well, I think that probably you’ll understand me if you’re Japanese, but isn’t it the smell of the curry you have on Saturdays? (laughs) Like, when I came home from school and walked down the street, I could sense that peculiar smell of people preparing dinner coming from every house around. I really liked it.

Then, I also like the smell of rain a lot. I can’t compare it well with anything, but I like that wet smell that I can’t even express. Or rather the peculiar smell of soil and asphalt. I feel like my heart calms down. Besides I think that the smell of historical buildings feel somehow familiar to me. When we travel to different regions while on tour, I occasionally go to visit castles and so on, but I can sense a familiar smell when I go to my grandma’s place in the countryside. It rather feels quite humid. When I recall that scent, which was a smell to me during my childhood, all the time anywhere I am I’d connect it to my memories. Then, even the scent of museums and libraries is soothing, even though it’s not like I always go there. I like the characteristic scent and the silence. Lately I also enjoy entering cafés etc. and relaxing in there. I have a luxurious time [in there].

Among the smells I hate, the very first one to come to my mind is the one of stinky tofu. It’s eaten all over Asia and it’s made by fermented tofu and it’s a food similar to Japanese natto or kusaya, popular among foreigners. Again, its smell is just way too strong. I think we were probably touring somewhere around Shanghai or Taiwan and, as I wandered around the streets with all the members, there was a smell far from being the one of udon. It was so bad to that point of saying “I guess people’s dying somewhere because of this?!” (laughs) Actually I don’t know if that smell killed people. But its smell is so strong to the extent you pinch your nose. Since I was feeling uneasy about it, I asked the local people “What smell is it?” and they answered me “It’s the smell of food”. I thought “It can’t be true!” but people say that, even if it smelled so bad, once you eat it, you get into it. It’s horrible if you just take a smell of it, but I heard it’s delicious if you can manage to put it in your mouth. Even if I was told those things, it was absolutely impossible for me. I can’t eat it. Or perhaps I should say I can’t take it to my mouth (laughs).

I wasn’t really joking when I told that I pinch my nose. Either speaking of it, I think I’m an insensitive person. Sometimes there’s people who perceive something like “It doesn’t feel good” and who have a fine ability for sensing things. But I feel like women are definitely more sensitive about that.

TASTE

Toshiya, the one who isn’t picky about food, so far. As he said “I’m not that sensitive to taste, but I end up overreacting to hot and spicy food”.

“Taste”

He’s not really picky, but in fact he has a sweet tooth.

When we travel to different regions while touring, I look forward to eating those regions specialties. Even if I say so, I’m not even the type who’s a picky eater. It may sound unexpected, but I like sweet things. I like both japanese-style sweets and western-style sweets. I buy pretty much sweets of the konbini. After having breakfast, I drop in at the konbini and while thinking “Mhh…” I’m already reaching out for them (laughs). It’s hard to say what’s my favourite sweet thing. It fairly depends on the mood I’m in that very day. Mh, maybe it’s the moon cake (laughs). When I see it, I often feel like grabbing it. Some drinks to accompany it are hot green tea, soy milk or cow milk. The chemistry between those three and the moon cake is the best. I also like alcohol, so I drink it too while eating sweet things. Even moon cake and sake are absolutely perfect!

I don’t think there are things I can’t eat, but I don’t like spicy foods. Red things like chili are definitely out of discussion, and I don’t really like pepper as well. But for some reason, I’m fine only with wasabi. Since I’ve never eaten anything that stimulated me since I was young, I guess I haven’t that much immunity against hot food. Even the curry at my parents’ home wasn’t hot. In the past, when I used to go to play to at my friends’ home, I usually had curry. I remember being astounded after eating by its excessive hotness. Like “Is curry this hot?!”.

Then, I thing I still can eat but I don’t really like is coriander. I guess I prefer not to eat it. The ones who like it seems to appreciate it very much, but I can’t believe it. Lately on TV I saw many shops specializing in coriander, many all-you-can-eat coriander restaurants and so on and I thought that isn’t a thing I would eat like that. I heard there are many women who likes coriander, although I think that sweet things are suitable for women, but I can’t understand coriander.

