More 2019.02 - Nino's 'It'
Apologies for the delay! Life happened.
This was a great read, I’m going to miss this series SO MUCH. >___<
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It {一途}
The Penultimate Chapter Special
~Drinks and conversation with the boys~
Chapter 122
Things that can be spoken of now
Ninomiya Kazunari, who has wholeheartedly stood before the camera for 10 years, and the two who kept watch over him. The three men who shared this path have harboured their respective feelings….
On a certain early winter day, a cold drizzle soaks the ground. Ninomiya-san, who has just returned to Tokyo after finishing up with concerts in another region, has just turned up at the izakaya. Awaiting him are cameraman Emori Yasuyuki-san and stylist Iga Daisuke-san. They’re the staff members who have have unfailingly supported every single chapter throughout this series. However, they have never once had a meal together, much less gone drinking together. In the 10 years, what sort of feelings do these men who have stoically continued their platonic relationship share? Thus begins the first and last heart-to-heart talk between these three people.
Three people who had already met in their younger days.
――Do you remember how the title of this series, ‘It’, was chosen?
NK: No, I don’t. (laughs)
――All the staff for this series had compiled their suggestions for the title in a list, and then Ninomiya-san had looked at it and went, “Let’s use this”. ‘It’ was Emori-san’s suggestion.
NK: Heh, was that so?
EY: At first, when I was told about the series, I watched the movie ‘Ao no Honoo’ (The Blue Flame).
ID: Directed by Ninagawa (Yukio)-san, right?
EY: That’s right. The opening was a Pink Floyd song, right? I thought that song really matched Ninomiya-kun’s image. Back then, I sort of arbitrarily felt that, well, not exactly that you seemed distant, but that you might have a hard core of sorts, so the word ‘ 一途 / ichizu' (wholehearted, earnest) came to mind. Then I bought a dictionary and looked it up and found that it could also be read as ‘ 一途 / itto' (way, course).
NK: So it had a double meaning?
EY: Yeah. When I told Iga-san about it, he said that it could also work as ‘It’, so that’s how it turned out.
NK: To begin with, Emo (Emori), when you first agreed to doing this series, did you know of ‘Ninomiya Kazunari’?
EY: I did! I did, but I didn’t know you well. But back when I was an assistant, I’d seen you in the studio before.
NK: Eh??
EY: It was a shoot for an idol magazine. Arashi hadn’t been formed yet, everyone was about 15-16 years old at the time.
ID: I’ve also been to Johnny’s sets back when I was an assistant.
NK: Really?
ID: I was also pretty young back then, so when I was leaving the studio, fans mistook me for one of the idols, but when they took a second look they reacted like, “huh, I was mistaken?” (laughs)
NK: Ahahaha!
ID: That rockstar feeling was great.
NK: I had some encounters with Iga-san on and off after that, but Emo, from then up until the series started, we didn’t meet again, right?
EY: That’s right. So like, my impression from watching ‘Ao no Honoo’ was a little warped. When I first saw Ninomiya-kun in your teens, you had a colourless, transparent image, but after I watched the movie it was ultramarine. It’s gone back to the colourless/transparent image now, though.
NK: Now!? In 10 years of doing the series, it reverted to that?
EY: Mm.
NK: Distilled Ninomiya, huh? (laughs)
EY: Originally it was colourless and transparent, but there was a sort of ‘youth’ that only emerged when you were working, so I guess it looked ultramarine that way.
ID: You know, Nino tends to be entrusted with people's ‘youth’.
NK: You might be right. I mean, I was still playing university student roles right up to about 2 years ago.
Nino, who gives off an especially strong feeling of fantasy in concerts
EY: Previously when I saw Ninomiya-kun at an Arashi concert, it just occurred to me that it’d be impossible to replicate your expression there in ‘It’. How should I put it - it looked like you’d leapt out of a picture book.
NK: Me? Really?
EY: Something like a fantasy, or like from a girls’ manga….
NK: Concerts have that about them. Of course we do it for the sake of all the people who come, but even for me, it feels like a dream.
ID: It’s not like you just work for the ticket price’s worth. For instance, say it’s 9000 yen; you could just perform 9000 yen’s worth or something, but that’s not what you do. It’s sincerity towards your fans, isn’t it? I was given the chance to do the wardrobe for Arashi’s concerts previously, and there was an incredibly service-centric mindset there. There was a real sense of ‘we won’t know unless we go there’. I thought it was really amazing.
NK: Yeah, ‘won’t know unless we go there’ is probably a thing for us. To us, concerts are special. There’s an unmistakably different atmosphere about them. I mean, just 10 minutes after we yell, “Thaaank youuu!” or “Come play again some day!” to 50 thousand people, we’re calmly thanking the staff for today. People ask how we can switch gears so fast, but of course you just do, pretty normally (laughs). When I see people taking things seriously because it’s part of their job, I think they’re admirable.
ID: I have one question. You’ve been doing concerts like this for 20 years, right? I’m sure they have their value, of course, but when you’re young, you don’t really appreciate that, do you? Did that gradually increase over time?
NK: I think I’ve not changed ever since a certain period of time, and I’ve always been grateful since. There was once our seniors had concerts in Nagoya, and there was an absurdly strong typhoon which caused traffic to grind to a stop. Pretty much all the audience couldn’t make it. There were barely 1000 people in the audience.
