It is often said…
that the Japanese consider cats to be special creatures.
The "Maneki-neko," beckoning cat, for example,
is considered a good omen.
I don't know if you can call them the messengers of the spirits…
but I think they certainly appeal to the Japanese sensibility.
Personally,
I believe they are bearers of mysterious messages.
Actually, at a time when I was truly struggling
and couldn't find any answers,
deciding to create this cat artwork gave me the ability
to go beyond my imagination,
and opened up my life to a new world of opportunity.
I'm amazed when I see how things turned out.
I never dreamed I could be this happy.
I would always get really absorbed in things when I was a child.
I don't think I was the cooperative type.
You would really have to stop me if I was halfway done with something.
When I was in elementary school,
I once drew a backdrop for a school performance,
and I got so into it that I stayed after school.
I stayed at school after hours just to keep on drawing.
That's how much I loved drawing.
The artist I admire most has to be Picasso.
You can certainly say that, technically, he was incredibly talented.
And even though this might sound a bit cliché,
when I'm asked what it is that I like about Picasso,
I always say his passion.
Wakuneco comes from the Japanese words "Waku," frame, and "Neco," cat.
So, together, it means "cat in a frame."
I came up with many different ideas for what it should be called,
but I thought "Wakuneco" was catchy and easy to remember.
I discovered needle felting when I tried to hem a skirt.
I went to a handicraft shop to buy some materials.
That's how I came across it.
I didn't realize how freely one could create art using it,
so it really grabbed me from the start.
I live with three cats called Shima, Fuku-chan, and Guri.
They are all rescued cats.
Whenever I feel exhausted,
their presence is healing for me.
When I started needle felting, I was already in love with them.
I had been drawing pictures this whole time,
including a lot of portraits,
and I thought, "How about I start doing felt sculptures of them?"
This is how I came to design these 3D cat portraits.
This is a photograph of Miyu, a single-tone Russian Blue.
This cat is alive, right?
So, your creative process will be a bit different than usual.
How will you do it?
I first met Sachi from Wakuneco when I was running my own YouTube channel.
I was showing people how to create their own video content.
That was when Sachi sent me some videos, asking me if I would be interested
in filming some of her content.
When I saw her work, I thought,
"This is cool. The world needs to see this."
This way?
-Yes, that's good. -Okay, here we go.
The first video we did together got over 1,000,000 views on YouTube.
That's when we realized we were onto something.
We thought we had a good product.
The number of viewers steadily increased from then on,
and I got more and more requests from people for me to frame their cats,
before getting to where I am now.
Until recently, I had mainly done cats that have passed away and gone to heaven.
But on this occasion,
I am going to actually meet the cat I will be designing.
Of course, I am looking forward to meeting the owner,
but meeting Miyu and finding out what kind of cat she is
is even more exciting.
Having Miyu live with me
is like having a child and a sibling,
but also like having a friend.
At times, she gets all affectionate, a bit like a lover would.
It's a funny relationship we have.
To tell the truth,
my family was not good with animals,
and we were not allowed to have pets.
When I moved out of my parents' house for college,
I decided to welcome Miyu.
We've been inseparable ever since.
-I'm from Wakuneco. -Hello. Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you, too.
This is such a happy day. Thank you for coming.
Miyu is so cute.
We saw on YouTube and social media
that Sachi was creating this amazing artwork.
In the video we watched, she was applying the whiskers,
and apparently, in that scene, those are that cat's real whiskers.
You can really tell how much she loves the cats that she uses as models,
so we thought we'd really like to have Wakuneco make one of Miyu.
She said you're cute, Miyu. Isn't that nice?
I'm getting all emotional.
She's so cute.
Miyu is ten years old now, and she'll be 11 soon.
She's not getting any younger, so who knows when she'll be leaving us.
Thinking about that makes us sad.
Are you a model now, Miyu?
So cute.
Since the piece will be with us while Miyu is still here,
the idea that Miyu's spirit might go
into the art piece after she's gone
somehow eases my anxiety about her leaving us.
Could I just check the color, please?
I just collected the fur that came off while I brushed her.
I've got a ball of it.
Amazing.
-This is really useful, thanks. -Is it really? That's great.
Is she always so calm?
She's always been a pretty calm cat, yes.
If you had to choose a color for her eyes,
what color would you say
her eyes are?
I think yellowish-green.
Yellowish-green.
I think that the owner's thoughts
are really important for this work.