There’s one more thing I hate. When we were on tour overseas, I really hate the pizza we used to have on the bus. It was more a matter of quantity than a metter of taste. It didn’t feel like japanese delivery pizza, a single slice was already too huge. We ate it all together, but it was… (bitter smile). I can’t like it. The pizza we ate in Italy was delicious, so it’s not like I hate pizza. That catering pizza we had overseas was awful.

Speaking of food, I used to cook often before. But lately I don’t do it that much. I used to make hamburger and cabbage rolls. When I cook, I may pay particular attention to it. Before I tried to cook thinking that if I cooked using incredibly expensive ingredients, it would have been super delicious, but it wasn’t really like that (bitter smile). I guess I didn’t like it because I wasn’t raised in a bourgeois family.

TOUCH

It feels that “touching” leads to many different sensations and behaviuor. It’s also something that’s connected to one’s interests and likings and that becomes an important factor to determine one’s appearance. How’s Toshiya’s touch being surrounded?

“Touch”

Painting, developing, building up.

It’s not really a hobby, but from long ago, around the time I went to Art school, I liked drawing. When I was a child, since in my neighbourhood there were more girls than boys, I often played with girls. But I started hating being rallied for playing house and from that time on I started drawing at home by myself. Since crayons stained, I draw a lot using pencils. Speaking of what I used to draw… I feel that I used to draw a lot of robots, as expected. I also draw the character of a picture book I liked called “Memementama” all the time. Like, it was this kind of cute ghost with just one red eye and a black body, a bit round. This mementama liked red things, so it would eat all red things. The story is a bit grotesque because the point of it is that when it finds out its own eye is red, it ends up eating it.

Then lately I’m interested in Rolex. In the past I used to think that Rolex were somehow too royal, but since I had the chance to hold in my hand one that was made in the same year I was born, I changed my mind and thought that good things are fine. From that time, whenever I tried to look for many different things about them, it was more interesting than expected. The Rolex company itself became a sort of secret society and the whole thing didn’t become evident. Maybe that’s because the brand image is firmly encircled. Because of that, nearly every information coming from Rolex comes like something that an employee leaked. Now I know things like that model was made around that time, but that’s a leaked information as well. Even that model and the newest one will change and I’ll seem like not knowing it anymore, but surely in a few years won’t anybody leak anything once again? That kind of hidden side is also intriguing.

Speaking of touch, I’m also interested in how a body is made. Meaning that I like to touch my body by myself. I’m turning training into an habit. When I say training, no matter how effort I put in doing it, but when I lost my concentration even for a bit, it loses all its meaning. That’s why I have to keep doing it every day. When I first started doing it it was fun, but the fatigue piles up little by little and doing it every day is tiresome. There are also times in which I’m too tired to do it. However, when neglecting it like that, my muscles disappear immediately. When I do it, I gain them on the part I trained, but when I don’t, they will degenerate two times faster… I think that kind of simple cycle became interesting. From that I learned again that I have to keep on doing anything.

“In conclusion”

About his current interests, roots and serialization.

This time, as a commemoration of the very first column of the series, we had to investigate Toshiya’s interests and likings by interviewing him about the five senses and, lastly, we tried to ask him about the things he’s interested in right now.

“Let me think… maybe it’s the long drama called “Maguromaru” (laughs). It’s the most interesting among these days’ dramas. Until now it was “Aibou”.”

In the entry of Smell the word “castle” popped up too, and it seems like he likes historical things very much.

“When I was a child, during Tango no Sekku [the festival that later became Kodomo no Hi, children’s day] I used to wear a paper helmet and an armour and, instead of having my name written on them, they had like “1Xth generation”. After having asked to my grandmother many things about that, somehow it felt like my family was a line of warriors. In my hometown Nagano once ruled the Takeda family, but there were the twenty-four generals of Takeda Shinken and it feels like my family was a descendant of one of them. That’s why, considering that, I may somehow feel fascinated.”