ID: Was this when you were a back-dancer?
NK: Yeah. But they held a meeting and were like, since these people had made it all the way out here, the show would go on anyway. But once we started, because of where I was positioned, there was literally nobody there in front of me in the audience. It was basically like during rehearsals. When I changed position a little, there were like maybe 2-3 people and they seemed sort of embarrassed, so I felt embarrassed too (laughs). But though there were people who couldn’t make it for various reasons, even if the place was empty, we knew there were people who were defying that power. Since then, I’ve always been conscientious to be grateful. The whole thing is rooted in the idea that Arashi must always have ‘something’ for our audience to enjoy.
In this series, we caught real expressions of ‘Ninomiya Kazunari’
Sometimes, when delivering his photographs shot in film to the editorial department, cameraman Emori-san has memos added to the ends of the photographic paper. There’d be things like ‘Nino-kun is heartbreaking, gentle, sexy’ scrawled on them. However, despite having shot more than 120 chapters together, he says he’s exchanged “not even an hour in total” of words with Ninomiya-san. The reason he feels this is because he really gives no directions during the shoots. When the two of them face each other, it’s like Ninomiya-san is watching over his younger brother while he stands silently before the camera, and Emori-san presses the shutter, respectful of his older brother. In actual fact, their ages are the opposite, and there’s an intimate atmosphere there which nobody else can intrude upon.
――Just now, Emori-san said that Ninomiya-san’s expression during concerts would be “impossible to replicate in ‘It’”. What sort of expressions have you captured in the course of this series?
EY: ‘Real’ ones, I suppose. But even if you were to plan them in advance, you can’t really capture them. There’s sort of flow to the shoots for this series, though I might be thinking things like how I’d like to capture a slightly more cheerful expression this time compared to the previous ones. Like how we shot at the dry riverbed despite the rain; though we were sheltered from the rain while shooting under the trees, naturally he wouldn’t be smiling (laughs). But no matter what directions I were to give, it’s no match for the expression Ninomiya-kun makes when something catches his eye or when he’s caught up in the moment.
ID: A ‘raw’ expression, huh?
EY: Yeah. Ninomiya-kun is generally passive; he won’t move unless it’s necessary. I don’t really say that much either, so there are times when there are no reactions or anything. But when he’s brought somewhere for the first time, there’d be a moment where he’d be properly checking out his surroundings. I’ve tried to include the parking ticket in this series, and if I happen to capture a good light in his eyes at the time, I can create a story out of that when it comes to printing the photos. For example, when I shoot children, if I compose the shot properly so that there’s light that looks like a flash of intention in their eyes, there’s a story there even with kids who are just 2 months old. So I figured it’s the same sort of thing.
NK: Emo’s always been unique in that sense, hasn’t he? Even in the world of cameramen.
ID: Yeah, I think he’s unique.
NK: I mean, there aren’t many people who still shoot in film.
ID: There aren’t many who also applaud every time they finish a shoot (laughs).
EY: Well, that’s, um…. (laughs)
NK: You don’t have any assistants, either.
EY: That’s something we all decided on when we started the series. Like, come alone, leave alone. That way, with both hands full, you don’t have to go beyond your category.
NK: Is that why? I just thought Emo was an unusual case (laughs). You don’t talk much, plus you don’t ask for any particular expressions. It seemed pretty subtle to me. But once, when the other staff kept talking through one shoot, Emo got angry and was like, “Shut up!”
EY: Yeah, that happened.
NK: I was like, “Ah, so he does get mad” (laughs). Even if I could imagine you letting out your emotions like that, I didn’t want to see that. So I was feeling incredibly down that day (laughs).
EY: Because I got angry? You don’t like seeing people angry?
NK: No, like, because things seemed really distracted.
ID: As in for the team overall?
NK: That’s right. The moment he pressed the shutter, I felt he wasn’t all that focused. Like, I kept feeling like something was off that day. I mean, even if with noisy surroundings, as long as you used your maximum level of concentration, it wouldn’t make a difference, right? As long as the ones behind and in front of the camera were firmly facing each other, the surroundings don’t matter. But if Emo couldn’t rise above that, I figured there must be a lot on his mind.
EY: When the series first started, I think I was too obsessed with the idea that if I was shooting ‘people’, then I had to face ‘people’ and I had to seek out scenes for that. But that’s changed now, and I just take it all as it comes, so to speak. If I shoot everything including the distractions, I figure it’d still make a picture.
A new generation of cameraman who uses even the ‘losing’ shots.
ID: Speaking of which, the time we shot at Emo’s place was fun, huh?
EY: For me, maybe. I felt incredibly embarrassed after everyone left, though (laughs). It’s a really run-down place, right?
NK: That was a really tough one. Going up all those stairs (laughs).
EY: On the 5th floor with no elevator or air-conditioning.
ID: It felt very youthful, it was a house with a good feeling about it.
NK: And then when we had that dry riverbed phase. That was tough (laughs). Since it was far and we got stuck in traffic.
EY: You tossed a ball around and flew a kite. It had great potential for capturing good shots.
NK: Thing is, even when I look at Emo’s photos and think that I’ve ‘lost’ in some, you still use them (laughs). Truly a new generation.
