“Imagination is essentially based on memory; it follows recording and memorizing what you’ve seen and experienced. Imagination is the creation of putting elements together, whatever the idea is, in different combinations. It’s a process of arranging knowledge into new formats.” – Syd Mead, a legendary industrial designer/visual futurist, who associated with Misawa. Among Misawa’s works, which continue to embody the words of Syd Mead,”Incarnation” is a work that will leave you wide-eyed and awestruck by the strangeness of its combinations.
The theme of this work, conceived for a solo exhibition in New York in 2017, is the expression of “Japanese beauty.” Using scraps of fabric from his travels to Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, where many traditional buildings and works of art still remain, the artist’s hand moves through a series of images that come to mind, such as the unique costume juni-hitoe. In these12-layered ceremonial kimono the old Japanese people enjoyed layering of colors; the outline is characteristic of ukiyo-e woodblock prints.
The outer fabric, stitched to a fabric lining with a variety of patterns and bright colors, is made from Nibe leather, which is usually discarded as leather waste, dyed brown with dyes to give it the texture of pigments used in Japanese painting, and sprinkled with gold leaf. The skirt worn on the upper part of the shoe is folded over, and the lining of the folded-over skirt looks like a kimono sash; its expression changes depending on the position and volume of the folded over skirt.
The blue-black color of the shoe body peeking out from the clothing is derived from the statue of Zao Gongen, the main deity of Shugendo. The image has a flame blazing upward on the halo of Zao Gongen, who stands with his right hand raised high in an angry countenance, which was also a pillar supporting this work.
Combining characteristic elements of traditional Japanese culture, and putting them together into a new pair of shoes is truly Japanese beauty as only Misawa can create it.
