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Japanese to English: Interview with Daisuke Tsutsumi at Tonko House: How does an organization attract talented people in an era of individualism? General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Journalism
Source text - Japanese 個の時代に優秀な人を惹きつける組織とは？ 元ピクサー、トンコハウス堤大介さんに聞く
Translation - English Interview with Daisuke Tsutsumi at Tonko House: How does an organization attract talented people in an era of individualism?
After working on titles like Toy Story 3 and Monsters University at Pixar, Daisuke Tsutsumi struck out on his own and founded Tonko House in 2014. At present, he manages a “community-like organization” that encourages creators to come together with a shared interest in a project, but contribute as “individuals.”
Tonko House has continued to make great strides, with the nomination of the Academy Award for “The Dam Keeper,” the first short film that they directed in 2015, and broadcast of short films on NHK in Japan as well. However, they were faced with a great challenge in 2018. A major project on which they staked the future of the company collapsed, raising fear that the company’s continuation could be in danger.
The dilemma of being a community where individual creators gather, while being a for-profit company…At that time, what managerial decision did Tsutsumi make, to get the creators on board to overcome that challenge? Through Tsutsumi’s words, let’s examine this idea of an organization that perseveres by appealing to the concept of an “era of individualism.”
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PROFILE
Daisuke Tsutsumi
Co-founder of Tonko House
Born and raised in Tokyo, Tsutsumi graduated from the School of Visual Arts. He worked on concept art in Ice Age and Robots at Lucas Learning and Blue Sky Studios. He joined Pixar in 2007 and worked on Toy Story 3 and Monsters University as an art director. An original short animated film “The Dam Keeper” that he created as a side project while at Pixar, was nominated in the “Best Animated Short Film” category of the 2015 Academy Awards in the US. In July 2014, he left Pixar and founded Tonko House.
Feature film project to be released on world scale is aborted
It’s been two years since the last time we interviewed you. What kind of projects have you been working on recently?
On the last interview, I said we were working on the theatrical feature film version of “The Dam Keeper” and that once completed, it would be distributed worldwide through 20th Century Fox. So…actually, that ended up not working out.
We adored “The Dam Keeper.” First, we created the short film, and then released the graphic novels (cross between full-color manga and picture book) – full-length manga via a US publishing company.
Then we distributed “The Dam Keeper Poems,” based on the short film, on Hulu Japan, and also had it broadcast on NHK. Little by little, we gained a wider audience, including Japanese viewers.
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“The Dam Keeper” storyboards
We were in talks discussing the feature film version of “The Dam Keeper” as our main project. Since this was Hollywood, the contract entailed giving up all rights regarding “The Dam Keeper” to 20th Century Fox.
However in these two years, the management structure of 20th Century Fox changed, our direct contact left, and finally, Fox was bought out by Disney.
With all of these factors, we ended up aborting our negotiations with them.
Nevertheless, thanks to that, we (Tonko House) were able to maintain control of “The Dam Keeper” world. This paved the way for the picture book and the Tonko House Film Festival.
You’re referring to “The Dam Keeper” picture book that was published at the end of March, right?
[video link]
https://youtu.be/u3mxIXHqlqo
We ended up collaborating with Kadokawa for the picture book, as the editor Mr. Toyota had ceaselessly been reaching out to us about it for the past few years.
We had gotten various offers from publishers in other countries as well, but Mr. Toyota stood out as the most passionate bidder. Therefore, as it didn’t really matter where the publisher was, we figured that if Mr. Toyota was that excited about it, we should definitely work with him.
Then the “Tonko House Film Festival” was born out of the suggestion of “screening Tonko House’s works for one month in Shinjuku in Tokyo, as part of Kadokawa’s “picture book publishing anniversary event.” This opportunity to screen our films exclusively for a month is very rare, but we offered to make it a film festival where we could showcase not only our short films, but the short films of the artists that we like, since they were generous enough to provide a place for it.
To be honest, considering matters in terms of Tonko House itself, it would be the most beneficial for us to only screen our own short films. However, by looking beyond our company and sharing the films that we sincerely recommend, everyone is connected. With this connection, good things will inevitably come back to Tonko House.
It was impressive that you sought to raise money via crowd funding for the Tonko House Film Festival, which will start on April 27th.