EY: What do you mean by ‘lost’?
NK: When I debuted, for each time the cameraman clicked the shutter he would say, “this is a win”, “this is a loss”. I think for a lot of people, that was just an easy way of conveying what they meant. So for that guy, the shoot wouldn’t end until he had shots that ‘won’. So it used to take ages (laughs).
EY: Well, of course (laughs). I shoot in film, so my heart’s always pounding on the way home. Every time.
NK: But Emo uses shots even when I think they’ve ‘lost’, how open-minded of you. I thought that was really novel.
EY: That’s just Ninomiya-kun’s take on it, isn’t it? It’s fine whether you smile or not. It’s all good as long as I capture you ‘just as you are’ in that moment. I thought of it as the entertainment value that Ninomiya-kun came up with for this series.
NK: I don’t know if it’s a given that you’d get something good if you spend longer on it, but if you gather ‘capable’ people then you rarely need to spend much time. I think there’s something interesting, something that feels good about the casual nature of having to create something within a given time limit. Incidentally, the times when I’m like, ‘Emo’s won, huh?’ is when we end without using up all the film that Emo has around his hip.
On the day that (cameraman) Emo couldn’t focus on the shoot, I was feeling pretty down about it in my own way.
EY: No, that’s not a win.
NK: Ah, isn’t it? I thought it was proof that you were satisfied.
EY: Once I’ve felt like ‘ah, got it’ twice, then I figure it’s okay.
ID: Isn’t that what you’d call a win?
EY: No…. That’s…. not a win...
NK: Fine, then what does it mean when you’ve used up all your film?
EY: It means I felt like shooting. That I’d like to shoot more.
NK: Basically, it means you were enjoying yourself?
EY: That’s right. I could shoot forever. It’s just that I’d rather quit while we’re ahead. Photography is a form of communication, after all.
ID: No matter where the photo shoot location is, you work with that “just shooting randomly” feeling, right? From the point of view of wardrobe, hair & make-up and for the photographed subject too, it’s like “it’s good enough, right?”. That’s ultimately just stopping when it feels right.
NK: That’s ideal.
EY: For that, I look at Iga-san or Hattori-san (who does hair & make-up) during the shoot. I feel especially relieved when Hattori-san’s grinning. It’s like I’m checking Hattori-san’s idol gauge. If he’s smiling, then it means I’ve cleared that level.
NK: You’re absolutely right.
A subtle ‘receptacle’ that accepts any sort of clothing
What captivates us about Ninomiya-san as a man and as a photographic subject is much the same for stylist Iga-san. He admitted, “I end up dressing people I like in blue”, and in this series the colour that Ninomiya-san wears most, by huge margin, is blue. On the other hand, Ninomiya-san says his impression of Iga-san is “an unfathomable person”. It’s not because he doesn’t know Iga-san well; these are the words of someone who has observed Iga-san more closely than most. It’s not just about a member of staff related to his job; it’s how someone who finds people interesting takes it another step further, a glimpse into a very Ninomiya-esque point of view.
――You say Iga is ‘unfathomable’. Why so?
NK: For stylists, the way their career develops depends on the person. There are people who find work from a more commercial base, or people who build up their own brand. Just for clothes alone, there’s so many different ways they evolve, but to use only what you like...? That’s unfathomable, right?
ID: Ahahahaha (laughs)
NK: I’ve never seen Iga-san wear very expensive clothes (laughs).
ID: I don’t wear any (laughs). I’m generally just in overalls, and on my feet I’ll have leather-soled sandals in summer or boots in winter.
NK: But you know, when I open a publication it’s like, “Ah, it’s Iga-san” and find you credited. I often see that on pamphlets for stage plays, too. I figure you must be the type of person who does what you want, with the degree of passion you want to do it with. But generally those types of people have a ‘burning passion’, right? But that’s not the case here. You definitely don’t exhibit the kind of clear passion where you’re like, “I want to do this even if it beggars me!” It’s more like, “I’m doing this because I like it”. Which makes it even more unfathomable (laughs).
ID: That’s true. It’s like, if you cast your net far and wide, you’re bound to meet people you want to meet and do things you want to do someday. If you keep doing the things in your ‘lane’, at some point the time will come where it all comes together, that’s what I feel, I suppose.
NK: Everyone has dreams like that, but I guess a lot of people give up on them. So I guess the important thing is ‘people who don’t give up’. For Iga-san.
ID: I get what you mean. There are a lot of desires to have.
-―In the 10 years of this series, there was only a handful of times where there were clothing credits listed. Most of the time it was used clothing or your own items.
NK: I wore Iga-san’s own clothes countless times.
ID: That’s true. Although we only met once a month, it’d be exhausting to be wearing high-fashion brand knitwear worth several hundred thousand yen every time, right?
NK: And that’s even if it matched your tastes.
ID: That’s right. You can see that sort of thing in other places anyway, because they’d be worn by different people. And then it might be because it’s Nino that it works. Your reaction doesn’t change no matter what you have on.
NK: Are there people who make that big a deal about it? About the outfits that have been prepared for them?
ID: There are some who have opinions about what they want to wear; it depends on the person. But Nino doesn’t have that at all.
EY: Mm hmm. That’s true.
