Discovering Picture Frames Helped Me Overcome My Feeling of Being a “Nobody”

What was your life like before you became a frame artisan?

I had tried my hand at many things, but nothing ever seemed to pan out. I was living with a complex, feeling like I was a person who only ever did things halfway. But when I started making picture frames, everything just clicked.

From kindergarten through high school, I was set on becoming a professional soccer player. Coached by my father, a PE teacher, I even got into a powerhouse school on a sports scholarship to pursue that dream, but it wasn't meant to be. In my senior year of high school, I began to have doubts about my future, wondering, “The world is so vast, why have I only ever known soccer?”

I decided to pursue something I loved and thought about going to a vocational school for fashion, but my parents wouldn't allow it, so I started looking for a university. I hadn't done the preparatory drawing needed for art school entrance exams, so I found a university where I could enroll in the economics department with the option to transfer, and eventually moved to the textile design program.

But I still felt an inferiority complex even in college. I hadn't passed the rigorous exams to get into a top art university, and I was envious of my friends at fashion vocational schools who seemed so dazzling and successful. On top of that, it was a “job-hunting ice age,” so there were hardly any openings, and I couldn't land a job as a designer. Just as I was thinking about going back to a fashion school, my grandfather, who had a connection with the president of Fujiseigaku, arranged for me to visit the workshop.