[screenshot of Makuake website]
In the end, we got the support of 1,439 people and collected a total of 12,460,000 yen (124,600 dollars) via crowd funding. I’m truly grateful that we achieved 415% of our goal. Even so, putting on an event of this scale actually sets us back financially, as a company.
In this way, we’ve relied on a lot of people, but now we can showcase the artists that we like, enjoy the festival ourselves and connect the community. Friends from my Pixar days and of course myself will come to the workshops, such as Ronnie del Carmen, assistant director, and Chris Sasaki, character designer on the movie Inside Out. I think it’s rare to have this caliber of animation artists at one event.
This film festival was inspired by a project called “Sketchtravel” that we started working on in 2007, for four and a half years. We handed one sketch book to 71 artists around the world, and had them each draw one picture, one by one. We wanted to remember the “spirit” of that time, in the film festival.
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Sketchbook that traveled the world
Remembering roots when “continuance of company was in danger”
Even so, it must have been an intense shock when the negotiations on a major project that you staked your company on, were broken off. How were you able to decide to annul the contract?
It was definitely a major contract, with a budget for a huge production, so it was not easy to give up.
Even after our contact at the film company changed, we kept trying to make it work for about another year.
However, the reason that we had chosen 20th Century Fox over the offers of other film companies was because we were moved by the enthusiasm of the previous contact. I don’t mean that the contact who took over was not competent. However, within the communication and financial negotiations with that contact, we saw that they saw this project just as “one task within their responsibilities at Fox”…As we were straying from the original concept of the “community” that we wanted to create, we could no longer be amenable to the deal.
What does your ideal “community” look like?
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This relates to the reason why we named our company “Tonko House,” rather than “Tonko Studio” or “Tonko Enterprises,” which is that we wanted the sense of it being a “place” rather than “employment.” Rather than “working as an individual” or “working at a company,” we wanted to create a “community” and place importance on the friends that we want to work with.
Since it’s a “house,” people come in and out. Even if someone leaves the house, the relationship continues. It has that sense of airiness. Of course, we are a corporation as a legal necessity, but that does not define our essence. Rather, we think this is a generation where work is generated from “relationships between individuals” rather than “relationships within a company.”
However, to be honest, company income would be largely reduced from aborting a contract.
Since it isn’t a big company, we were actually wondering whether Tonko House could even continue. While discussing the future of the company, we decided “to return to our roots” in the fall of 2018. It may be strange for a company that hasn’t even been around for 5 years to “return to their roots,” but we decided we wanted to honor the spirit of “community.”
I talk a lot about why we left Pixar, with my co-founder, the head of business, Robert Kondo.
Many of the creators who have come to Tonko House are from Pixar, and they are all top-notch talent. Do we want to just give them “tasks that are solely for the sake of continuing the company”? If we were the type of company to do that, they would definitely quit. They have plenty of other paths they could take. That’s why “keeping Tonko House afloat” is not our top priority.
We thought it was our duty to make this a place where all of our friends who were involved with Tonko House would think “I’m glad we came together here,” even if it does end up disbanding.
[image]
So “work that is not for the sake of continuing the company” would be the picture book and the film festival.
If we were more “corporate,” the affinities and backgrounds of individuals who have come together would be erased, but in a “community,” each person’s individuality is at work, which is then connected. Our experience with Sketchtravel played a big role in my realization of this.
A lot of artists contributed, garnering responses from all over the world, giving the viewers a chance to see that “there are creators like this.” In this way, we were able to build libraries in 8 countries in Southeast Asia, as a charitable effort. It was important for it to be a “win-win” for everyone.
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Library built in Cambodia
Regarding the current film festival, we were aware of the issue of it not being a profitable business even though there are a lot of examples of commercially successful film festivals hosted abroad. However, if we don’t take money out of the equation when considering our ventures, we won’t make money in the end. If we only think of this in terms of “investing money”, then we would be forced to conclude that “there wasn’t much profit,” but if we think of it as “investing in the creation of a community,” there will definitely be a return.
I took four and a half years on Sketchtravel, spending my effort and mental energy, and gained so much in return. Exchanging artwork with outstanding artists, I was able to gain their confidence with the sense that “It’ll be fine if we leave this to Dice (Daisuke’s nickname).”
The relationship of trust that you gained there carries over into your current work.
People often tell me, “what you’re saying doesn’t translate to profit,” but I wonder if that’s true. On one glance of the present, corporate cultures are making their mark by erasing individual affinities, but by monopolizing capital in continuing to buy out other companies, healthy competition is eliminated. I’m wondering if that is sustainable in the end.