ID: It’s like being a ‘receptacle’. Just that although anything’s fine, it’s not just whatever, kinda. That balance is just right, so to speak. Even if the clothes are truly simple and don’t particularly make a statement, the text is interesting anyway. So there’s other highlights there.
――Back when the series began, you said “even if you don’t photograph the clothes, it’s fine as long as it’s interesting”.
ID: That’s right. That’s because we had Emo’s photography.
NK: That was a big thing, huh?
――How did Iga-san feel when you first accepted the offer to do this series?
ID: Well, I mean, it was because it was Nino. It doesn’t really make a difference to me if the job is for a commercial or a movie. It’s more because of who it is or what’s being asked. Nino’s not the type to use flattery, he’s pretty flat in that sense. He doesn’t have that calculative sense of like, “it’d be better if you get such-and-such staff involved”. To me, Nino is a man selected by Clint Eastwood. That said, even though he doesn’t have a Hollywood ‘backbone’, the best thing about the movie ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’ was Nino. And it must also be because he’s impartial about it, it’s not because it’s Clint Eastwood’s movie that he gets more roused up. This might sound weird but like, if this was some other talent’s series, we might be talking about getting all the staff together for drinks about a year in, but in actual fact that’s never happened. It’s like we just adapt to it. Rather than saying it’s a platonic relationship, it’s more like it’s a ‘moderate’ one. So, I was a little surprised to find he was thinking ‘win’ or ‘lose’ with regards to Emo. Also, when he had the MORE magazine open earlier, I saw he was checking to make sure the ‘Photography / Emori Yasuyuki’ and other staff credits were clearly visible. There aren’t many people like that.
I’m not sentimental over it because we did a good job
Although he may look aloof from the world and disinterested in anything, he’s actually watching more closely than anyone else and being solicitous. The both of them were surprised hearing it from Ninomiya-san for the first time in 10 years. Finding out it was ‘mutual love’, they seem embarrassed and happy…. In that intimate atmosphere, the three start getting more talkative and approach the topic of the series’ end...
NK: But you know, 10 years is amazing. For a magazine to continue that long, too. MORE is what, 41 years old?
ID: Man, it’s amazing. It’s the same age as me (laughs). Series that I’ve done for this long would be Koizumi Kyoko-san’s ‘Harajuku Hakkei’ (Hundred Scenes of Harajuku), a series in the SWITCH magazine. That and ‘It’, it’s just these two. I don’t think I’d do any more like these in the future. And then while working on these two, there was the remake of the play ‘Shibuya Kara Tooku Hanarete’ (Far From Shibuya), right? (EDITOR'S NOTE: Ninomiya-san starred in the 2004 play together with Koizumi Kyoko-san, then Murakami Nijiro starred in the 2016 play with Koizumi-san reprising her role.) When the series began, I was given the chance to do the costumes for the remake of the play even though I wasn’t acquainted with Iwamatsu (Ryo)-san (who directed both versions) at all. The fact that I can talk about that now here is cause and effect.
NK: Mm. The world’s a small place.
ID: It is. It’s small, but it’s big, and it’s incredibly interesting. It’s just that I don’t have any strong feelings with regards to the end of the series (laughs). Maybe because it’s at the right juncture, and it’s not like it’s a death. What about you, Emo?
EY: Maybe in about 2 or 3 months we might be like, “Ah, it’s gone”. Last month, it was painful getting all the prints of the unpublished cuts ready. But that was because I had my own memories attached to it... Like, “Ah, I did some unnecessary things in this shoot” and stuff. Seeing my inexperience in some of them was a little painful.
ID: Well, ‘life is nothing but farewells’ [1], right? The reason I’m not feeling sentimental about it is because I figure we did a good job. I mean, you can’t trust the people who cry at graduation ceremonies, right? (laughs) It’s like closing accounts (laughs). The things which are definitely not not like graduation ceremonies are just basically life, I think.
NK: For sure, the older you get, the less you feel the loneliness of endings, maybe. The only time you’re really saying ‘bye’ to these people would be at funerals. As long as they’re alive, you’ll be able to meet them again. It’s just that being able to continue for 10 years is pretty amazing. It’s thanks to all of you.
I think there’s something interesting, something that feels good about the casual nature of creating this series in the given time we had.
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Kazunari Ninomiya
Born 17th June 1983 in Tokyo. Currently in the midst of the 5-dome concert tour for the 20th anniversary of Arashi’s debut, ‘ ARASHI Anniversary Tour 5x20’. All the photographs for this series were shot in film. “Theoretically, unlike digital where you could shoot endlessly, film is about ‘decisiveness’. But if every photo taken would definitely be published and even if they’d shot hundreds of digital photos, I’d be fine with that (laughs)”
|| Words / Matsuyama Kozue ||| Photography / Emori Yasuyuki ||
|| Hair & Make-up / Hattori Yukio ||| Stylist / Iga Daisuke (band) ||
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f o o t no t e s
[1] A line from a famous poem translated by Ibuse Masuji, i.e. Yu Wuling’s ‘Offering Wine’:
この杯を受けてくれ take this cup
どうぞなみなみ注がしておくれ let me fill it to the brim
花に嵐のたとえもあるぞ since like flowers to a storm
「さよなら」だけが人生だ life is nothing but farewells
You can get the full scans here.
