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English | Japanese
2 - Things in Common
| Sonya | The other day, a cameraman acquaintance of mine told me that you and I are sort of alike. |
| Itoi | Oh? |
| Sonya | What he was saying is, you walked out on your lifetime career in the advertising world and started up "Hobonichi," while I didn't cling to my career as a stylist and moved on to shop management. He said we both didn't throw out what we'd created up to that point, but were able to leave it for what it is and move on to the next step. |
| Itoi | That's so true! Experience isn't perishable, so even if our titles or job descriptions change, we can always use our past experiences. I'll never forget the things I created during my advertisement career, even at my new job. |
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| Sonya | Did you actively leave advertising? |
| Itoi | I did. I quit advertising as a career. |
| Sonya | Why? |
| Itoi | To put it simply, someone's got to make the final decision. |
| Sonya | Someone else? |
| Itoi | Yes. Say I get a job offer from Person A. Once I receive my payment, even if I offer a second idea, Person A is the person who decides in the end which is better. |
| Sonya | Right. |
| Itoi | Even if I offer a choice of something I think is the best, if Person A rejects it, it’s out. |
| Sonya | Oh, that's true. |
| Itoi | Instead of going on like that, it got more interesting to fail with something I thought was great. So I decided to give up on working for sponsors and clients. I quit by saying, "I'll just be the client." |
| Sonya | Wow. Did you announce that you weren't doing it anymore? Or did you gradually start turning down jobs? |
| Itoi | I might have gradually turned down jobs. It was about two, three years into starting Hobonichi, so now it's been about twelve years. |
| Sonya | Has anything changed? |
| Itoi | I've become overwhelmingly healthy. |
| Sonya | Really! |
| Itoi | It's like… My back is straight, my body feels good, I'm running faster… |
| Sonya | Amazing. (laughs) Nothing but good things. |
| Itoi | Nothing but! I'm told, "You're as good a guy as ever." |
| Sonya | … (laughs) |
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| Itoi | Jokes aside, even in the advertising world I've seen people end up gridlocked and cramped. All I can say is that I'm not dealing with that anymore. Distancing myself from incoming jobs has made everything so much easier. Of course, that comes with a lot of responsibility. |
| Sonya | It's been the same for me—it was mostly incoming work. I hated waiting for a phone call to give me a job. Plus, when I was doing photography as a stylist, jobs were so irregular that I never knew what I'd be doing next or where. I felt like my body would collapse at that pace. Gradually, I started feeling like I'd rather try out things that I want to do rather than what people tell me to do. So I can't blame anything on anyone after opening a shop of my own accord. I'm stuck with all the responsibility. |
| Itoi | I totally understand. You and I might appear to be totally different, but maybe we're surprisingly similar. |
| Sonya | Maybe we’re twins separated at birth. (laughs) Except our ages are a little off. |
2012-11-07-WED
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Stylist: Michio Hayashi Photographer: Masahiro Sanbe |
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