Yes, I used to make them as a hobby. Later, I happened to participate in a garage sale and sold my creations for the first time. Art students from an art college happened to be there and were happy to buy them. It brought me great joy to see something I had made being sold and recognized.

After that, as I gradually created more and shared them on Instagram, I received positive reactions from foreigners. Thinking, “Maybe this could work,” I sent them to friends in France, New York, Canada, Thailand, and Korea and asked for their opinions. The responses were very different from those of Japanese people. While the Japanese tended to see the pieces as “kimono patterns,” the foreigners saw them purely as “designs. They appreciated the work without preconceived notions.

In addition, people of mixed Japanese ancestry expressed their happiness by saying that wearing my bags became “part of their identity” and “having something Japanese made them proud. Hearing this, I was convinced that my creations had value beyond just being bags.