Mika Ninagawa, a photographer and film director known for her unique use of vibrant colors and also active in the world of contemporary art, appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) on May 13th. She spoke about her memories of her father, stage director Yukio Ninagawa.
When Tetsuko asked Mika about Yukio Ninagawa, "I have a strong image of him as a scary director who throws ashtrays, but what was he like at home?", Mika replied that there weren't many scary things at home, but she recalled that "he was a very thorough teacher."
"When I was about five years old, I was taken to the bustling streets of Shinjuku... There was a right and a left path there, and I was told that even if everyone else went right, if I was the only one who thought the left was better, they wanted me to become the kind of person who could choose the left path," she revealed.
At the time, she didn't understand its meaning, but as she grew older, she came to understand it. "I see, it must mean to be an independent woman, to live with a firm grasp of your own beliefs. It had a significant impact on my life," she said.
When she first debuted, she was often referred to as "Yukio Ninagawa's daughter." "I hated it. No matter what I did back then, people said it was because of my father's influence, and I was conscious of 'Who is Mika Ninagawa?' and 'Who am I?' from a very early stage. In the end, I think it was a good thing because it made me realize that I had to establish my own style of expression, but at the time I wondered why people were saying that," she said.