This was a great read, I’m going to miss this series SO MUCH. >___<
- - - - -
It {一途}
The Penultimate Chapter Special
~Drinks and conversation with the boys~
Chapter 122
Things that can be spoken of now
Ninomiya Kazunari, who has wholeheartedly stood before the camera for 10 years, and the two who kept watch over him. The three men who shared this path have harboured their respective feelings….
On a certain early winter day, a cold drizzle soaks the ground. Ninomiya-san, who has just returned to Tokyo after finishing up with concerts in another region, has just turned up at the izakaya. Awaiting him are cameraman Emori Yasuyuki-san and stylist Iga Daisuke-san. They’re the staff members who have have unfailingly supported every single chapter throughout this series. However, they have never once had a meal together, much less gone drinking together. In the 10 years, what sort of feelings do these men who have stoically continued their platonic relationship share? Thus begins the first and last heart-to-heart talk between these three people.
Three people who had already met in their younger days.
――Do you remember how the title of this series, ‘It’, was chosen?
NK: No, I don’t. (laughs)
――All the staff for this series had compiled their suggestions for the title in a list, and then Ninomiya-san had looked at it and went, “Let’s use this”. ‘It’ was Emori-san’s suggestion.
NK: Heh, was that so?
EY: At first, when I was told about the series, I watched the movie ‘Ao no Honoo’ (The Blue Flame).
ID: Directed by Ninagawa (Yukio)-san, right?
EY: That’s right. The opening was a Pink Floyd song, right? I thought that song really matched Ninomiya-kun’s image. Back then, I sort of arbitrarily felt that, well, not exactly that you seemed distant, but that you might have a hard core of sorts, so the word ‘ 一途 / ichizu' (wholehearted, earnest) came to mind. Then I bought a dictionary and looked it up and found that it could also be read as ‘ 一途 / itto' (way, course).
NK: So it had a double meaning?
EY: Yeah. When I told Iga-san about it, he said that it could also work as ‘It’, so that’s how it turned out.
NK: To begin with, Emo (Emori), when you first agreed to doing this series, did you know of ‘Ninomiya Kazunari’?
EY: I did! I did, but I didn’t know you well. But back when I was an assistant, I’d seen you in the studio before.
NK: Eh??
EY: It was a shoot for an idol magazine. Arashi hadn’t been formed yet, everyone was about 15-16 years old at the time.
ID: I’ve also been to Johnny’s sets back when I was an assistant.
NK: Really?
ID: I was also pretty young back then, so when I was leaving the studio, fans mistook me for one of the idols, but when they took a second look they reacted like, “huh, I was mistaken?” (laughs)
NK: Ahahaha!
ID: That rockstar feeling was great.
NK: I had some encounters with Iga-san on and off after that, but Emo, from then up until the series started, we didn’t meet again, right?
EY: That’s right. So like, my impression from watching ‘Ao no Honoo’ was a little warped. When I first saw Ninomiya-kun in your teens, you had a colourless, transparent image, but after I watched the movie it was ultramarine. It’s gone back to the colourless/transparent image now, though.
NK: Now!? In 10 years of doing the series, it reverted to that?
EY: Mm.
NK: Distilled Ninomiya, huh? (laughs)
EY: Originally it was colourless and transparent, but there was a sort of ‘youth’ that only emerged when you were working, so I guess it looked ultramarine that way.
ID: You know, Nino tends to be entrusted with people's ‘youth’.
NK: You might be right. I mean, I was still playing university student roles right up to about 2 years ago.
Nino, who gives off an especially strong feeling of fantasy in concerts
EY: Previously when I saw Ninomiya-kun at an Arashi concert, it just occurred to me that it’d be impossible to replicate your expression there in ‘It’. How should I put it - it looked like you’d leapt out of a picture book.
NK: Me? Really?
EY: Something like a fantasy, or like from a girls’ manga….
NK: Concerts have that about them. Of course we do it for the sake of all the people who come, but even for me, it feels like a dream.
ID: It’s not like you just work for the ticket price’s worth. For instance, say it’s 9000 yen; you could just perform 9000 yen’s worth or something, but that’s not what you do. It’s sincerity towards your fans, isn’t it? I was given the chance to do the wardrobe for Arashi’s concerts previously, and there was an incredibly service-centric mindset there. There was a real sense of ‘we won’t know unless we go there’. I thought it was really amazing.
NK: Yeah, ‘won’t know unless we go there’ is probably a thing for us. To us, concerts are special. There’s an unmistakably different atmosphere about them. I mean, just 10 minutes after we yell, “Thaaank youuu!” or “Come play again some day!” to 50 thousand people, we’re calmly thanking the staff for today. People ask how we can switch gears so fast, but of course you just do, pretty normally (laughs). When I see people taking things seriously because it’s part of their job, I think they’re admirable.
ID: I have one question. You’ve been doing concerts like this for 20 years, right? I’m sure they have their value, of course, but when you’re young, you don’t really appreciate that, do you? Did that gradually increase over time?
NK: I think I’ve not changed ever since a certain period of time, and I’ve always been grateful since. There was once our seniors had concerts in Nagoya, and there was an absurdly strong typhoon which caused traffic to grind to a stop. Pretty much all the audience couldn’t make it. There were barely 1000 people in the audience.