Of course, money is important. Investing money from crowdfunding involves spending that much time and energy, and I’m really thankful for that. However, those who donated money were not motivated by an expectation of a return of their money. I believe the 1,439 supporters gave what they could, towards the end of wanting to engage with Tonko House.
That must be one form of “community-style social development” that differs from capitalism. If money is a priority, those supporters would definitely spend their money in other ways, and the Tonko House members would also not be here. They can definitely make more money at Pixar.
[image]
What is the value system that inspires the desire to work at Tonko House, in Tonko House members?
We value “entertainment” and “awareness.” As we specialize in creating stories and characters, our first priority is for viewers to see and enjoy our work. On top of that, we’d like to encourage them to think and notice something in our art. Whether that something is depicting a character’s kindness, joy or sadness, or bringing light to a social problem, varies per creator, but we’re very happy if the viewers can take away and feel something from our creations.
What’s important at that time is “curiosity.” We believe that the driving force behind being inspired or feeling empathetic is curiosity.
The adults who hear children talking excitedly about the heroes that they relate with, are stimulated by that energy. In that way, we want creators to create works that change something in the viewers.
I want Tonko House members to express that as individuals, and that method does not have to be limited to projects within Tonko House. People can create with their preferred methods, and it’s great if they can link up with others outside of the company or other communities.
“Communities” of people who work as individuals create something new
Tonko House seems to be a very idealistic company. Is there an organization that you see as a role model?
There is a small restaurant called Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, Tonko House’s base. We take our families to this restaurant on special occasions. It’s a really wonderful restaurant.
Alice Waters, the founder and owner, influenced the surrounding community in trying to enrich America’s food culture, although the base of the business is simply a restaurant.
Now the concepts of “local production for local consumption” and “organic” have become more commonplace, but they were still novel ideas in the 1970’s when she founded Chez Panisse, spreading the idea of “slow food.”
She built a system where local producers would directly provide ingredients, so that the consumers could rest assured that they were getting safe food. She recommended a chef who was working at the restaurant to “get training at a bakery and learn to make delicious bread,” which resulted in Acme Bread, now a “bakery that is said to have the best bread in California.”
In addition, she created a food education program called “Edible Schoolyard” at a local Berkeley middle school, introducing sustainable food culture in schools.
That continues to spread across the US to this day. In this way, she enriched California food culture, and established California cuisine.
However, it is not a large restaurant. The chefs who work at Chez Panisse continue to take off on their own and open their own restaurants. Through that, while they are just making ends meet as a restaurant, their influence is at the world level. Alice Waters’ thinking and culture has spread not only throughout the US, but the world.
So that is the way that Tonko House aspires to be, as an organization?
That’s right. It would be great if we could reach that level. The image of “success” may be getting bigger and controlling the movement of human resources and capital like famous companies on the West Coast, but I don’t have any interest in that.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether Tonko House continues or not. However, if the legacy that we’ve created at Tonko House at least spreads as a community, a new entity will be born.
Thus, I think it’s most important to first take care of one’s own happiness. If you’re enjoying yourself, even if you don’t go out of your way to spread that joy, it will transmit to those around you. Everyone around you will feel that positive energy and become more mirthful themselves, so everyone gains in the end. I think that works out well.
[image]
Many are mired in a capitalistic way of thinking, prioritizing business and making sales, but why is it that you are not swayed by that thinking?
I can understand the feeling of wanting to raise profit and monopolize capital. However, that is how the wage disparity gets bigger, so I wonder if it’s okay for this to continue.
My kid is now 7 years old, but I wonder what society will be like when he becomes an adult. There are companies that get too big and slanted. As this generation has been called the “individual generation,” there are actually more and more individuals who have more influence than companies. I think that the strength of the individual is stronger than companies think.
The level of experience that I’ve gained when making mistakes has helped me, and I feel that I was able to grow from what I learned and discovered from those mistakes. However, it feels like there is little room for mistakes within companies in the present moment. Since the approval of many people is needed, one becomes more and more on guard.
In that context, the US has plenty of negative aspects, but I think it’s great that they give those who have failed a second chance. This is how innovative ideas continue to develop.
There may be a problem with risk-averse Japanese companies.
