ItalianoGACKT Official Blog update. Translation below:
During these few days,
I’ve been having a large-scale project meeting
from morning till night for a new project that has finally started.
Last week was a rather tough week, and I barely slept.
I had to simultaneously be in contact with people from around the world,
and once again, keenly felt how troublesome it was
to get things done at the same time between countries with time differences.
It’s better to have a smaller time difference after all.
I was working to finish the set up until I left Japan but
in any case, I only have one body.
Even while I made calls and took calls from my partners around the world,
I have to finish the organisation in Japan to a certain extent…
No matter how much time I have, there isn’t enough at all…
However,
no matter how little sleep I get, it’s really interesting
to start a project this big from the organisation.
Fatigue and the like isn’t a big issue.
Work is my hobby… that’s what I often say but
I sincerely do think so.
I suppose this is a sickness…
In the past,
I had a conversation with my friends and
in the end, because we found that setting up work was the most enjoyable,
we ended up doing nothing but work.
I suppose this is also the reason why my hobbies don’t increase much.
That said, breathers are important too.
Today, as a breather,
I went to check the interim progress of the
[Lamborghini Eva Runaway Mode Spec] which is still being put together.
That’s fun.
Of course, riding in a car is also enjoyable but
more than that, putting a car together is more fun.
It’s a similar feeling to setting work up.
Indeed, putting things together takes time.
But in those stages of setting things up, if you cut corners,
the number of times you have to redo things may simply increase or
even the image of your final goal, depending on where you are,
might just crumble.
【Set-up is 90%】
This is something I keep in mind regardless of what I’m doing.
If you’re going to do that half-heartedly then you might as well just stop.
All the time you spent on that will be wasted.
If you don’t do it with those feelings,
your time will not come back to you.
Time is the most precious asset there is,
and people who treat that value with disdain,
and those who are unable to understand that value, would have decided that they will never to work.
Well,
you’d think that it’s common sense in the professional world but
there are quite a lot of people who are incapable of doing this properly.
I will not stand for such people
who waste my precious time in my life.
Right then,
upon arriving at the workshop, I immediately went to look at the car.
Absolutely stunning.
The colour has been done up well too.
My previous Lamborghini was done up with wrapping that was in trend at the time but
wrapping is still wrapping after all.
No matter what,
the colour looked shallow and cheap, and I quickly got sick of it.
As expected, unless the colour gets painted on, it will never become the colour I visualised.
Wrapping looks fine in photos but,
when you actually look at it up close, you just can’t remove the cheap feeling.
That’s just how it is.
Not only is there a huge difference between the amount time spent for that and for painting,
the fundamental idea of how the colour is actually put on is different.
If you want to do it similar to dressing up, then wrapping might work but
for a car with this many aspects lined up on such a large surface,
it’s without a doubt that painting is the best method after all.
However,
it costs an exceptional amount of time and money.
This can’t be helped.
The better the skill of an artisan, the higher their price gets.
In this aspect, its the same no matter what industry it is but
I feel that it’s especially similar to the industry of soba-making.
Although soba is actually the production of noodles,
all soba makers all use pretty much the same things, just buckwheat flour and water.
It can be said that the steps of kneading, hitting, and cutting are almost the same,
especially if they don’t use binding agents.
However,
the skill of soba makers is truly outstanding.
And that,
is the reason why the price of soba is more expensive than other noodles,
it’s pretty much like a fee you pay for the skill that they’ve mastered.
In other words, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to even say that soba is the ultimate noodle.
Of course,
there’s probably more than one opinion to this but in the end, this is just my personal opinion.
There’s a famous phrase with regards to mastering soba,
【3 years to master kneading the soba, 8 years to master the mixture】.
One theory is that, it will take more than a total of 20 years
to be able to make soba with the right balance
and a stable rhythm.
Of course,
there will be people who take this negatively.
I don’t think so.
If you’re simply hoping to master hitting the soba
or just to get the right mixture, I suppose you can master that in shorter period of time.
However,
to master everything there is to know about soba and it’s long history,
along with how to deal with buckwheat,
the different methods and concepts from different regions,
more than anything else, a sturdy technique,
and including your own ideals into all of that,
I definitely don’t think that 20 years is a long time.
Recently,
with various things being simplified for mass production,
and knowledge and skills being put into simple systems,
a lot of people think that it’s a good thing that it can be effectively taught like this.
By doing this,
we are simply increasing the number that have mastered the skills
and steadily decreasing those who pursue the essence of things, in other words, genuity.
Training is definitely not fun.
There’s a lot that’s tough.
There are many things that aren’t related to skills.
The main point is whether a person really has
the conviction to pick up the entire load and bear it.
The more we get into an era where information is easily obtainable,
the more simple and simplistic things get but
certain things that cannot be delivered
or conveyed like that
will become clear even when you look back in history.
It also becomes a question of
“How many genuine soba makers are there in Japan now?”.
From their point of view, as artisans with a lot of pride,
『If it’s that easily attainable then no one will have a hard time』
is what they’d probably say scornfully but…
Well,
the increase in the number of people who only understand this at surface value
might also be because of the spread of the modern disease.
Artisans and businessmen are different.
From a business point of view, they will priorities profit and pick whichever creates higher productivity.
For an artisan,
even as they disregard the business and go beyond those concepts,
I suppose they’re just people who are aiming to master whatever they do.
This isn’t about which is right or wrong.
In a world that’s overflowing with convenient things,
people who choose to go down the difficult path of being an artisan
are probably great assets to the country.
The country has to preserve and protect such people more,
and has to invest and protect things like traditional skills in future,
and more people recognise that these people are
valuable cultural assets that are closely linked to our casual lives,
the general respect for them will be increased as well.
I think that to refuse to become an artisan simply because it looks tough,
or because it looks difficult,
or because it looks painful,
might be largely linked with how
little respect the country, on the whole, has for them…
It is also a fact that, because a person is being given respect,
they can be proud of their work no matter how hard it is.
Well,
I’ve strayed quite far away from talking about the car but
when I see the skills of artisans before my eyes, it really hits me.
This lustre and depth,
it changes so much depending on the angle.
Such a gorgeous paint job is rarely achieved.
I guess that’s the skill of an artisan… the words just came out.
A smile just appears without thinking.
Even so,
as I checked the detailed areas over and over,
ideas kept popping up one after another,
like, a little more should be done here,
or maybe on this side, that is better, and such.
Then
I started to work on additional colour design myself,
thinking, this isn’t it… that isn’t it…,
While checking over and over, I made changes as I went.
This period of time is really unbearably enjoyable.
In planning for the tour and staging,
in planning a business,
in planning for a car.
In the end, the extent of my own involvement,
even if it’s just in creating,
is about how much I stick to my particularities and deliver it.
In business, too,
it is something that I want to be proud of,
that is made up of both efficiency and that fastidiousness.
Lose fastidiousness, and you lose depth in life.
Source: GACKT Blog
Translation: GACKT ITALIA Team
Translation © GACKT ITALIA