M: I understand you have humble beginnings as a working holiday boy, can you tell me a bit about your beginnings?
A: Yes, I came to Australia in 1986 as a working holiday maker. I guess like other working holiday makers I found a few jobs including kitchen hand and guiding tours for Japanese tourists and so on. And then I studied English.
M: About the tour guiding, Dr Yuji Sone [of the Japan Cultural Centre] told me one day, a long time ago you were on a tour guiding course together and that you had to turn up in suits. So he turned up in his suit and you came in a suit but one of the sleeves was missing, is that right?
A: In fact a cuff was missing actually, not quite the sleeve. I tried to find something that was different and in fact I was able to find something different in Paddington and I got really excited, and that’s when I started feeling maybe also I could make something for myself as well, rather than keep looking for something made.
Akira 2003 collection
M: You mentioned to me earlier that you felt a kind of freedom here in Australia, the freedom to design what you wanted to design. Can you tell me a bit about that?
A: I was a bit of a fashion victim really, mostly when I was a teenager when I was in Kyoto. We used to save money to buy clothes. But when I came here I had actually, really literally a few dollars and had no choice except perhaps buying some material inexpensively and put my own creativity into the garments which I felt satisfied, myself, to wear. Really, Australia gave me the opportunity to start and I think that one can do anything if one has passion and belief. So I guess that’s how I started.
M: So tell me, what do you think it is about Australia that gave you that sense of opportunity?
A: Well, Australia has this particular atmosphere which a young country has. It’s a spirit which you feel influenced by, a spirit which has plenty of freedom, a spirit which is fresh and youthful. I was very inspired by its atmosphere, and when I went back to Kyoto to stay in touch with my family, the sky was lower than how it is here, in fact the ceiling of the house was quite low, that was really noticeable.
M: Speaking of Kyoto, you often utilise old garments from Kyoto, a lot of your work is inspired by materials and methods of Japan, can you tell me a little bit about that?
A: Since I left Japan, I realised that Japan has such a strong cultural point. It is an ancient country and it’s got its own customs which are very unique. I started to identify those, once I arrived here. In fact it is a bit of a contradiction, I’m contradicting myself, because I was missing Japan, so much, but yet, yet I wasn’t. Sorry, I hope I’m making sense! I wasn’t really missing Japan because it was such a relief to be able to stay in such a clean and kind of empty space in Sydney. But yet I was missing its Japanese uniqueness in terms of habit, in terms of the relationship when you encounter the Japanese. There is a common knowledge which is unspoken and it makes you really comfortable and in fact a bit lazy. You don’t speak a lot when you are with Japanese people, you know. So I went back and I happened to be in a flea market in Kyoto, one of the flea markets, it’s called Kobo-san, which is held on the 23rd of every month. My family lives just ten minutes from the temple so I took a bicycle and then just out of curiosity that I might just have a look, and I was amazed by the richness of colours, embroidery, and well, the textiles, basically. And I couldn’t help but keep buying, quite a few bags full of it actually.
M: So you bought all this material from the temple near your home in Kyoto and you brought it back into the wide open spaces of Australia. What happened then?
A: I thought I might give them away as a gift…
M: That’s very Japanese!
A: Plus some little Japanese sweets that you usually buy…
M: Yeah, yeah, I do that all the time.
A: And then I hang them when I arrive back in Sydney and look at them again, and under different light, under blue sky, it appeared that it’s very modern. At the flea market in Kyoto, they were antique, vintage, old-fashioned items, but once you see them in a different environment suddenly, suddenly you realise, wow, the colours are slightly different. I tried the kimono on a western body and the kimono is no longer a kimono somehow, I mean it is still the same shape but is no longer like a kimono anymore. Once I had tried the kimono onto a female body I started to fit them and cut them and make them into dresses, very quickly, and then she liked them, and her friends liked them. So I guess that’s how I got into the transformation of kimono.
M: That’s fantastic to hear because I’ve also heard that at the beginning it was the fact that you brought in these Japanese influences that got you started. You’d have write-ups about being the “Japanese designer”. In a sense, you’ve said to me before that that boxed you in, that you wanted to continue your freedom but as long as the critics were calling you a “Japanese designer” you were boxed into that. Can you tell me a bit about that and how you’ve overcome it?
A: Yes, because I started by unpicking and cutting up those vintage kimonos, I started to be categorised as Japanese, “what’s-his-name Japanese designer”, that’s what I used to be called, “Akira Something-or-other”. And I started feeling, yes, I was born in Japan, but I would like to see myself globally somehow and it was actually a frustration. Then I tried to move away from kimono culture and find a new style or perhaps find a new technique in the way of cutting fabric or in the way of making, sewing, which I experimented with in different ways. For instance by combining Indian embroidery, by combining Italian woolen jersey, by combining Chinese prints and so on. Somehow a few years later perhaps, perhaps the year 1999, that was quite a big year for me, I had a fashion parade in May, in Sydney, Australian Fashion Week…
M: I went to that, it was full of batik and things as well, as well as kimono design, I remember that, it was beautiful.
A: Yeah, there was actually a demonstration of cultural craftsmanship, I think, in the collection. There is a global textile there. Then I was acknowledged as a designer, without “Japanese”, independent of “Japanese” or “Australian”.
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