Toshiya is active in many fields like being a musician and making apparels but, does he assimilate various data from daily things in order to create anything?

“As far as the things I’m interested in are concerned, I think I’ll try to look into it them some extent, but I’m a lazy person (bitter smile). Because of that I guess it’s a fifty-fifty. I think it’s okay not to know in particular those things that I may be interested in, but I’m also fine not knowing. So, I’m the type who don’t really think he will create something from himself. But I cherish the connection with this.

It seems that the attitude of reaching out as much as possible for things he’s interested in didn’t change since he was a child.

“In fact I’m spoiled. I’m the type who gets anything he wants, but as I grew old I realised that there are also things I can’t get. So I learned that maybe I have to reach a good compromise with myself (laughs). But if there’s any chance, I tend to reach out for it. That’s because otherwise I won’t be able to grasp it.”

In this time serialization, we’re planning on having his creative part as a feature. As the one in charge of editing says, it seems that there are already a many different projects, but perhaps even showing his other aspect, the one that’s different from the usual one of him playing the bass on stage, would be great.

“I wonder how will it be. As far as personal things are concerned, I guess I’ll refrain a bit from telling them because I want to keep them for myself. That’s why I’m a bit afraid of telling the truth (laughs).”

This series, which will dig into Toshiya from various points of view, will start for real in the next issue. Don’t miss it!

[ayakashikurokitsune]

[kyotakumrau]

STER EDGE twitter 2018.12.09

【Toshiya's Creativity】

発売記念サイン会、終了いたしました！

ご参加くださった皆様、本当にありがとうございました！

たくさんの皆様がお手に取ってくださり、素敵な時間を過ごせたことに感謝いたします(灬ºωº灬)

The signing event commemorating the release of the book is finished!

Thank you to all who participated!

We are grategul as many people purchased the book and we got to spend a wonderful time(灬ºωº灬)

[vinushuka]

Promoting Toshiya's Creativity and looking very smart!

From STER EDGE on Twitter.

[thepriceofbeingaroseisloneliness]

Toshiya’s Creativity Vol 9: Take a walk

 We took a walk in Kyoto during a pause in the tour. What does “Walking” mean for Toshiya? It was a relaxing and calm interview, that includes a story about shoes, which are essential items for walking.

“There may have been a different life for me, but I think the path I’ve chosen is the best.”

Notes before reading: This is from ‘Toshiya’s Creativity’, the serialization done by Ster Edge Magazine and later compiled into a book under the same name. This is Vol 09 (Ster Edge 008), published in September 2018.

Links or credits to this post when the content is reposted or captured in other SNS is appreciated :) Scan by @robiconic​ --

“Things may become clear by thinking about them while walking….so it’s an important time for me.”

This shoot was done in the middle of DIR EN GREY’s  "TOUR 18 WEARING HUMAN SKIN". Since we had some time off in Kyoto, we decided to take a relaxing walk around Gion and Kamo river, which are ones of Kyoto’s most representative spots,  and take some pictures while doing the interview.

Even if we said a “relaxing walk” …..the shooting day was in early  August and the temperature was over 35ºC. We were doing the shooting enduring the heat as much as we could. While enjoying the streets of Gion, on the way, we went to a sweets shop seeking cool air….. By the time we arrived at the Kamo River, it was almost noon. Meanwhile, the theme of this issue is “walking=walking” (in a physical sense and figurative sense), so I asked Toshiya about “walking”, and his personal journey until now.

“Walking….. I like it but I haven’t done it much lately. As I like it, I’m trying to walk back home from work, or  when I go out drinking, before I would have taken a train or a taxi to get back home. If I’m about to go out and the temperature is good, I think "let’s walk”. When it’s a hot day like today, I get very frustrated (laughs). When I walk, I feel like I can think about a lot of things. It’s mostly about work. These days we are in the middle of the album production, so I just think about that. It’s very tough as this album production timing makes me feel trapped. But maybe that’s why walking feels like a reset. Since former days, while I’m walking and moving, many songs and apparel ideas come to my mind, as well as many images.  In that sense, walking may be an important time for me."

