Purple Magazine
— Purple #43 S/S 2025
The Tokyo Diary Issue
motoko ishibashi
Motoko Ishibashi, bbt_1, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 59 x 59 inches
Motoko Ishibashi, bbt_5, 2023, acrylic on canvas, 59 x 59 inches
Motoko Ishibashi, bbb_1, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 59 x 59 inches
Motoko Ishibashi, bbt_2, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 50 3/8 x 37 3/4 inches
interview and portrait
by ALEPH MOLINARI
By reappropriating the hypersexualized imagery of hentai and manga, mostly created by men, the young Nagasaki-born artist subverts the power dynamic in gender, playfully projecting tits ‘n’ ass
onto explosive canvases.
ALEPH MOLINARI — Can you describe Nagasaki, your hometown?
MOTOKO ISHIBASHI — I was born in Nagasaki, a small city that is the capital of Nagasaki Prefecture, which also includes many remote islands. Nagasaki was one of the only cities that opened up to Western trade about 400 years ago. It had a Dutch influence back then and also traded with the Chinese, and it still has a small Chinatown. So, it’s Japan, but it also has a Western and exotic atmosphere. And there’s a big autumn festival, Kunchi, that represents a colorful mix of the Asian and the Western. It’s really intense. It lasts for three days, and everybody’s dressed up because every town has its own performances.
ALEPH MOLINARI — Is there still a scar from the atomic bomb in Nagasaki?
MOTOKO ISHIBASHI — You don’t really see it anymore. It’s a completely clean city now. But in Nagasaki, people still talk about the atomic disaster. This year, the Nobel Peace Prize went to the hibakusha, the atomic bomb survivors [represented by the confederation Nihon Hidankyō].
ALEPH MOLINARI — So, the trauma is still present in people’s memory?
MOTOKO ISHIBASHI — I think so. But the average age of the survivors is now 85, and many have died already, so the discussions are becoming less frequent. Now people try to have more positive discussions focusing on hope for the future. My grandfather was a survivor. He worked as a supervisor in a factory. He was only two or three kilometers away from the blast when the atomic bomb was dropped. But he was lucky because the building collapsed around him and protected him from the radiation. It took time for him to get out. When he finally did, the radiation had subsided. He saw the terrifying devastation of his hometown. He walked for hours to his relative’s house. Compared with the site of Hiroshima, which is flatter, Nagasaki is cut into by the sea and surrounded by mountains. The city is like a long bridge, and the landscape protected some parts of it from the blast.
ALEPH MOLINARI — Did you grow up hearing your grandfather’s stories about that trauma?
MOTOKO ISHIBASHI — He never spoke about it, but he left an emotive autobiography for the family, which I read later on.
ALEPH MOLINARI — Is Tokyo the city to go to if you’re interested in art?
MOTOKO ISHIBASHI — Yes. I first moved to Tokyo to study aesthetics, art, and literature. I was really interested in Christian and medieval painting. Then I started painting and went to the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London.
ALEPH MOLINARI — Early on, you painted characters from anime and hentai. How did you approach this imagery, which is so ingrained in Japanese culture?
MOTOKO ISHIBASHI — When I was a kid, I started copying and drawing anime cartoons and all the characters. I refused to go to art school in Japan because you really had to practice a classic style and have very strong technical skills. Even before art school, you had to spend so much time practicing and studying general subjects to pass an entrance exam. At that time, I was more into fashion and films — and anime, of course.
ALEPH MOLINARI — How did you move into painting?
MOTOKO ISHIBASHI — It was quite natural. I didn’t have to think about what I could paint — it was just something my hands were comfortable with. I didn’t like my pencil drawings, so I thought, “Why not try painting?” That’s why I started to scale up little vignettes onto bigger canvases. I wasn’t interested in contemporary art while doing my undergraduate degree, but I just kept on painting.
ALEPH MOLINARI — Do you feel connected to the Superflat perspective?
MOTOKO ISHIBASHI — It wasn’t my intention initially, but definitely. Takashi Murakami coined a movement in contemporary Japanese art. But the flat style and perspective are actually quite common in Japanese art. I certainly do feel a connection to that. It was quite a natural outcome. At some point, I realized that I was using strong Pop colors in my works, and they had nothing to do with the colors of European figuration. So, I’m definitely a Japanese artist in that regard. I’ve shown in Japan, so I don’t feel disconnected from it.
ALEPH MOLINARI — How do you see the Japanese art scene?
MOTOKO ISHIBASHI — The contemporary Japanese scene for emerging artists is still fairly small. Even though if you look at art in general in Japan — from the underground to traditional ceramics and sculpture, ikebana, or tea — it’s really varied, and there are so many small genres.
ALEPH MOLINARI — Do you feel connected to the history of anime?
MOTOKO ISHIBASHI — The history of anime is deeply rooted in drawing styles like shunga and the Japanese woodblock print style from the 18th and 19th centuries. These are quite flat and have a unique landscape perspective. This is connected to the manga style, and definitely to the cartoons from the ’70s and ’80s.
ALEPH MOLINARI — For your paintings, do you create the characters from scratch, or do you start from existing images?
MOTOKO ISHIBASHI — Those characters come mostly from references. I save lots of images, then combine them using Photoshop to make layers or change their shape. Some of them are GIFs or tiny drawings from manga and hentai characters circulating on the Web. It’s a gray zone but not really difficult to find online. It’s really open source. It’s not about how good or bad a drawing is — I’m interested in the style.
ALEPH MOLINARI — What’s your creative process?
MOTOKO ISHIBASHI — I start by editing images quickly and roughly on Photoshop, then I use a projector to do a drawing as a base. I get an idea of the colors and the style, and I combine everything.
ALEPH MOLINARI — So, you take the thumbnails and GIFs and explode them out, not just in size but also in extreme perspectives. It’s like an explosion of the body, but in close-up. You zoom in on the sexuality of the imagery. How do you see the evolution of Japanese sexuality and its representation today?
MOTOKO ISHIBASHI — I live in London now, but in Japan there are definitely more taboos in the mainstream media than in the past. There’s more censorship now of what is said and shown in manga or in film and on television.
ALEPH MOLINARI — In Japan, there’s a strict sense of morality and respect, yet there’s also a crazy culture of fetishism underneath.
MOTOKO ISHIBASHI — Yes, it’s a funny balance. But art institutions in Japan are becoming really strict and conservative, even with nudes in museums. I don’t think I would have made these types of artworks if I had studied in Japan.
ALEPH MOLINARI — What about gender politics and the #MeToo movement in Japan?
MOTOKO ISHIBASHI — There are definitely more discussions about it than before. But, for example, gay or same-gender marriage is still not allowed. Japanese society is really strict about it. But small communities are more open.
ALEPH MOLINARI — Would you say the female characters in your paintings are empowered as women, or are they just hypersexualized?
MOTOKO ISHIBASHI — I’m not trying to empower them, but I think they are empowered all the same. Also, the original drawings and images are made mostly by men. So, as a female artist, I’m taking these images out of context to rework and transform them into something else.
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