So, I ask the owner or owners
lots of questions about the cat.
I then combine what I've heard with my own direct impressions
from the meeting to create the final piece.
This is a picture that I took today.
I smooth out the color to a more neutral tone
and then print that image.
It's easy to make a mistake with the color while doing this work.
There are grays that are reddish, and grays that are kind of blue,
so it is important that I refer to these pictures,
to get a clear idea of which color fits best.
Actually, I really admire artists
who can express themselves in an abstract way.
So, Picasso, for example, was very adept
at creating a whole universe from nothing.
Unfortunately, I'm not good at that.
Anything that I might create will always be concrete.
To be honest, I used to have a big complex about my art being concrete.
Yes, thank you.
I know.
I can't see.
Okay.
Miyu, who will model for this piece,
has single-color fur that has no real gradations.
As you can imagine, fur with complicated color gradations
is much harder to replicate.
In fact, fur of any single shade is pretty hard to replicate.
If you only use one shade of gray, it will look a bit like a stuffed toy.
So, you have to be careful not to overuse a single shade.
Then, there's gauging any gradations,
which is an important point.
-I think this one. -Okay.
-I've seen your videos online. -Have you really?
I saw the one where you made the eyes, and I was blown away.
Really? You knew who I was, then? That's amazing!
I look forward to seeing your next YouTube video.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
I met Sachi from Wakuneco
at a fine-arts prep school where we both worked.
I was asked to make the frames for her artwork.
At that time, I didn't know much about her making 3D art.
She was mainly into working with drawings.
But it sounded interesting, so I thought I'd take it on.
Hi, Tada.
-Oh, hey. -Hello.
-It's been a while. -It has.
Making it this big was quite tough.
I thought it might be better not to make the frames as large.
The width of the frame
you last made me was spot-on,
but it was maybe a little thick.
I was thinking maybe that the thickness
could be the same as the width.
Somewhere between this one and that one, maybe?
Without compromising on the idea I have in mind,
but complementing it.
Sachi doesn't hesitate to tell me what she likes,
and she has a very clear vision,
which makes my job a lot easier.
My artwork always starts off as a stencil
of the cat who is the subject.
I will carefully draw the cat's face
to fit my vision at the beginning.
If your vision isn't clear from the get-go,
and you get midway through the process
only to realize you've made a mistake,
correcting that mistake will be extremely complicated.
So, it's very important to do this work carefully.
Of course, the most important outcome
is that the piece looks like the cat model.
I also like to add my personal touch of cuteness as I see it
to a beloved cat,
who is already the cutest in the world to the owner.
Gu-chan.
You are so cute.
What has been on your mind lately?
Are you sunbathing now?
Hello?
Do you see the park in front of you?
Thanks for coming.
-This is amazing. -Isn't it?
-Shall we take a picture? -Okay.
Hang on.
That's great.
At the university, I think it was during an art class,
the lecturer asked us if there was anything we wanted.
And everyone said stuff like holidays and meeting celebrities.
But Sachi said, "I want talent."
And then I also thought, "She's a bit different."
In a good sense, of course.
She's aiming high.
I thought that when we were students.
My followers are 80% women.
I'm very happy to have them, of course,
but I think women like my work because it falls into the doll category.
I think guys don't really know how to feel about it.
I often think that if I could go beyond the idea that I'm making dolls
and take it more in the direction of sculpture or art,
then that would be good.
I think that once you're satisfied with what you've achieved with Wakuneco…
you'll find a new direction for yourself.
It won't be just cats forever.
I think you might even go back to 2D art.
You're so good at drawing, after all.
Yeah, but to be honest with you,
I don't really think that being good at drawing
means much these days.
I threw away almost all of my drawings.
When I used to draw,
I would think my drawings were really boring.
I felt like I was in a dark tunnel and that I'd be stuck there forever.
I couldn't see a way out anywhere.
But still, I had passion.
I just didn't know
how to face my feelings back then.
It's so beautiful.
Amazing.
Before starting Wakuneco, I had wanted to become a pro photographer.
So, I took pictures of landscapes.
It is so difficult to shoot something with real character.
In landscape photography, for instance,
you might have ten different subjects standing in the same shot,
but unless each of those shots shows individuality,
none of them can be said to have character.
I have traveled all over Japan,
carrying my camera, taking photos.
I took a six-hour, one-way trip
to photograph a mountain torrent once.
As always, I was conflicted with how to best approach the shot.
