Your work takes inspiration from Zen Buddhism. What is your own spiritual background?

I went to a meditation school at a temple starting in kindergarten for three years.

Interesting! What kind of a student were you?

Well, I was—and still am—a huge fan of kung-fu movies. So I was really motivated by the idea of a “practice.” I meditated more than any of the other students at my school. If you see group photos from that time, I was meditating while other students were just smiling or throwing peace signs.

Do you have a spiritual practice today?

Yes, I still meditate and it’s very important to me.

The other major inspiration for your work in this exhibition is professional wrestling. What are your earliest memories of seeing it, and who have been some of your favorite wrestlers?

There were a lot of Japanese comedians who would impersonate pro wrestlers, so I grew up watching them and not necessarily watching real pro wrestling. But there was this one day in college when I watched some Shinsuke Nakamura interviews on YouTube. After that I understood the idea of pro wrestling immediately; why people love it and why comedians like doing impersonations of pro wrestlers. So, I’m new here. My favorite wrestlers at the moment are Shinsuke Nakamura, Great Muta, and King Kong Bundy!

What are your feelings about King Kong Bundy after having spent such time and care depicting him? In a way, you know him very intimately now.

Just as the Zen monks during the Edo period had never met Daruma and had no idea who he actually was, I can only imagine who King Kong Bundy was from old footage and sources on the internet. While working on this series, I developed a personal way of seeing him and the resulting works became kind of like love letters I’ll never send.

The ten-bulls format, these comics that illustrate the teachings of Zen, remind me of koans in their tricky simplicity. Do you believe it's possible to find enlightenment through these means, which are so much fun?

Yes, absolutely. But it depends how much of a “sub” you are. Zen practice is a kind of self-torture. It is a process of gaining something after losing something. Sometimes that happens naturally, but sometimes you need to do it by yourself. I think enjoying this process is a celebration of humanity!