Since Misawa’s experience making shoes for a tap dancer, the sense of playing music with shoes occurred in his mind. Sometimes shoe-lovers liken shoes to the violin. Misawa precisely adapted each component of a violin. This form is ravishingly beautiful and radiates an antique atmosphere, and, like music, has melody, harmony, rhythm and dynamics. To introduce those elements he fabricated playfully with dyeing, gilding and carving, varied techniques acquired by making leather crafts. “Shoe as Instrument”- by wearing “Music” every step evokes music, completing this piece.
MUSIC II 2021 edition
“MUSIC” Series – triggered by the expression of the concept that shoes produce music. “MUSIC II 2021 Edition” are the upgraded of "MUSIC Ⅱ", second pieces in the series, which is the product of the collaboration with Detroit-based illustrator Don Kilpatrick III in 2018. Misawa fabricated the original piece as if assembling a violin by precisely mimicking each component of a violin: the upper’s pattern making, the sharply curved toe, and the “Fiddle Strings” that Misawa invented (the shoe laces represent a violin’s strings). In this upgraded version Misawa fully used the so-called “case leather,” which he had been reluctant to use, as it enhances the leather taste too strongly. Misawa completed this shoe using dying techniques acquired by making leather craftworks; it emits an antique mood, that only old tools and procedures plus a long love for them can produce. When one wears the shoes and takes steps, what kinds of music emanates from your foot to your brain: bluegrass? Romany music? Or…”MUSIC II 2021 Edition” inspires one’s imagination of music different from the original piece.
Collaboration with Henning Schmiedt (Berlin, Germany)
MUSIC IV - Clarinet
“MUSIC Ⅳ” was inspired by the clarinet timbre in a number, “デナイオトガアル,” composed by Misawa’s friend, musician Koya Ogata. Imitating the instrument’s components, the piece used two colors, black and silver, and the shoelace holes with different sizes represent the clarinet keys’ appearance. The graceful silver edging emanates restrained beauty of its keys, glittering on the black body. To express a metal mood, Misawa embed steel into the toe and a part of heel. Seeking functional artistry and formative artistry is Misawa’s consistent theme in his creation. In this piece, Misawa thoroughly explored elegant style in classic shoes. And the part that most intensely expressed this goal are the wooden shoe lasts and the breathtaking beauty of the leather’s curvaceousness born from the lasts; the clarinet’s melody, its groove and flow were transformed into these shapes. The smooth, artistic curve in “MUSIC Ⅳ“ proves that even abstract images can be embodied in a “Shoe” with refined sensitivity and skillful techniques, within the constraints of a well-established, rigidly traditional shoemaking pattern. Like after a concert, the exposed sounds within your body for a while, “MUSIC Ⅳ” keeps the echoes of melody that had been blown and flowed through it.
MUSIC V Silence- Sleeping under moonlight
Violin, piano, clarinet,…The “MUSIC” series is a set of artistic shoe creations expressing the concept that shoes can produce music. Misawa has focused on incorporating parts of various instruments and their sounds into shoe design. And displaying the pieces of the series at a traditional Japanese style house is the “Onomichi Project.” The final piece for the project is “MUSIC Ⅴ Silence- Sleeping under moonlight.” Silence doesn’t mean there is no sound. Silence to Misawa means the singing of insects, sound of winds, ripple of trees, a bubbling brook... those sounds of nature that have been there only if you listen to carefully. To experience this silence, Misawa put himself into a forest, letting a pencil move along creating images that came up naturally under the moon. No aim, just calmly letting himself go. As a result, what showed up were very simple boots. Under the moon, enveloped in silence and sleeping within sounds. When Misawa was attempting to incorporate the environment and emotions he had at that moment into the shoes, what inspired him was that “Insyu Nakai Kiln” designs by Sori Yanagi. The pottery is characterized by combining different color glazes: green, black and white. Misawa got this inspiration from its color combinations and balance, and the design that describes without adding or taking away anything, while having everything in it. At that time, there was a mysterious coincidence that an enameled green leather was at his studio; it had rarely been there. Misawa put the enameled green and black leather on the toe. In the shaft part, using white case leather, and a mottled pattern given by dyeing implies a moonlit passage. In contrast from an elaborately shaped upper part, Misawa finished leaving the sole and heel materials’ texture as much as possible. With “MUSIC V Silence – Sleeping under moonlight,” as in the title, Misawa concluded the “MUSIC ” series in dignified silence.