ID: Was this when you were a back-dancer?
NK: Yeah. But they held a meeting and were like, since these people had made it all the way out here, the show would go on anyway. But once we started, because of where I was positioned, there was literally nobody there in front of me in the audience. It was basically like during rehearsals. When I changed position a little, there were like maybe 2-3 people and they seemed sort of embarrassed, so I felt embarrassed too (laughs). But though there were people who couldn’t make it for various reasons, even if the place was empty, we knew there were people who were defying that power. Since then, I’ve always been conscientious to be grateful. The whole thing is rooted in the idea that Arashi must always have ‘something’ for our audience to enjoy.
In this series, we caught real expressions of ‘Ninomiya Kazunari’
Sometimes, when delivering his photographs shot in film to the editorial department, cameraman Emori-san has memos added to the ends of the photographic paper. There’d be things like ‘Nino-kun is heartbreaking, gentle, sexy’ scrawled on them. However, despite having shot more than 120 chapters together, he says he’s exchanged “not even an hour in total” of words with Ninomiya-san. The reason he feels this is because he really gives no directions during the shoots. When the two of them face each other, it’s like Ninomiya-san is watching over his younger brother while he stands silently before the camera, and Emori-san presses the shutter, respectful of his older brother. In actual fact, their ages are the opposite, and there’s an intimate atmosphere there which nobody else can intrude upon.
――Just now, Emori-san said that Ninomiya-san’s expression during concerts would be “impossible to replicate in ‘It’”. What sort of expressions have you captured in the course of this series?
EY: ‘Real’ ones, I suppose. But even if you were to plan them in advance, you can’t really capture them. There’s sort of flow to the shoots for this series, though I might be thinking things like how I’d like to capture a slightly more cheerful expression this time compared to the previous ones. Like how we shot at the dry riverbed despite the rain; though we were sheltered from the rain while shooting under the trees, naturally he wouldn’t be smiling (laughs). But no matter what directions I were to give, it’s no match for the expression Ninomiya-kun makes when something catches his eye or when he’s caught up in the moment.
ID: A ‘raw’ expression, huh?
EY: Yeah. Ninomiya-kun is generally passive; he won’t move unless it’s necessary. I don’t really say that much either, so there are times when there are no reactions or anything. But when he’s brought somewhere for the first time, there’d be a moment where he’d be properly checking out his surroundings. I’ve tried to include the parking ticket in this series, and if I happen to capture a good light in his eyes at the time, I can create a story out of that when it comes to printing the photos. For example, when I shoot children, if I compose the shot properly so that there’s light that looks like a flash of intention in their eyes, there’s a story there even with kids who are just 2 months old. So I figured it’s the same sort of thing.
NK: Emo’s always been unique in that sense, hasn’t he? Even in the world of cameramen.
ID: Yeah, I think he’s unique.
NK: I mean, there aren’t many people who still shoot in film.
ID: There aren’t many who also applaud every time they finish a shoot (laughs).
EY: Well, that’s, um…. (laughs)
NK: You don’t have any assistants, either.
EY: That’s something we all decided on when we started the series. Like, come alone, leave alone. That way, with both hands full, you don’t have to go beyond your category.
NK: Is that why? I just thought Emo was an unusual case (laughs). You don’t talk much, plus you don’t ask for any particular expressions. It seemed pretty subtle to me. But once, when the other staff kept talking through one shoot, Emo got angry and was like, “Shut up!”
EY: Yeah, that happened.
NK: I was like, “Ah, so he does get mad” (laughs). Even if I could imagine you letting out your emotions like that, I didn’t want to see that. So I was feeling incredibly down that day (laughs).
EY: Because I got angry? You don’t like seeing people angry?
NK: No, like, because things seemed really distracted.
ID: As in for the team overall?
NK: That’s right. The moment he pressed the shutter, I felt he wasn’t all that focused. Like, I kept feeling like something was off that day. I mean, even if with noisy surroundings, as long as you used your maximum level of concentration, it wouldn’t make a difference, right? As long as the ones behind and in front of the camera were firmly facing each other, the surroundings don’t matter. But if Emo couldn’t rise above that, I figured there must be a lot on his mind.
EY: When the series first started, I think I was too obsessed with the idea that if I was shooting ‘people’, then I had to face ‘people’ and I had to seek out scenes for that. But that’s changed now, and I just take it all as it comes, so to speak. If I shoot everything including the distractions, I figure it’d still make a picture.
A new generation of cameraman who uses even the ‘losing’ shots.
ID: Speaking of which, the time we shot at Emo’s place was fun, huh?
EY: For me, maybe. I felt incredibly embarrassed after everyone left, though (laughs). It’s a really run-down place, right?
NK: That was a really tough one. Going up all those stairs (laughs).
EY: On the 5th floor with no elevator or air-conditioning.
ID: It felt very youthful, it was a house with a good feeling about it.
NK: And then when we had that dry riverbed phase. That was tough (laughs). Since it was far and we got stuck in traffic.
EY: You tossed a ball around and flew a kite. It had great potential for capturing good shots.
NK: Thing is, even when I look at Emo’s photos and think that I’ve ‘lost’ in some, you still use them (laughs). Truly a new generation.
