Noritaka Tatehana, from designing footwear for Lady Gaga to reviving Japanese craftsmanship

The person responsible for designing twenty-five pairs of the iconic shoes American singer platform Lady Gagacontemporary artist Noritaka Tatehana, has set out to revive the delicate and meticulous traditional Japanese arts through collaborative works with local artisans.

Tatehana (Tokyo, 1985), whose works have been acquired by institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York or the Victoria and Albert in London, expressed in an interview with EFE that he believes that very few Japanese pay attention to the culture of their country. which motivated his latest project, ‘Edo Rethink’, which has now accumulated three editions.

The Tokyo artist grew up in a family that ran a bathhouse in what is now the capital’s red light district, Kabukicho, and graduated in art from the University of Tokyo. Now, he seeks to bring the traditions of Japanese craftsmanship to new generations.

The third exhibition ‘Edo Rethink’, which Tokyo hosted until last Sunday in the Kyu-Iwasaki-tei gardens and which he himself directed, involved Tatehana’s art with local artisans with the intention of promoting their techniques and “add cultural value to industrialized art.”

The exhibition highlighted the flagship piece of Tatehana’s career, the ‘Heel-less shoes’, leather and platform shoes inspired by the clogs more than 20 centimeters high worn by high-ranking Japanese courtesans, or ‘oiran’.

A total of four models of ‘Heel-less shoes‘ created by Tatehana and local artisans, who with their techniques for working silk and painting leather and fabrics added color and texture to the pieces, were included in the exhibition.

More works of art converged with the renowned shoes, including paintings painted by Tatehana with handmade brushes or handcrafted fans and drums decorated with motifs characteristic of his work, such as lightning bolts or storm clouds that imitate the ropes that hang in Shinto temples. .

‘Heel-less shoes’, the starting point

Twenty-five copies of ‘Heel-less shoes’ were designed by the Tokyo artist for Lady Gaga during the time he worked exclusively and on his own for her, two and a half years that amounted to “start point” of his career.

“After graduating in Art from the University of Tokyo in 2010, I emailed samples of the shoes to people in the fashion industry around the world, including Lady Gaga’s then-stylist Nicola Formichetti,” Tatehana explained.

“He (Formichetti) responded to me and gave me the first orders. In April of the same year, Lady Gaga wore my shoes on a Japanese television show, she liked them and the collaboration continued for two and a half more years.he added.

Tatehana created these shoes with the intention of defining the traditional Japanese culture that lives secretly among the Westernized Japanese lifestyle. ““In fact, thick-soled shoes have been trending in Japan many times over the past ten years,” I note.

From fashion to tradition

Tatehana wanted to dedicate himself to fashion before painting and sculpture, but he redirected his career towards an art rooted in Japanese culture that only he could create.

“By producing art with a focus on Japanese culture I gained recognition abroad, but the Japanese themselves did not show much interest at first. Now that my works are exhibited all over the world, I feel that I am finally recognized in my country,” express.

Tatehana also recently participated in a public art project to renovate basketball courts in Japan, in his first work of this type and after which he received numerous proposals for similar initiatives, mainly in the United States.

“I heard from players that to play basketball on the street the most important thing is to have clear skies, so I painted on a court (located in Saitama, north of Tokyo) the clouds that I normally draw and added a sun that seems to battle with Storm”, the artist detailed.

Tatehana concluded: “I believe that art is a communication tool that is only meaningful when it manages to convey something regardless of the language.”

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