Fashion (=the human image) is created through expression and dialogue. There are still many unknowns hidden in people.

DIVERSITY IN THE ARTS TODAY (hereinafter called “DA”)
Why did you decide to make clothes with a 3D printing pen in the first place?

TSUNO Seiran (hereinafter called “TSUNO”)
Although I had never received any training in making clothes, I began studying at coconogacco, a fashion school run by designer YAMAGATA Yoshikazu. He told me, “You don’t have to sew. Just try making clothes.” So I came up with the idea of using a 3D printer. I went to a store to look at the 3D printers, but found that they were expensive and could only print small items, though the output was of high quality. Next to the printers was a 3D printing pen. With this pen, you can create large three-dimensional objects by steadily moving your hand to draw each line, one at a time, with the plastic that is extruded from the tip. The results are shabby and have a handmade feel, but I thought: This is it!

DA
You captured a lot of attention at ITS 2018, which is said to be the gateway to international success for new fashion designers. What made you decide to work at Bethel House despite your potential for further growth as an artist?

TSUNO
On top of the expectations of those around me, there was a time when I felt crushed by pressure within me to create something even better next time. I could not do anything and became depressed, thinking that I had nothing left to give. Then I remembered the time I once spent with patients in a psychiatric ward, and how that time had sustained me. I had never been so excited, so liberated, and so free as when I was with them. They are my source of inspiration. The time I spent with them was the only authentic time in my life, and I wanted to return to that kind of place.

Bethel House is a place where people with mental disabilities live together, work alongside each other, and express themselves out in the community, rather than in a hospital setting. The freedom to meet and engage with them out in the town was one of the first things that attracted me to Bethel House. Another significant factor was that I thought that the Tōjisha-kenkyū (Self-directed Research) that has been conducted there for more than 20 years had a lot in common with expression in fashion.

DA
What do you mean when you say that Tōjisha-kenkyū is similar to expression in fashion?

TSUNO
First of all, Tōjisha-kenkyū involves people with serious problems, such as addiction or schizophrenia, who become active “researchers” of their own ailments and discuss their findings with their peers in order to find ways to help themselves.

To tell you a little about myself, when I was a college student, I used to go out to town wearing heavy white makeup. At the time, I had to do this in order to preserve myself. Ever since I was a child, I have always loved making things. Although I dreamed of having a creative career, I gave that up and went to nursing school at my parents’ urging, because I was convinced I needed qualifications in order to make a living. It is a bit of a paradox that I became a nurse who has to interact with people, when I have always been bad at interacting with people. Mentally, I was struggling, and dressing up was a coping mechanism for myself.

DA
So expressing yourself through fashion was your salvation.

TSUNO
I wanted to work in a job where I could use my own experiences to help others, so I attended coconogacco to study fashion while working as a nurse in a psychiatric ward. What made a huge impression on me at coconogacco was Yamagata’s words: “Fashion is about creating a human image.”

I see the Tōjisha-kenkyū conducted at Bethel House as creating a human image through language. For example, Mr. A, who experiences auditory hallucinations, separates the voices from himself and talks about them with catchy and unique names such as “Alien Voice-san” and “Gangster Voice-san.” By doing so, Mr. A’s image, which was at one time “serious and difficult to handle” due to his struggles with auditory hallucinations, has gradually become more charming. The language that emerged from Tōjisha-kenkyū helped to reconstruct Mr. A’s image, completely changing the way he is perceived by those around him.

DA
That sounds just like the power of fashion.

TSUNO
Right. So I thought it would be great if I could explore Tōjisha-kenkyū together with everyone, not only through words, but also through various approaches such as pictures, three-dimensional objects, and materials. I hoped to be inspired myself, and that new ideas and ways of expression would emerge from the experience. Eventually, I hoped that we could all make clothes together. These were some of my expectations.

DA
At Bethel House, you started an art project as a form of non-verbal expression.

