Hanayo in Karaoke, Photography and Handbags

6 Oct 2006 Category: Events & Exhibitions, Features, Music, Photography

Some might remember Hanayo as the poster girl for the next generation of Japanese youth when she appeared on the cover of The Face magazine back in 1992 as a young geisha blowing bubble-gum bubbles and spouting her love of Western pop culture. Her bio reads as a multi-genre tour of avant-garde artists and musicians she has performed with, generously peppered with some big name European fashion brands eager to be associated with her work which is everything between music and performance, photography and art rooted in the verve with which she lives her life.

Written by Michael Sheetal

In music her sweet singing and vocal experiments have found their way into a band with Masami Akita (Merzbow) and Masaya Nakahara (Violent Onsen Geisha), another band with Dizzy Q Viper (Daisy Chainsaw), an album with drum’n'bass maestro Panacea, and countless collaborations and performances. A number of solo albums also help provide a huge body of genre crossing work. Especially over the last few years, fashion brands have been lining up to be associated with Hanayo, among the big names: Jean Paul Gaultier, agnes b., Marie Claire, Loewe, and APC. And her performances and photography have been seen across the world, Tokyo, Berlin, London, Paris, Moscow, Hong Kong, New York, Vienna, Taipei… the list goes on.

Hanayo was in Tokyo recently for the Loewe 160th Anniversary Exhibition, “Take me with you” at the Mori Art Museum. I checked out the exhibition, and sat down with her to ask a little bit about her piece in this exhibition, what she has been up to, as well as how she actually got there.

Karaoke… and how to jump from Tokyo to Berlin

I had joined Hanayo for a marathon karaoke session with a diverse group of friends, curators and photographers. Having heard a bit of Hanayo’s music before, this was a great chance to experience her in a more informal environment where I could even participate!

The karaoke had Hanayo immersed back into Japanese culture, bringing out a repertoire of predominantly J-pop songs, a liberal dose of Enka and Western pop music, too. With the performance still ringing in my ears the conversation went something like this:

Hanayo, you were once a geisha - how did that come about?

When I was still very young I did a lot of model jobs where I got to do lots of travelling in Paris and Berlin and America. I happened to be in Berlin at the time when the wall was knocked down and this was such a powerful moment for me. While I was watching it I was thinking to myself: what a such strong moment in the history of Germany… but what actually is my own history?

Soon after I returned to Japan, I decided to become a geisha.

I know that at this time you were already performing in some bands. How did this balance with your new life as a geisha?

It was actually quite hard for me, because the geisha world is supposed to be hidden. Politicians go there for important power dinners, lots of secrets are to be kept, so it is supposed to be a private world. Nothing good comes from connecting it with the outside world.

I had a beautiful life in this traditional world - which I respect very much - but still I did some things, like the Face magazine cover…

At that time many people wanted to use this perspective: Hanayo, a young Japanese with a missing tooth, she has a strange noise band, but in the daytime she is traditional. This was very attractive.

I was seriously learning and enjoying my geisha world and just wanted to do my best at everything.

So why and when did you decide to leave Japan, then, which also meant having to leave the geisha world?

Well, I loved being a geisha and would have loved to continue, but the timing just seemed right. At the end I was doing lots of TV and people wanted me to come with the geisha outfit and do my thing. I knew if I continued doing that I would become like a “geisha talent” or a “geisha artist”. I didn’t want to do that because I deeply respect this geisha world. So - I thought this was good to end it: finish, marry and go away!

Another difficult thing was, that my friends could never come and join what I was doing, because it was so private, but on the other side - I missed all their events, too. Every concert, opening or party was exactly at the time I had to work…

How did you manage to jump? Where did you go next?

Everything just came together! I was offered a record deal in London and because I had married a German, I could work overseas. At the same time I found out, that I was pregnant, so that was actually really good timing.

If I was to think back, everything was a coincidence, but it was very good. If I stayed in Tokyo I couldn’t have built up the relationship I have right now with my daughter Tenko. I would have been more busy and she would have been more with my parents. In my life in London and Berlin I could be with her 100%. Especially Berlin is great for young kids and mums. Tokyo is not like that…

From the record deal in London, Hanayo moved on to settle in Berlin and has been based there for about 7 years now.

What projects are you working on now in Berlin?

I am taking photos and get involved in things like this Loewe exhibition. But I am doing lots of different projects actually.

One of them is Ponpons. It is a bit like an installation with dancing and music, more like kind of art performance group.

Also, me and Izaac (Isaac Bigsby Trogdon) have done installations together and we make music together (as Hanazac).

How did you get to work with Panacea? That album you did together became a huge hit, actually!?

Yes, I did “Hanayo in Panacea” with him and was quite surprised myself! I thought he was very underground. Panacea was just 18 or something at that time and had a home studio, so I didn’t think it would ever become such a big thing. I went along, we did some recordings and all of a sudden it was all over the world in clubs. (laugh)

So do you now feel like you are fully based in Berlin doing music?

