The Ability to Make It Work

Masuda

(Enters back room) This is our secret room.

Itoi

Pretty nice secret you’ve got here. Boy, this is a really nice place.

Masuda

Really?

Itoi

Yeah. It’s nice to meet you, I’m Itoi. I’m glad we could meet.

Masuda

Wow, I’m so happy I got to meet you. I’ve been really excited about it. Thanks for coming today.

Itoi

I’m sure that whatever we talk about today, it’s going to be really interesting.
In fact it’s not often I get to meet people from such a different world than I.

Masuda

Oh really?

Itoi

It’s already quite unusual for me to come to the Kawaii Monster Cafe in the first place. I’m actually quite a lazy person, and I don’t concern myself with places that have newly opened or are really popular or well-known. But when I heard about this place, I just knew I had to come.

Masuda

I’m honored.

Itoi

I saw it somewhere on the news online, but I knew it wasn’t the kind of place I could come on my own. So at work one day I took some of my employees here, we met some of the Monster Girls, and took lots of pictures.

Masuda

I’m glad. Thank you so much.

Itoi

But when I actually came, something struck me as odd. This place has a fantasy theme, but it’s not a place that just takes the cuteness people expect, wraps it up nicely, and serves it on a platter. There’s something visceral about this place. Something premeditated about it, something clashing.

Masuda

Yes.

Itoi

I can see how it would take a lot of guts to put together a place like this. I’m sure it was an incredible amount of work that would be tempting to just drop halfway through. And I thought to myself, now that I’ve been here, I can’t just act like this never happened. So I found out that you were the one that put this place together, looked up your 6%DOKIDOKI shop, and bought a magazine about it. I also read your autobiography, Family Tree Cutter.

Masuda

Wow, you even read Family Tree Cutter? Thank you.

Itoi

The writing style is completely different, but it’s just like the hit book How to be BIG by Ei-chan (Eikichi Yazawa).

Masuda

You think so?

Itoi

Yeah. It’s written with the sense, “I haven’t reached the goal yet,” but it starts out with a refusal to stay in such a terrible place, travels through all kinds of interesting episodes, and arrives at where you’re at today. Although, it has been years since the book came out.

Masuda

Right. Family Tree Cutter actually came out before the 2011 disasters, and before I worked with Kyary Pamyu Pamyu.

Itoi

That’s why I’d like to talk to you today about what’s happened since the book came out.

Masuda

Thank you very much. I’m actually quite moved that I’m able to talk with you today. I, like many others, have been greatly influenced by the work you’ve done in the past. And I’ve chosen the path I’m on today because of my admiration for Shuji Terayama, so words are very important to me.

Itoi

Ah, I see.

Masuda

Actually, words are the most integral part when I think about all this cafe’s interior decoration. I designed this place with the concept of visually expressing the power of words.

Itoi

Ah, so it’s all about words. So that’s why you’ve done something so painstaking.

Masuda

Oh, you think? (laughs)

Itoi

If you’d started with the goal of visual entertainment, it’d be easy to build from that. But you can’t just move forward if you’re grounded with that foundation of words. Even if you called this place an “indescribable cafe,” that’s not going to make this place what it is. You’ve got to take responsibility by building it into an indescribable cafe one step at a time. And that’s a very strenuous job.

Masuda

It certainly is. But as difficult as it is, visualization is a means for me to express myself, so it’s very important to me. It’s that visual nature that allows me to transcend words and communicate my message to the world. So from that end, visualization is another form of words for me.

Itoi

I can see that clearly.

Masuda

It’s also fun to see when I complete one of these “visualization of words” and it actually surpasses my expectations. Honestly, it’s pretty boring when I make something and it turns out about how I was expecting. At the same time, I get bored when I’m at that point in the creation process where I’ve thoroughly built up an image in my mind. That’s why I prefer to work together with all kinds of people, have us make mistakes, and end up with a finished product that exceeds my expectations.

Itoi

I know exactly what you mean. I hate having an idea and bringing it to fruition as-is. When I make something, I prefer not to just press it in a mold. I’d rather sculpt the clay so it gradually takes on its shape, changing my mind as I go along. Even when I sit down to write, I go into it knowing only the most basic theme of what I’ll talk about.

Masuda

So when you write, do you just come up with it as you go along?

Itoi

I do, but it doesn’t actually go that smoothly. It’s more like I’m having an internal conversation with myself, asking what I want to write. That might be along the lines of what you were saying earlier when you create things. Even your autobiography. There are parts of it that suddenly turn poetic.

Masuda

I could have written the book in a normal style, but yes, there are parts that are suddenly written as poems.

Itoi

That’s one of the reasons I wanted to meet you. As I read your book, I felt we shared a similar way of thinking.

Masuda

When I first started writing Family Tree Cutter, I worked very closely with an editor as I went along. But halfway through, I just got into this high as I was writing, like something took over me.

Itoi

Yes, that seems to have happened to you. Like something appears out of nowhere and says “gimme the mic, I’ve gotta talk.”

Masuda

That’s a good way of putting it. That’s exactly how it felt.

Itoi

And there was one thing I was impressed by when reading your book. Many of the kids who are drawn to you have bad backgrounds, don’t they?

Masuda

Yeah, I think a lot of people have grown up still holding on to scars from their childhood.

Itoi

But I think you have a really healthy sense of distance with those children. You don’t say “I’m going to rescue you,” but instead take a completely frank approach. It takes a great deal of confidence to be able to do that.

Masuda

As I said in the book, it’s always felt that way. Like those are the kinds of people I find myself surrounded by. Most of the people who work for my 6%DOKIDOKI shop and the customers who come to this cafe are people who harbor scars like that. It’s not that I’m trying to attract that kind of person, nor do I want to be a public figure trying to change the world. I just naturally attract people like that. It’s been that way my whole life, so at this point I’ve come to realize that I’m the one being supported by these kids.

Itoi

That almost reminds me of Nausicaä, when she gets carried by the Ohm.

Masuda

That’s true, I can see it being a little Nausicaä-esque.

2016-12-06-Tue

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