Looking back on Lisa Larson.
Sunday in September 2021
O: Tonkachi OB, S: Designer, K: Tonkachi Representative
—–
O:
Let's talk about why we started working with Lisa. Sasaki is Sasaki -san.
S:
Yes Yes. At that time, there was a project of a power shovel (a company that created a camera that was the predecessor of tonkachi), and I decided to give a camera to a person who has nothing to do with the photo and take a picture. The candidates were issued, and it was Dick Bruna, M.B. Goffstein and Lisa Larson. I don't know much (laughs).
K:
So, everyone contacted everyone and only Lisa did it. (At this time, I couldn't work with the other two, but later I would work for both Goffstein and Bruna).
S:
yes. Why is it a camera for me? It was interesting.
O:
At that time, Lisa was 70 years old, but she had a curiosity like a "seeing a child" (Lisa's work). At that time, if Lisa didn't say that, she would have been destined because she wouldn't start anything. Well, she can say she is now.
(※Photo)
The day I visited Lisa for the first time was snow.
S:
That's why I got acquainted with her, so I ordered something in her main business pottery, so I ordered a hedgehog.
K:
The reason why it became a hedgehog was that at that time, we were making ikimono cameras (toy cameras using 110 films), and the main character was a hedgehog drawn by Sasaki, so we linked it. So it looks like this hedgehog is made to Sasaki's touch. I think Lisa was conscious of it.
O:
She was so happy that Lisa suddenly accepted a photo of a photo shoot from a Japanese who didn't know, and she didn't want to be a relationship here. That's all about Lisa's interesting.
All:
Yes Yes.
S:
Lisa started her job very quickly, and she was ready soon. She was surprised that more than 20 were made. There are more than 20 hedgehogs that can be said to be completely different things, rather than variations such as different colors.
K:
You have to choose from there.
S:
All of them are cute, and I can't choose that at all.
K:
I can't choose, I can't.
O:
At that time, our main business camera was busy and had no sales channels or experience selling pottery works in earnest, so we focused on three. That became the "three hedgehogs", which is still sold as Iggy, Piggy, and punkies.
(※Photo)
Lisa who holds a camera for us (at Lisa's Villa in the Scarecone)
S:
At first, Lisa and I had a one -on -one communication in fax, and continued things like faxes for about a year. In the fax, they explained by making full use of each other. It was fun at that time (and looking far away).
K:
The work with Lisa is really fun, and the plan to make a key chain is coming out, and from here it becomes more like a project. It was a little strange motivation to make the next job because I wanted to continue my work with Lisa and continue.
O:
Yes, the business was flying and it was fun, so I just wanted to continue. So, we made hedgehog pottery by ourselves, so we're lonely, so we tried to buy other pottery, so we didn't intend to buy them at first, so we dealt with a little in Japan. Then, I was told that I wouldn't be able to wholesale or spread Lisa's work, so I decided to import it independently.
K:
Anyway, at that time, Lisa's work was a good hobby shop that handles some Nordic miscellaneous goods, and was treated as an accent.
O:
Without fear of misunderstanding, we wanted to separate Lisa from a rare item that the Upper Nordic design loves. What I often said at that time was Osamu Tezuka. It was a touch of the heart from the birds and beast caricature in the Japanese heart to the flow of the heart from Tezuka Manga and Hayao Miyazaki. So I thought that even high school girls would like children. It was too huge energy to put it in one genre of Scandinavian design. At that time, I might have been the only one who really believed it.
(※Photo)
Hedgehog's idea that I showed (at the atelier at Lisa's home)
K:
And everyone had never seen such an animal.
All:
Yes Yes. I never saw it.
S:
Somewhere lonely and my will seems to be strong.
O:
yes. If only the essence came out on the surface, it would look like this. It was a form. Although it is quite avant -garde, he has not lost any population. That was a shock.
(※Photo)
Go to Lisa's house in the snow
K:
When we started handling Lisa in earnest, Mr. M (Japan's leading global artist) liked it and went to show all the stock on trucks. This person, after all, is it Kichi -i? "
S:
At that time, when I saw the connoisseur, I thought it was like that. That became our confidence.
O:
Lisa was a very easy -to -work person, and she had fun. When you first went to see Lisa, it's like a child. Two people who have left college are one who can't be an adult. Even so, I don't discriminate. If you have passion and idea.
K:
Lisa is a person who is careful. It's not a feeling of fear, it's an entertainment, everything.
S:
She gave her a gifts, and she wrapped around her head when she met next. Waiting at the station platform and holding our camera. It always picks flowers in the neighborhood and can live. If you are alone, you will call at a good time. Even if you can't speak the words, this will try to understand. We can understand even if you don't have words, every time you go.
K:
When we were not familiar with Sweden yet, Lisa was previewing the hotel, she delivered the flowers picked there, and she always praised me somewhere. When I first met, Lisa had a cold, but she talked a lot, showed me a lot, and dating late.