One can’t learn from their mistakes by staying within a safe zone where there is no risk of failure. People are able to take risks when there is support that asserts, “It’s okay if you mess up.” It would be fantastic if that kind of thinking spread throughout society and the world, but first let’s start with small changes around oneself. That is what defines Tonko House.
[image]
Interview/Text by Sachiyo Oya and Noriyuki Oka
Photography by Khoi Ly
4/26/2019
Japanese to English: What A Young, Shy Pig Encounters, Isolated and Bullied by Peers – First Picture Book Version of World-Acclaimed The Dam Keeper! General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Journalism
Source text - Japanese 周りから孤立、いじめられていた内気な少年が出会ったのは――世界中で絶賛された『ダム・キーパー』が初の絵本に！
文芸・カルチャー 2019/3/29
Translation - English What A Young, Shy Pig Encounters, Isolated and Bullied by Peers – First Picture Book Version of World-Acclaimed The Dam Keeper!
Arts/Culture 2019/3/29
[image]
The Dam Keeper (Tonko House/Kadokawa)
The Dam Keeper is an animated film that was nominated in the Short Animation category at the 87th Academy Awards, independently created by Daisuke Tsutsumi and Robert Kondo, who were art directors at Pixar, known for works such as Toy Story. This spring, Kadokawa published the long-awaited, fully-illustrated picture book The Dam Keeper, keeping the world of the short film.
Pig, the protagonist, is a dam keeper who turns his windmill to push back the “darkness” on the other side of the dam at the outskirts of the town. Unaware of that, everyone in the town and at school berate Pig, covered in grime from his dam work, calling him “dirty.”
Fox, a transfer student, reaches out to Pig. Drawing pictures together, Pig has a fun time with Fox. However immediately after that, we encounter a sad scene. Pig sees Fox showing a drawing of Pig to Pig’s bullies and laughing at Pig.
Without thinking, Pig tears up Fox’s picture and runs off. He is so sad that he forgets to turn the windmill. The town continues to be swallowed up in “darkness.” Pig realizes that and rushes toward his windmill hut. He turns the windmill with all of his might, and is finally able to brighten the town. When Pig happens to look at the drawing of himself again…
Pig Carries Out His Mission Even After His Sad Experience
Even though he gets covered in grime and is bullied by everyone in the town, Pig does not stop turning the windmill.
Pig looks different than usual when he turns the windmill with all of his might. Instead of looking down, lacking confidence, he is brimming with the strength gained from his mission of protecting the town. Pig must have felt some pride and sense of purpose in this work. At this moment, he forgets about the opinion of the townspeople and Fox’s drawing, and is able to protect the town, caught up in his duty towards justice.
Even if we are deeply hurt by something, we can’t stop moving forward. If we charge on forward, there may come a time where the “darkness” is lightened. Pig’s courageous behavior teaches us that.
Fox Shines the Light on Pig’s Shadowy Existence
At the end of the story, Pig is laughing with Fox in the windmill hut. He has made a precious friend with whom he can share the fact that he is the dam keeper. We were moved by the light entering the windmill hut and lighting up the face of Pig, who was always in the darkness before.
While the pictures drawn here are of cute characters, one feels a unique depth in the drawings, which feel like oil paintings. The beautiful light and color are especially characteristic in the artwork – the light that lights up the classroom and town filled with dreams and hope. That light brings out the bright colors. At the same time, shadows rise up on the opposite side of the light. Pig is always within that darkness. While Pig takes on the responsible role of being a dam keeper, he is treated like he is no one by everyone in the town. In that, Fox is able to shine the light on Pig.
With the exquisite composition of light and shadow, we are made to realize that these two opposing components in this world always exist side by side. Perhaps we can make the same statement about our immediate world. Even if today seems like a dark day, a beam of light may come tomorrow. We may meet someone who understands us.
The beautiful art and universal story sinks more and more into our hearts, the more we read it. For times when someone makes a heartless remark to us, or we meet someone who doesn’t try to understand us, or we want the courage to take another step forward, this is a picture book that we want to have on hand to read time and time again.