Toshiya also told me he often takes a walk, especially at the city they are playing in. Which was the most impressive city for him so far?

“When we are touring overseas, I walk around near the venue alone, by myself. Listening to music, I just walk around looking at the scenery. New York was really good, wasn’t it? It doesn’t matter how many times I visit it, it’s always an exciting place. It might be a cliché, but I thought I wanted to listen “English man in New York” by Sting (laughs). Then, Mexico. I was intrigued about going to places I can’t go in my daily life. As public safety is not so good, I didn’t go near places that were too dangerous but I wanted to feel places and atmospheres we don’t have in Japan. As I was curious about it, I wanted to see it anyways.”

As we were walking, I asked him about his pickiness about shoes.

“I like shoes. I like both leather shoes and sneakers, but I own a lot of leather shoes. When I buy shoes, I pick them completely motivated by design. I also like to take care of my shoes. Both sneakers and leather shoes have their own care methods, and they are profound. Once I looked it up, and I got more and more into it, and now I buy goods to take care of them. I started to try various shoe care methods while searching the internet. Depending on the material and shape of the shoes, there are some techniques for polishing, which is really interesting.It's fun to have a drink at home and take care of your shoes. "

It's a very adult-ish and unique hobby. Toshiya seems to care about walking.

"It's the same when I'm playing the bass, but I'm careful about my standing posture. Originally, I have a bad posture. Then, I thought it was normal, but it seems that my walking speed is a little fast. Once I was told that, there may be places where I go walking alone at a brisk pace”.

As he says that, it feels like he is not the kind of person that walks for leisure. He often walks ahead while we are shooting. However, he is kind enough to wait for the staff after that.

So far, I have asked Toshiya about his current way of walking, but this time I decided to ask him to talk about "walking = life". How do you look back on your life and how do you feel? And how do you want to go about your future life? The answer came back in  very Toshiya-like words.

“There may have been a different life for me, but I think the path I have chosen is the best.”

First, I asked about the sense of speed in his life, and from there, I could see Toshiya's outlook on life.

“Maybe it’s faster. I think after starting the band, it has been accelerating quickly. Until then, even when I was a student, it felt like it was slowly moving forward. Like, I can remember moments of those times vividly. I’ve talked before about my childhood in this series before, but I really remember those days. On the contrary, since the band started there are many things I can’t remember. I read it in some book, but it said something like ‘Humans keep living by forgetting’. I thought “That’s it”. Even if they are good things or bad things, trivial things in daily life as well... As we forget, we can renew ourselves. Of course, I think there are a lot of things you can’t or shouldn’t forget too. Apart from those extremes’ things, I feel there are a lot of things that should be forgotten.

Words that came out because of various experiences. Finally, I asked him what he thinks about his life until now.

"It was a good life, and I want to think it will be a good life in the future too. If not, what’s the point of all the things I have done until now? There were other choices and different lives too. But, as my reality is this now, I want to live my life to the fullest. I'm sure there will be some frustration and unbearable thoughts, but I want to regret as little as possible. Do my best with what I’m given now and do things I like…. I want to keep this kind of balance. What would I like to do now?  Bungee jumping (laughs)”

Toshiya’s voice

It was hot in Kyoto ~ The temperature like that, but it was also interesting that the cameraman was Mr. Izumi. Mr. Izumi was a person who often took pictures in the early days of DIR EN GREY. Maybe he was the first person to shoot the five of us together. He is such a memorable person. I was happy to meet him for the first time in a long time. It's nice to have photo shoot at a city we are playing in. Next time, I'd like to shoot in Hokkaido, Tohoku, and Kyushu.

Extra note:

In case you are curious, ‘Humans keep living by forgetting’ seems to be a quote by Ikari Gendō, a character from Evangelion.

“People can live by forgetting to remember”