S:
That's right. Everyone will be mellow. It looks like I've come to my mother after a long time.
K:
And it's elegant.
O:
At that time, we (although the current tonkachi is now), and everyone was a dreamy young man and an adult, so he felt that he was treating it carefully. There is.
S:
But the instructions on work are so accurate.
K:
Lisa has the eyes of an engineer, and she can always see how she makes it in the factory and how it comes.
S:
I was impressed and cried in the return car.
O:
But it was best that Lisa and you were compatible. I can't bargain for business, but this was also a considerable fancy.
K:
I was also taken care of by Lisa's husband, Gunnal (her deceased).
S:
At first, it's hard to say that Lisa's keychain will be mass -produced in China, so if you are jerky, please clearly say what you want to do! I was angry.
K:
We were worried about what Lisa thought about mass production. But Lisa did not care about that at all, and she was simply interesting that her work would be smaller by others.
S:
At that time, I was angry by Gunnal and I changed.
O:
For real? (smile)
S:
Gunnal was really like Lisa, and for us, we were one with Lisa. Since Corona, we haven't been to Sweden, so I've never met Lisa, who is not with Gunnal.
(※Photo)
On the way to Lisa's house in Sweden
O:
I have only met Lisa once, but I have a strong impression. I looked at me in a bang -bang in Japanese. She spoke the Japanese "Kokoro" and said "Ko -Ko -Ro" interestingly. He was a person who could understand everything in telepathy. You don't have a similar person.
S:
I also responded to "n" "n". "N" was interesting (laughs).
O:
About Mikey?
K:
That's because Lisa is a graphic designer, so the picture book "Number Book" made by wanting to make something together. Sasaki, who focused on Mikey (at the time there was no name at the time), came to the cover. Everyone decided to make this cat good, and decided to make Mikey a star. It's like an entertainment producer (laughs).
S:
Mikey is stylish and fashionable, with a cleanliness and perfection like a Scandinavian design. Unlike other characters, Mikey is a design character that came out of the Scandinavian design system. There is no other.
O:
What we often said at that time was the Mikey was a crocodile in Lacoste and Warhol bananas. You said it was different from other characters that came out of the story. If there is a story behind it, it is easy to expand the character, but Mikey, which has no story, is a symbol.
K:
It's a cat that looks a bit sullen, who doesn't flirp.
(※Photo)
"Hat Party" wearing a hat together (at Lisa's Skone villa)
O:
Anyway, Japanese pottery markets are not all that, but I think Lisa's influence is quite large before Lisa Larson. This is the part that no one says.
K:
Until then, pottery figurines were not usually displayed in girls' rooms.
S:
Lisa illuminated pottery from another angle, just as a toy camera (a camera like a toy without full -fledged function) illuminated the photo from another angle.
K:
The two are completely different, but for us, the root was the same.
O:
Lisa became more and more known for the 2011 earthquake. For some reason, the pottery that would break when it fell was attracted. I don't know if the broken thing has been born, but there was a mysterious flow.
K:
And there was UNIQLO, and in 2014, there was the first exhibition in Matsuya.
O:
Until then, what grew up under the water exploded at once.
K:
The people involved told me the lively product sales corner that I saw after a long time. We were in the middle, but it was so powerful. I was crazy. I heard that the child who ran to the venue shouted, "There was Mikey!" I thought. Until then, we couldn't realize how popular it was.
O:
We just have fun.
S:
And after all, it arrived unexpectedly. My mother made a reservation somewhere, such as my mother's wife who always goes to buy a Mikey apron, or a grandmother in the countryside of the staff's child said he saw it at this cat supermarket. I didn't think there was such a return (laughs).
O:
The power shovel camera of the predecessor was only for an unusual child in the class. We were so conscious. But after all, popularity can't be controlled. I knew in a tonkachi that doing that was a yabo. Lisa's popularity is not about how far it goes.
S:
I agree. I wonder what it will be.
All:
I don't know
K:
What Lisa taught us is that the archive mind and the popularity are not conflicted.
K:
Then, please say something that you have learned from Lisa at the end.
O:
You can be concerned as entertainment, the room, but after all, both artist and popularity are nurturing both.
S:
Continue. It's a very simple word, but I think there are really few people who have seen a lot of people and can continue. Everyone turns back at the entrance. I don't want to turn back for about 72 years.
K:
I guess it's the same to be kind to people and to be strict with myself. I'm not good at both.
(※Photo)
I saw the courtyard from the window of Lisa's house
(※Photo)
Skating link behind Lisa's house
(※Photo)
Fica (tea time) comes over and over again (cup is Lisa, spoon is Gunnal)
→ Lisa Larson 90th anniversary special site "LISA LARSON 90TH ANNIVERSARY"Here