Original Text: Yuki Yoshida
Japanese to English: Enthusiasm over Tonko House Film Festival where Minds Connected according to Director Daisuke Tsutsumi. Director Mamoru Hosoda Plans to Participate General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Journalism
Source text - Japanese 堤大介監督「思いがつながった」トンコハウス映画祭にかける熱意 細田守監督らも参加決定
Translation - English Enthusiasm over Tonko House Film Festival where Minds Connected according to Director Daisuke Tsutsumi. Director Mamoru Hosoda Plans to Participate
[image]
Tonko House Film Festival Inspired by Director Daisuke Tsutsumi (Front row, third from left)
On April 26th, the opening party of the “Tonko House Film Festival” showcasing animations from all over the world, organized by the animation studio Tonko House that produced “The Dam Keeper” and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 87th Oscars, took place at the EJ Anime Theater in Shinjuku. Director Daisuke Tsutsumi of Tonko House delivered the keynote address, describing the process behind preparing for the film festival, introducing the film lineup, and announcing two events for the first time: a talk (5/17) by Director Mamoru Hosoda and Director Tsutsumi, and a workshop (5/25) by Ryo Wakasugi, a CG animator who worked on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film at the 91st Oscars.
After working on the art of titles such as Toy Story 3 and Monsters University at Pixar Animation Studio, Director Tsutsumi and Director Robert Kondo founded Tonko House. What prompted the idea for the film festival was a “major event in 2018” that Tonko House faced. Last May, the planning for the feature version of “The Dam Keeper” was aborted. This posed a dilemma for Tonko House, as they had been focusing all of their energy on that project. To top it off, another major project they were working on at the same time was canceled. “There was a point at which we thought it might be the end of Tonko House” (Director Tsutsumi).
At that time, as inspired by Director Kondo, Director Tsutsumi came to the conclusion,“Instead of thinking of matters in terms of the company, like its financial issues, let’s think of the momentum that we have when creating a community, like when we worked on Sketch Travel.” He started planning the film festival “at the end of last year.” Although they only had a short amount of time to plan, they were able to raise their goal of 3 million yen (approximately 30,000 US dollars) in 3 hours, and collected 12.46 million yen (124,600 dollars) in the end, with 1,439 supporters.
In heartfelt words, Director Tsutsumi commented, “It’s unbelievable that we were able to pull off this event in such a short period. It felt impossible, but what matters in the end is people’s belief in the project. We were able to set this up in a brief amount of time because of the connection of the energy of everyone who helped in the planning of this. We really connected,” expressing his appreciation for the 1,439 supporters, the company sponsors and the Kadokawa Group who helped run the planning of the event.
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Tonko House Film Festival will run April 27 – May 26.
“I want to provide a space to interact with the participants,” remarked Director Tsutsumi. Through various events like the short film screenings and workshops, the film festival will show the ‘present day’ of world animation. As far as the short films go, the participants can select from Programs A – E, in which 23 short films from 11 different countries are packaged per theme. The workshops will include a lecture on concept art by Director Kondo; a character design lecture by Chris Sasaki, a character designer on Inside Out; a lecture on “Learning Pixar Storyboarding” that Assistant Director/Story Artist Ronny del Carmen (Inside Out) and Director Tsutsumi will co-lead; and a lecture on “Concept Art: Presenting Color and Light” by Director Tsutsumi.
In addition, Studio Tonko Café, which is a re-creation of the Tonko House studio, will offer a “menu” that recreates the worlds of the short films. The Tonko House Film Festival will run from April 27th – May 26th. The details of the entire lineup of films to be screened and workshops are announced on the official website (https://tonkohousefilmfestival.com/).
From Anime Hack website: https://anime.eiga.com/news/108494/
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I am a Japanese-American who was born and raised in California. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a Bachelor's degree, I moved to western Japan and worked as an assistant language teacher on the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program for three years, teaching English to students from kindergarten through junior high school. To further polish the Japanese language skills that I acquired in Japan, I underwent a rigorous Master's degree program in Japanese translation at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California. While I was there, I took some interpretation courses as well.
After graduating, I worked at 2K Games as a Japanese-English in-house translator and interpreter of business communications. As a result of 5.5 years of experience there, I became familiar with video game design, character modeling, animation, legal regulations related to video game approval, and the video game production cycle. Subsequently, I worked at an animated film production company as an executive assistant utilizing my Japanese skills for 9 months.
I currently take freelance projects of Japanese to English translation, editing and machine translation post-editing, specializing in computer science, engineering/patents, marketing, and anime. Specifically, in the last year, I have translated multiple research papers on natural language processing, and dubs/subs for the animes Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, and Kotaro Lives Alone, which are now on Netflix.
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