A single piece typically takes me a few months to complete.
When I started felt needling,
I concluded that the hardest part of the cat to get right was the ears.
Making them look thin is incredibly hard.
But that thinness is also part of what makes them so cute.
So, I think it's important that I don't gloss over them,
and I get them right.
The difficulty in building the base comes in ensuring
that the shape doesn't deteriorate
as the years go by.
When I think that the owner will want to keep it for many years,
it makes me do my utmost to give them my best work.
The trouble with the eyes
is that even if they're the same color as the subject's,
they still somehow fail to convey the personality.
It's quite a strange point to remember, but also quite an interesting one.
I always try to give the impression
you're looking into the eyes of a loved one.
So, it's not always about creating a faithful reproduction of the color,
but conveying my own impression of what the eye looks like.
When creating the color of the fur,
if you look closely,
the base of the hair is light, and the tips are dark.
An animal's coat can have all this variety.
So, in order to express the glossiness of Miyu's coat,
the edges have been made to look lighter, and as you go into the center,
you will see a slightly darker color that naturally comes through.
There were lots of points to consider when doing this work,
but the one which I spent lots of time on really was her eyes
I got it to look like a Russian Blue relatively quickly,
but I definitely struggled with figuring out how to get her
to not look like any old Russian Blue, and bring out Miyu's personality.
That really was the most challenging element
of this project.
I really had to think hard about that part.
-Hello. -Hello.
-Thanks for your time today. -Same to you.
You sent me the whiskers the other day.
There were nine in total, right?
If there were ten of them, it would look nicely balanced.
I think, maybe, we just use the nine you sent me
and wait for another one of her whiskers to fall.
before adding it to the others.
That might look better.
I'm so happy that we get to keep Miyu's real whiskers forever.
In fact…
I have Miyu right here with me.
I haven't seen her face yet,
but I get the feeling that Miyu is actually staying with you.
I'll give it my all to create Miyu,
and I'm looking forward to delivering it to you.
We are also looking forward to it.
Thank you so much for your time.
-Thank you. -See you both soon.
I feel like…
I've finally been discovered.
The thing I'm most careful about when I create each Wakuneco piece…
is that, even if this were to be my last creation,
I have no regrets.
Because, up to this point…
whenever I've tried to make something of myself,
I've put my heart and soul into it.
I've had many setbacks…
in following through with what I've wanted to do.
I really wanted to become a painter at one point,
and then I really wanted to become a photographer.
No matter how hard I tried back then, no one saw me.
Now, with Wakuneco,
so many people can see my work and ask me to make them these portraits.
It's nothing short of a miracle, I think.
My portrait of Miyu…
may not be perfect,
but it is work that came from my heart.
And I hope it will bring a lot of joy to Miyu's owners.
I had a lot of trouble sleeping last night.
I was making final preparations.
I also asked myself if this piece was as good as it could be.
And then, it was suddenly light out, and I headed out.
Hello!
-Hello. -Nice to see you again.
-Thank you for having me. -Thank you for coming.
Thank you for coming.
This is your Wakuneco piece.
Please, go ahead and have a look.
May I?
I'm a bit nervous.
Here it goes.
Miyu is here.
Miyu, do you want to look?
I'm happy to see her.
Here we go. Three, two, one.
That's amazing!
The eyes are perfect.
How wonderful.
I'm so glad.
I'm stunned.
I'm so happy.
-The whiskers are really cute, too. -Yeah, they are.
Don't struggle, Miyu…
Say thank you to the nice lady.
Miyu, you're so cute.
I'm so shocked. It looks alive. The eyes are amazing.
I'm so happy you think that.
I really think that Wakuneco saved me.
That part of me which I once thought of as a complex,
turned out to be my greatest asset.
I just hadn't realized it yet.
It wasn't until I made this my reality,
and that I accepted those parts of me
that I saw as negative points,
decided to use them to my fullest
and became passionate about what I do,
that all of those doubts began to fade.
"Yoko, Chihiro,
thank you for giving me this wonderful opportunity."
"I expect I will only be able to create a few of these Wakuneco in my lifetime,
but I am very glad that I was able to meet the both of you."
"I hope that my Wakuneco portrait of Miyu will bring you joy,
and that you will be able to enjoy Miyu's company for many years to come."
"Love from Sachi of Wakuneco."
If I were asked whether I like myself, I'd now be able to say,
unreservedly, "Yes, I do!"
Subtitle translation by: Harry Darkins