No - really everything gets mixed in my life - like that last installation! It’s not only photography, its video, too, installation and I make things on top of it, so.. Nothing is really only one thing. Even the way I see Tokyo and Berlin. For me….. they are not two separate cities far away from one another, but more like one big mix at the same time.

I don’t want to feel like I am really based in Berlin. I can do my work in Berlin or Tokyo or anywhere else. Lately, Tenko’s school became a heavy thing in Berlin, but that’s it … for me, I am sometimes in Paris, Tokyo, wherever!

Photography or how to pick the right one

Hanayo has also had several photography books published, “Oshakuchan No.1″, “Hanayome”, “Dreammmmm Book” and “Hanayo”. I asked her a little about her process of making them.

Can you tell me a little about what you focus with your photography is recently?

Lately I pick cloud photos. It’s not only recent stuff, I’m just picking from my last 20 years of work. My taste of color is always changing: sometimes I have a really pink time or then a little bit more green. Currently I am into some kind of non-colour.

5 years ago I didn’t really think some of those photos were charming, but now I find it really nice to look back.

Do you find it hard to decide on the right ones to pick?

Oh - choosing the photos is such an annoying job, a nightmare. It’s such a large amount. I have snapshots I made since ‘85. Everything is a snapshot in a way, but then it is more than that, of course!

Every time a curator or designer comes to me to chose some photos they say: “Don’t worry having a lot! It is our job to choose, so we will get through them!” … and after a little while they go: (Hanayo shows a surprised look) Let’s decide on one period, only!” (laugh)

You take a lot of photos of your daughter, which have a very special atmosphere. Will you continue that series although she gets older?

Of course most professional photographers cannot be so close with a child. Only the parents can, I think. I take lots of photos of Tenko, and also this gallery (Gallery Koyanagi, Ginza) sells mostly Tenko’s photos. But now that golden time is definitely over. She doesn’t really let me take any more pictures and prefers to work as a professional model. (smiles)

Handbags as clouds

Hanayo, you mainly came to Tokyo to exhibit your piece in the Loewe 160th Anniversary exhibition. Can you tell us a little about how you got involved in this Spanish bag company’s exhibition and what you did for it?

Loewe wanted something to do with the bags, since they are a traditional bag maker’s company. Some of the artists’ works had very obvious connections to bags, but there were also really abstract pieces, closer to what I did.

As I just said, I am quite into clouds right now, so my theme was based on that and I just kind of put it together.

You have a very interactive piece in that people can walk into the installation on top of the clouds to view the photos and the video. What was the idea behind that?

At first I didn’t really think that people should walk on the clouds but you can’t really see the video and the photos if you don’t go in. At the end it became a really really big part of it.

We actually showed this exhibition in Barcelona already, but what I did there was really different though. When it was being shipped some of the pieces broke and so we had to try and fix everything at the last minute. One of the picture fames was antique and it was all broken from the transport and couldn’t be fixed in time. Finally, we showed it with the broken frame, which actually ended up quite interesting, too.

The exhibition in Tokyo is more like I originally planned it to be, but actually I like both versions. They both have interesting features.

Thank you, Hanayo!

36 Comments

1. FANTASTIC ARTICLE… KEEP EM COMING!!
   D

   Posted by: Dave Twomey on October 7th, 2006 at 3:17 pm

2. [...] Link: on pingmag.jp  [...]

   Posted by: Notes | Blog Archive » Hanayo Interview on October 8th, 2006 at 12:52 pm

3. great article!

   “memoirs of a geisha” in an alternate universe …. but so much more intriguing … so much more inspiring.

   Posted by: rosenrot on October 8th, 2006 at 2:03 pm

4. I’ve never even heard of this girl till now. She’s crazy interesting.

   Posted by: Laynie on October 11th, 2006 at 2:51 pm

5. After the Hanayo’s appearance in the Face cover, world certainly was no more the same place.
   World needs more artists like her who can experiment something totally new and somthing what has never done before.
   She is truly genious and one of her kind.

   Posted by: ヤーッコ on October 12th, 2006 at 4:04 pm

6. oh please,she has no talent, just another me,me,me,’please love me’ bore. pretentious

   Posted by: lee on October 14th, 2006 at 12:55 am

7. [...] In recent years, it’s all the rage with Nikki S. Lee and her self-portraits as a character. But Hanayo actually lived the life of her character of Geisha while being photographed by everyone for everything. I found the interview on her on my favorite online magainze, PingMag. [...]

   Posted by: making » Blog Archive » Portrait of self on October 14th, 2006 at 6:19 am

8. [...] PingMag - The Tokyo-based magazine about “Design and Making Things” » Archive » Hanayo in Karaoke, Photography and Handbags Her bio reads as a multi-genre tour of avant-garde artists and musicians she has performed with, generously peppered with some big name European fashion brands eager to be associated with her work which is everything between music and performance, photogr (tags: photography japan music) [...]

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9. shes sweet and hilarious. meet her and find out.

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10. There is nothing genius about this.

    “I have a really pink time or then a little bit more green. Currently I am into some kind of non-colour.”

    Seriously? Just more look-at-me-I’m-so-avant-garde hipster nonsense. SO stupid.

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