Contemporary artist Tomokazu Matsuyama appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) broadcast on May 20th. He talked about the circumstances that led him to move to New York as a contemporary artist and the attractions of the city.
When he was in the third grade of elementary school, he moved with his family to Los Angeles, USA, and when he was in the sixth grade of elementary school, he returned to Japan and moved to Hida Takayama. In LA, he enjoyed skateboarding with his friends, but Hida Takayama is a snowy country. He became obsessed with snowboarding and became a snowboarder when he was a university student. As a semi-professional, he was sponsored by many companies, went overseas, and was photographed for magazines.
But when I was 22, I broke my ankle and had to undergo rehabilitation for about 10 months. That meant my snowboarding career was over. I wondered what to do next.
"(Snowboarding) was a way of expression for me, so I wondered what I could do as an expression, and decided to go in a different direction," he said. Two years later, he went to New York. "It's too late to express yourself in your twenties. I gave up on snowboarding. But if you want to express yourself, then first go to the 'capital' of art. If you want to go to New York someday, go now. I made the decision and flew off."
Even if he wanted to go to New York and express himself, he couldn't eat at all in his early days. He had no money, so he cut back on everything. He quit smoking, and because he no longer had money to go to a hair salon, he bought clippers and shaved his head, and painted in the corner of his bedroom. He said that he didn't have money to buy paints, so he used household paints to paint.
Matsuyama said of New York, "It has energy. It's like people are attracting other people. The city is dirty and there aren't many (beautiful) views. But it feels like a city and capital of culture created by people, so I'm excited every day." At the time, the city was still unsafe, but "New York is somehow very sexy," so he never once thought about leaving. "It's tough, but I'm living here," he said.
