｜What do you find most rewarding about this work?

When a space turns into entertainment, and the simulation surpasses reality.

As a technical director, I take on both the production and the technical side of what it takes for spatial direction to work at all — from creating video content, to designing projector systems, to overseeing on-site construction such as scaffolding and power. I have been at HITOHATA for less than a year, yet I have already worked on around twenty sites in Japan and overseas. Regardless of career length or seniority, if you have the drive to say "I want to do this," you are entrusted with even the most difficult sites. That scope for initiative is HITOHATA's greatest appeal.

My most memorable challenge was the YOKAI Immersive Experience Exhibition NAGOYA, held in my hometown of Nagoya, which drew more than 120,000 visitors. It was the world's first immersive art museum themed on yokai, and I was responsible for everything in the room called "Yokai Ura-Koji" — from its composition, to video production, to on-site adjustment. To create the extraordinary bustle of humans peering into the world of yokai, we went through repeated technical trial and error within a short production period.

What thrills me most in this job is the moment a simulation I built in my head is realised in an actual space as projection mapping. The satisfaction when a mapping adjustment — overlaying the images from multiple projectors precisely onto an object — lands exactly right is a joy unique to a technical specialist.

Seeing an unprecedented number of visitors immersed in imagery I created, raising their voices in surprise, made me realise just how much impact this work can have. I used to focus on making work that suited my own taste. Now I am convinced that, with these techniques, we can deliver a completely different level of emotion to people all over the world.

｜Where do you feel you have grown?

Wrestling with a complex castle, I gained real on-site capability.

The moment my abilities as a technical director were tested most, and where I felt the greatest growth, was the projection mapping held at Tsuruga Castle in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima. Mapping onto the keep that is the symbol of Aizu-Wakamatsu was an enormous challenge for me.

The biggest obstacle was the projection surface unique to Tsuruga Castle. Unlike a flat screen, a castle has complex contours layered on top of one another. Projecting precise, undistorted imagery onto that from an angle demanded extremely advanced calculation from the system design stage onward. The number of projectors and the scale were beyond anything I had worked with before.

From which position, and with which lens, would it look most beautiful? From the site survey onward I ran simulation after simulation, and I was involved in every process — equipment selection, transport, installation, and final adjustment.

On site, changes to installation conditions and unforeseen environmental problems arise one after another. But I kept repeating a process of analysing logically what was causing each issue and solving it patiently. As I wrestled with the site, I gradually came to grasp the whole system intuitively, and I could feel my ability to resolve problems on the spot being sharpened.

Under real pressure came the moment of the test screening, with the projection system I had built, the video, the sound and the lighting all working as one.

Seeing that overwhelming scene rise out of the darkness, I knew I had gained a level of on-site capability I had never had before. However large the scale and however difficult the site, the strength of a professional team and my own technical skill can see it through. That on-site capability is now my greatest weapon.

｜What has stayed with you most?

Beyond borders and language, a shared emotion created by a global team.

What is engraved in me in a different way from technical achievement is the projection mapping held at Sensoji Temple in Asakusa, Tokyo.

More than half the audience were visitors from overseas, and I will never forget the scene at the moment the projection began. With no verbal explanation at all, people of different nationalities and languages raised their voices together and shared the same emotion through the story of light we projected. It was the moment I felt, first hand, that the very best visual direction can deliver an emotion that is universal.

That sense of working anywhere in the world has been just as strong on overseas projects. I was entrusted with the role of technical director for the international expansion of the Ukiyoe Immersive Art Exhibition, and within less than a year of joining I travelled to three overseas cities: Taipei, Kaohsiung and Paris. Communicating intently with local staff across language and cultural barriers, gestures included, and building a space with the Japanese and local teams working as one, carried a completely different intensity and stimulation from working at home. Completing the visual adjustments successfully in an environment so different from Japan, and the moment the Japanese and overseas teams shook hands firmly to confirm the trust between us — that is an unforgettable experience, and one where I felt the immeasurable potential of the entertainment HITOHATA sends out into the world.

｜A day in the life

｜How I spend my days off

Inspiration from street corners around the world, turning the joy of play into future productions.

On days off I value time to relax, body and mind, while looking for new inspiration. Going to a talked-about art exhibition or a theme park is the best way to refresh. I also make the most of days off on overseas trips. On a free day during a trip to Paris, the Japanese technical team strolled down the Champs-Élysées and experienced world-famous immersive venues and light shows — sightseeing and the world's most advanced entertainment at the same time. Even while purely enjoying myself, I catch myself learning something, such as how much subtraction matters in lighting design, or thinking "that is an interesting effect" and "could I bring that technique into the next project." Storing up the surprises I find in play and travel: days off like that are an important driving force for creating a new world the next day.