Otaku2 Interview: Akagi Shigure

23.07.2008 by Patrick W. Galbraith

Akagi Shigure (紅樹時雨), 45, is a Gunma native who has been crafting high-grade, life-size, ball-joint dolls for 14 years. He was trained by a disciple of Yotsuya Simon, who in turn was responding to Hans Bellmer's surreal work from the 1930s. Akagi was part of the first doll boom in Japan in the 1980s. He has presented works at the Design Festa 2006 and the first Art Fair Tokyo in 2006, where he began to garner fame for his work “Ongaku,” a disengaged torso of a young lady whose serene face uncannily captures the nuanced expression of listening to music on the train. His surreal work is reminiscent of Shirow Masamune, an eclectic mix of otaku culture from anime and lolicon to idols and robots. He has upcoming shows at Maru Gallery and the Maruzen Figure Exhibition, both in October.


How did you start making dolls?

Akagi Shigeru: I came to Tokyo when I was 28, and went to graphic design school. When I graduated, I worked for a company, then quit and did my own freelance work. I was doing everything the old analog way, and at some point things went digital and the work stopped coming. I have been out of work for six years now. I felt, well, people maybe were no longer necessary in this world, maybe like the rest of Japan where advanced robots, computers and technology were taking over work, life and society. That inspired me to make the Prototype Unit 01. I had spent three years learning to make dolls in a class with Yoshida Ryo, originally to use in films I was planning, and I had been making dolls for some time. Once I was out of work, I turned all my energies to that. I didn’t fuse the joints together and I showed the insides of the dolls, so they resembled robots. For me, there is really no difference in the concept of something not human but resembling human made by human. That was very new at the time.

But why dolls? In film or in form, why this subject?

AS: When I started to make dolls, I had no idea how fulfilling it would be! I got totally hooked on it. It is deep, unbelievably deep, something I did not know could exist in this day and age. You can express so much with these forms. Maybe there aren’t so many people left who express through dolls, but they are like a vehicle, a medium to communicate. I can transmit something to people through them. There is something of us reflected in dolls. They are frozen images of what we do, what we might do, and what we desire to do. Maids, kickboxing, beautiful children, soldiers, these are what I see on TV and in the world around me.

What inspires you to work?

AS: I am in Akihabara twice a week buying materials for reference. I visit K-Books and Oimoya, the junior idol [basically below age 12] store, a lot, because I need digital photo albums that show the subject from multiple angles. I focus on figures, doujinshi, junior idols and the like. Some people tell me they can see the resemblance of idols, models and talents in my work. I like idols, so it is not a surprise! I don’t exactly know why, but looking at junior idol images soothes me. I do not have children of my own, so seeing them makes me happy. Over time, they grow and change, and I like to think of what kind of people they will become. I am particularly using the works of Charm Kids, a company with about 100 girls from grade to high school ages. All of them are scouted, so they tend to be very cute. Almost 70 percent of the idol events at Oimoya use Charm Kids. I feel very close to Akihabara, because I am there so often, and I share many of the hobbies. The city, stores and people have a unique flavor.

What are you doing with these images in your art?

AS: I am taking in an otaku worldview to putting it into the work. In this sense, the form is somewhat decided. In anime, there is talk of an impasse when things split into robots and beautiful girls [or mecha and moe]. I am putting these two streams of the culture back together as a whole in the doll forms. All of them are female, right? I thought someone would question me on that, because a robot soldier could be male, but no one ever did. I was a little disappointed, I guess. The values and visual culture are just so deeply intertwined that fighting girls are normal. It would be boring or cliché to do men. I myself don’t know why this is the shape of things, but it is the way I perceive it.

What is the most important part of doll making?

AS: The mouth. I know everyone is so into the eyes, but that is a human thing, isn’t it? A human speaks with his or her eyes. A doll has eyes, but cannot speak. So, I think it is absolutely crucial to capture the human-ness of a mouth in that moment someone is about to speak. The lips have to parsed just so, and the light reflected. I spend a lot of time on this. It takes about a year to complete one doll, though I work on several at once. If you capture the mouth, it looks as if they are just about to move and speak. One lady at Design Festa 2006 was absolutely convinced one piece I exhibited behind a counter was alive! She was so shocked when she took a closer look at this “receptionist.”

Are dolls something of a phenomenon in Japanese culture at large?

AS: Do you mean the boom? Actually, from my standpoint it is already over. The mainstream media is taking notice, but society has run its course on this one. Dolls will never be over for otaku, however, as this image is somehow very near to the heart of the culture.

Are dolls in other countries different from Japanese ones?

AS: I am really not sure about overseas, so this is just speculation, but the religious aspect of dolls seems different. Japanese don’t believe God created Man, so we really have no problem making robots or dolls in the shape of people. Maybe even trying to overcome being human. The absence of the moral element is one of the advantages of Japanese doll making. However, this is not the entire story. Figures are from a two-dimensional world and based on characters. Original figures do not sell well. Dolls are based in reality, or at least I think they are, but maybe that isn’t so clear anymore. Japanese fixate on this connection to reality through the doll, which actually limits progress of doll and robot research. We make dolls based on what we desire, or like, or want to do or be. We project what we cannot or want to do onto them. The costume and the way it looks are far more important to the fantasy of reality than the actual object itself. The Japanese level technically lags far behind other countries.

What do you want to do in the future?

AS: I have no idea. As I said, I do not have a job, so I am not sure how many years I can continue making dolls this way. Of course, the best thing would be if people liked them and I could make more for a living. I would be very happy is even a few people would take an interest in dolls. The age of my master Yoshida [Ryo, a disciple of Yotsuya Simon], when art books inspired casual interest, seems to be disappearing. I am afraid that if no one looks, dolls will disappear at this very awkward moment. Doll makers are not so common anymore. Orient Industry actually propositioned me to do work for them! I turned them down, but it just shows how small this world has become. I am also experimenting with making figure sized dolls to explore what would happen if figures were made using the art of dolls. I guess my biggest dream would be a return to that early Showa Era when dolls were in front of every store. Peko-chan was for Fujiya, Sato-chan was for Sato Pharmaceutical, and I could be for Tower Records! I put a lot of time into the smile, so if a doll was made to greet “please come in” and bow, wouldn’t that be something? I imagine someone else will do this long before me.