EY: What do you mean by ‘lost’?
NK: When I debuted, for each time the cameraman clicked the shutter he would say, “this is a win”, “this is a loss”. I think for a lot of people, that was just an easy way of conveying what they meant. So for that guy, the shoot wouldn’t end until he had shots that ‘won’. So it used to take ages (laughs).
EY: Well, of course (laughs). I shoot in film, so my heart’s always pounding on the way home. Every time.
NK: But Emo uses shots even when I think they’ve ‘lost’, how open-minded of you. I thought that was really novel.
EY: That’s just Ninomiya-kun’s take on it, isn’t it? It’s fine whether you smile or not. It’s all good as long as I capture you ‘just as you are’ in that moment. I thought of it as the entertainment value that Ninomiya-kun came up with for this series.
NK: I don’t know if it’s a given that you’d get something good if you spend longer on it, but if you gather ‘capable’ people then you rarely need to spend much time. I think there’s something interesting, something that feels good about the casual nature of having to create something within a given time limit. Incidentally, the times when I’m like, ‘Emo’s won, huh?’ is when we end without using up all the film that Emo has around his hip.
On the day that (cameraman) Emo couldn’t focus on the shoot, I was feeling pretty down about it in my own way.
EY: No, that’s not a win.
NK: Ah, isn’t it? I thought it was proof that you were satisfied.
EY: Once I’ve felt like ‘ah, got it’ twice, then I figure it’s okay.
ID: Isn’t that what you’d call a win?
EY: No…. That’s…. not a win...
NK: Fine, then what does it mean when you’ve used up all your film?
EY: It means I felt like shooting. That I’d like to shoot more.
NK: Basically, it means you were enjoying yourself?
EY: That’s right. I could shoot forever. It’s just that I’d rather quit while we’re ahead. Photography is a form of communication, after all.
ID: No matter where the photo shoot location is, you work with that “just shooting randomly” feeling, right? From the point of view of wardrobe, hair & make-up and for the photographed subject too, it’s like “it’s good enough, right?”. That’s ultimately just stopping when it feels right.
NK: That’s ideal.
EY: For that, I look at Iga-san or Hattori-san (who does hair & make-up) during the shoot. I feel especially relieved when Hattori-san’s grinning. It’s like I’m checking Hattori-san’s idol gauge. If he’s smiling, then it means I’ve cleared that level.
NK: You’re absolutely right.
A subtle ‘receptacle’ that accepts any sort of clothing
What captivates us about Ninomiya-san as a man and as a photographic subject is much the same for stylist Iga-san. He admitted, “I end up dressing people I like in blue”, and in this series the colour that Ninomiya-san wears most, by huge margin, is blue. On the other hand, Ninomiya-san says his impression of Iga-san is “an unfathomable person”. It’s not because he doesn’t know Iga-san well; these are the words of someone who has observed Iga-san more closely than most. It’s not just about a member of staff related to his job; it’s how someone who finds people interesting takes it another step further, a glimpse into a very Ninomiya-esque point of view.
――You say Iga is ‘unfathomable’. Why so?
NK: For stylists, the way their career develops depends on the person. There are people who find work from a more commercial base, or people who build up their own brand. Just for clothes alone, there’s so many different ways they evolve, but to use only what you like...? That’s unfathomable, right?
ID: Ahahahaha (laughs)
NK: I’ve never seen Iga-san wear very expensive clothes (laughs).
ID: I don’t wear any (laughs). I’m generally just in overalls, and on my feet I’ll have leather-soled sandals in summer or boots in winter.
NK: But you know, when I open a publication it’s like, “Ah, it’s Iga-san” and find you credited. I often see that on pamphlets for stage plays, too. I figure you must be the type of person who does what you want, with the degree of passion you want to do it with. But generally those types of people have a ‘burning passion’, right? But that’s not the case here. You definitely don’t exhibit the kind of clear passion where you’re like, “I want to do this even if it beggars me!” It’s more like, “I’m doing this because I like it”. Which makes it even more unfathomable (laughs).
ID: That’s true. It’s like, if you cast your net far and wide, you’re bound to meet people you want to meet and do things you want to do someday. If you keep doing the things in your ‘lane’, at some point the time will come where it all comes together, that’s what I feel, I suppose.
NK: Everyone has dreams like that, but I guess a lot of people give up on them. So I guess the important thing is ‘people who don’t give up’. For Iga-san.
ID: I get what you mean. There are a lot of desires to have.
-―In the 10 years of this series, there was only a handful of times where there were clothing credits listed. Most of the time it was used clothing or your own items.
NK: I wore Iga-san’s own clothes countless times.
ID: That’s true. Although we only met once a month, it’d be exhausting to be wearing high-fashion brand knitwear worth several hundred thousand yen every time, right?
NK: And that’s even if it matched your tastes.
ID: That’s right. You can see that sort of thing in other places anyway, because they’d be worn by different people. And then it might be because it’s Nino that it works. Your reaction doesn’t change no matter what you have on.
NK: Are there people who make that big a deal about it? About the outfits that have been prepared for them?
ID: There are some who have opinions about what they want to wear; it depends on the person. But Nino doesn’t have that at all.
EY: Mm hmm. That’s true.
