Azuma Ito x MINOTAUR INST. "Tradition is not just about inheriting what you received from your parents' generation"

"Many things have happened with the development of civilization, but there are also things that can only be done in this era."

Izumi (MINOTAUR INST. Designer): As we worked together to create the samue, I thought it would be difficult for Azuma Ryo, a founder of Ryosokuin, a temple with a 650-year history, to make such a decision. However, after actually listening to him, I realized that these new ideas were actually a positive development that led to things happening.

Toryo's samue seems to have a long history, but the simple meaning of samue itself in modern times has changed from the past. The same is true for clothing; even when we look at the tabi socks worn by monks, the body shapes of Japanese people have clearly changed from the past to the present, so I wonder if it is really necessary to continue to stick to the traditional form. In the first place, "samue" is a word that refers to work done at temples, so in the past, samue was divided into those worn for village work or tending to the temple fields, and those worn when reciting sutras.

Even at Toryo , samue now also has elements of clothing for meeting and talking with people and serving tea, and is also clothing for meeting people comfortably, so it's a little different from work clothes. To be honest, if I thought about it only from the perspective of work clothes, I sometimes wondered if it was necessary to be so particular about samue. There are so many different kinds of clothes now. In that sense, I had been wondering if it was okay to stick with the traditional samue, so when MINOTAUR INST. asked me to try on the new samue, I was surprised at how much it felt like when I put it on, and I thought it was amazing. It's something you can't get just by looking at it, but when you put it on, you immediately understand.

Izumi: This samue is also sold as a MINOTAUR INST. product, and many young people have bought it, saying it looks cool. Conversely, the things that people wear repeatedly have an element of coolness to young people. I wanted people of all ages to know that. What I want to do is to be able to think of things that I find intuitively good that transcend the ages, so it's fun to be able to feel the dots I mentioned earlier connect through this samue.

Azuma Ryo , I can really relate to what you just said. I want temple activities to be a place where people can come and feel like it's wonderful, without feeling like they're being preachy. Hanging scrolls and folding screens are traditional and beautiful forms, but we don't have to be limited to those forms of media; we live in an age where we can use a variety of things. I've had the opportunity to work with Matsuyama, and now there are media that can more directly convey thoughts to different generations, so I think that clothing is also a medium that can convey a message in that sense. So I want to continue to express myself and take on new challenges.

Azuma Ryo: Looking at the long history of Buddhism, many things have happened with the development of various civilizations, but there are some things that are possible only in this era, and I feel lucky to be living in this time. Temples used to have absolute significance as places. However, this meant that monks were tied to a place and it was natural for them to serve there. But now, thanks to the internet, we can have online conversations like this interview, and this has changed the way we spread the history, culture, and wisdom of temples. If we weren't living in such an era, I might have just focused on cherishing this place. The fact that I have been able to develop this kind of place-agnostic technology is a huge thing for me.

Matsuyama (MINOTAUR INST. Collaboration Creator) : I see. For example, I think culture isn't born because of a place, but because of the activities of people who gather there. It's not the place that's important; it's born because people gather there. In today's networked world, such activities are no longer tied to a specific place. If you think about it that way, street culture is no longer something that originates from a specific place. Izumi and I design graphic T-shirts, and even if we don't go to Shibuya, we use data from Shibuya to make the T-shirts. We talk about how even though we work at home, that mindset itself is street culture. It's fascinating how technological advances are having such a huge impact on culture, and even on temples.