Yuki Wasano: Celebrating the Vessel of Unbridled Imagination

2024/02/22

When I received the request to contribute, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and cynical by all the glitz and glamour. Just then, news arrived from my beloved Suzu, a place I have grown fond of through the art festival. It woke me up, reminding me that I must look forward.

My current title started when I was writing "Art in Business." While interviewing delightful men from Dentsu and fascinating business owners (published by Yuhikaku in 2019), I was inspired by the cool katakana titles on everyone's business cards. I decided to create a card with a title that sounded plausible yet unique, and familiar yet mysterious.

I live to create a society where people can truly appreciate the value of artists—those who perceive the world with innocent, child-like eyes and bodies, without leaning on social norms or common sense, and who shape their imagination to share it with others. I believe Japan would become much more interesting if there were more adults like that.

I was born in Yokosuka (Suka), not Yokohama (Hama). In 3rd grade, a boy threw a stone from atop a wall that hit me in the head (perhaps out of affection for me?!), leading me to transfer to an all-girls school. I focused on my studies without being distracted by the loose socks trend and eventually moved to Tokyo as I had dreamed. After some twists and turns as an otolaryngologist, and influenced by my love for Yukio Mishima, I came to Keio seeking ways to support artists active on the world stage. I researched the visualization of collector behavior—where loving contemporary art is like falling in love with someone brand new every time—from a marketing perspective and completed the Art Management course. That brings me to where I am today.

Since completing the program, I have researched the valuation of art for individuals and corporations, turning that into exhibitions and books. I've had precious experiences such as briefly assisting Masamichi Toyama's "New Species Immigrations" and Hakuhodo UoC, planning and producing art events, and joining artists in their creative processes. While involved in an exhibition project at a festival in Thailand late last year, I experienced the strength and necessity inherent in "expression," and I now feel a deep desire to be much more conscious about the words I weave. I am interested in "picture books" as a person's first encounter with another's worldview, and my dream is to produce a picture book for someone who makes the world more interesting.

Learning is important, of course, but I love practice (I want to see results with my own eyes while I'm still alive!), so even in my mid-40s, I continue to struggle with how I should live. Grateful for the connections I've made and carrying the awareness of being a Keio University alumni, I want to live my life finding constellations in the night sky, occasionally shedding a tear along the way.