ID: It’s like being a ‘receptacle’. Just that although anything’s fine, it’s not just whatever, kinda. That balance is just right, so to speak. Even if the clothes are truly simple and don’t particularly make a statement, the text is interesting anyway. So there’s other highlights there.
――Back when the series began, you said “even if you don’t photograph the clothes, it’s fine as long as it’s interesting”.
ID: That’s right. That’s because we had Emo’s photography.
NK: That was a big thing, huh?
――How did Iga-san feel when you first accepted the offer to do this series?
ID: Well, I mean, it was because it was Nino. It doesn’t really make a difference to me if the job is for a commercial or a movie. It’s more because of who it is or what’s being asked. Nino’s not the type to use flattery, he’s pretty flat in that sense. He doesn’t have that calculative sense of like, “it’d be better if you get such-and-such staff involved”. To me, Nino is a man selected by Clint Eastwood. That said, even though he doesn’t have a Hollywood ‘backbone’, the best thing about the movie ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’ was Nino. And it must also be because he’s impartial about it, it’s not because it’s Clint Eastwood’s movie that he gets more roused up. This might sound weird but like, if this was some other talent’s series, we might be talking about getting all the staff together for drinks about a year in, but in actual fact that’s never happened. It’s like we just adapt to it. Rather than saying it’s a platonic relationship, it’s more like it’s a ‘moderate’ one. So, I was a little surprised to find he was thinking ‘win’ or ‘lose’ with regards to Emo. Also, when he had the MORE magazine open earlier, I saw he was checking to make sure the ‘Photography / Emori Yasuyuki’ and other staff credits were clearly visible. There aren’t many people like that.
I’m not sentimental over it because we did a good job
Although he may look aloof from the world and disinterested in anything, he’s actually watching more closely than anyone else and being solicitous. The both of them were surprised hearing it from Ninomiya-san for the first time in 10 years. Finding out it was ‘mutual love’, they seem embarrassed and happy…. In that intimate atmosphere, the three start getting more talkative and approach the topic of the series’ end...
NK: But you know, 10 years is amazing. For a magazine to continue that long, too. MORE is what, 41 years old?
ID: Man, it’s amazing. It’s the same age as me (laughs). Series that I’ve done for this long would be Koizumi Kyoko-san’s ‘Harajuku Hakkei’ (Hundred Scenes of Harajuku), a series in the SWITCH magazine. That and ‘It’, it’s just these two. I don’t think I’d do any more like these in the future. And then while working on these two, there was the remake of the play ‘Shibuya Kara Tooku Hanarete’ (Far From Shibuya), right? (EDITOR'S NOTE: Ninomiya-san starred in the 2004 play together with Koizumi Kyoko-san, then Murakami Nijiro starred in the 2016 play with Koizumi-san reprising her role.) When the series began, I was given the chance to do the costumes for the remake of the play even though I wasn’t acquainted with Iwamatsu (Ryo)-san (who directed both versions) at all. The fact that I can talk about that now here is cause and effect.
NK: Mm. The world’s a small place.
ID: It is. It’s small, but it’s big, and it’s incredibly interesting. It’s just that I don’t have any strong feelings with regards to the end of the series (laughs). Maybe because it’s at the right juncture, and it’s not like it’s a death. What about you, Emo?
EY: Maybe in about 2 or 3 months we might be like, “Ah, it’s gone”. Last month, it was painful getting all the prints of the unpublished cuts ready. But that was because I had my own memories attached to it... Like, “Ah, I did some unnecessary things in this shoot” and stuff. Seeing my inexperience in some of them was a little painful.
ID: Well, ‘life is nothing but farewells’ [1], right? The reason I’m not feeling sentimental about it is because I figure we did a good job. I mean, you can’t trust the people who cry at graduation ceremonies, right? (laughs) It’s like closing accounts (laughs). The things which are definitely not not like graduation ceremonies are just basically life, I think.
NK: For sure, the older you get, the less you feel the loneliness of endings, maybe. The only time you’re really saying ‘bye’ to these people would be at funerals. As long as they’re alive, you’ll be able to meet them again. It’s just that being able to continue for 10 years is pretty amazing. It’s thanks to all of you.
I think there’s something interesting, something that feels good about the casual nature of creating this series in the given time we had.
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Kazunari Ninomiya
Born 17th June 1983 in Tokyo. Currently in the midst of the 5-dome concert tour for the 20th anniversary of Arashi’s debut, ‘ ARASHI Anniversary Tour 5x20’. All the photographs for this series were shot in film. “Theoretically, unlike digital where you could shoot endlessly, film is about ‘decisiveness’. But if every photo taken would definitely be published and even if they’d shot hundreds of digital photos, I’d be fine with that (laughs)”
|| Words / Matsuyama Kozue ||| Photography / Emori Yasuyuki ||
|| Hair & Make-up / Hattori Yukio ||| Stylist / Iga Daisuke (band) ||
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f o o t no t e s
[1] A line from a famous poem translated by Ibuse Masuji, i.e. Yu Wuling’s ‘Offering Wine’:
この杯を受けてくれ take this cup
どうぞなみなみ注がしておくれ let me fill it to the brim
花に嵐のたとえもあるぞ since like flowers to a storm
「さよなら」だけが人生だ life is nothing but farewells
You can get the full scans here.