TSUNO
I was very surprised at the members’ high level of linguistic expression. Bethel House is the birthplace of Tōjisha-kenkyū, after all. On the other hand, some members had difficulty with speech and verbal expression and were unable to participate in the Tōjisha-kenkyū circle, and their presence caught my attention. I was sure that these people must have some way of expressing themselves, so I tried holding a workshop where we drew pictures. I myself have not been very good at expressing myself in words since I was a child. When I was in junior high and high school, I used to convey my image of myself by drawing self-portraits and cartoons.

DA
Usually, people hesitate when asked to draw a picture out of the blue.

TSUNO
Expressing oneself is something that can only be done when there is a relationship in which one feels secure that their form of expression will be accepted. Time was necessary, after all. When I first suggested that we draw freely, everyone rejected the idea, saying, “It’s impossible for me to draw a picture.” But one day, one of the staff members who cooperated with me drew a picture of a tree, and another person copied it. Then two, three members drew trees, and when I put their drawings on the wall, yet another member drew one too. I kept putting the drawings up, and this process repeated until eventually, about a year after I began working there, almost all of them had drawn a picture of a tree.

Everyone drew trees that were beyond my own imagination. Each tree was unique and attractive, and let their distinct personality shine through. I was so impressed.

I was also surprised to see a change in the eyes of the friends and close supporters with whom I interacted on a daily basis. Some of them are now continuing to create pictorial expressions and poems out of habit, and the scope of their activities is gradually expanding, with their work being exhibited at facilities in town, at the clinic they all use, and recently in Sapporo.

DA
After that, did you yourself want to try a novel form of expression?

TSUNO
I didn’t feel that way at all. In fact, once I got everyone to draw, they were all artists. That was already enough, because those who look at their work see it as the human image of the artist. From that point on, I no longer felt the need to create things in the form of clothes. In fact, it may even be violent to wear their work in the form of clothes. That being the case, I thought it would be better to just deliver their expression as is and leave it to those who see it or who are involved with it to decide how they imagine it.

I once worked with a person who had such difficulty speaking that I had no idea what he was thinking or what kind of person he was. However, he began to draw pictures of what was going on in his mind. Surprisingly, he started drawing strange landscapes with a lot of fluorescent pink, applying the colors in layers like the earth’s strata. Everyone started talking to him a lot, probably because of the unusualness of his work.

Eventually, he began to tell me about his life in writing: that he grew up by the sea in Tohoku and thinks fondly of his hometown, that he used to work as a system developer in Shimbashi,Tokyo and about some good experiences he had recently. A dialogue began to develop between us.

At the same time, the expression in his drawings became more and more interesting. The image I had of him changed completely. I see. So he’s someone who wears a world like this.

I realized that it was already “fashion” to do so. Fashion is not only things that take the form of clothes.

DA
So you’ve developed a new perspective on fashion—that it’s fashion even if you don’t wear it, even if you don’t put it on.

TSUNO
I also realized that there are so many unknown parts hidden in people. It really changed the way I look at other people.

DA
On top of that, are you still searching for your own form of expression?

TSUNO
I was eager to incorporate my experiences as a nurse into my work and create pieces with the members here, but I haven’t actually been able to connect anything I’ve been doing until now to the way I express myself in fashion, and I don’t think that’s my main goal right now. I am more interested in discovering new, unknown aspects of each person through their involvement in art, creating dialogue and new connections through this, and seeing the change in the eyes of the people around them, including their supporters. I have been enjoying this so much that I even made a zine-like book with them. We also post on Instagram. （MINABOOK）

That said, I also felt keenly how narrow art activities are in the world of mental welfare in Japan. When I return to Tokyo, I would first like to revisit expression as a method of self-help. In the near future, I hope to work as an art director in the field of mental welfare and medical care in parallel with my own creative activities. And I hope to think about the various questions I am facing in the field with all kinds of people, beyond the boundaries of welfare. I am currently in graduate school to re-educate myself for this purpose.