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Tomihiro Kono
memorandom by Sayaka Maruyama

Fancy Creatures - The Art of Wig Making 2020-2022

Wig : Tomihiro Kono

Photography | Illustration | Design: Sayaka Maruyama

Contributing Text : Christopher Schreck

Printed in Japan, Published in February 2023

ISBN 9780998620565
First Print: 300





Tomihiro Kono, who is best known for his unconventional artistic wigs, has long been exploring hair as his creative medium. All composed of real human hair, the Fancy Creatures presented in this book are his most recent inventive wig fseries, designed between 2020 and 2022.

Tomihiro Kono has always been attracted by the power of hair and the beauty of transformations.

We wish to push through the realm of personality transformations through changing hairstyles, and this time Tomihiro's avant-garde vision has upgraded humans to a whole new level of hybrids which we call 'Fancy Creatures' - imaginary hybrid creatures inspired by various micro-organisms on the Earth, ranging from deep sea creatures and furry moss, to endangered moths.

As an object, hair intrinsically retains a unique power and intimacy even when separated from our bodies, precisely because it was once part of us. Therein lies the magical materiality of the fancy creatures, a unique series of entities that holds an ineffable quality -- ancient but contemporary, familiar yet eery, desirable yet uncertain.

These Fancy Creatures take us on a flight of fancy, to discover a new dimension of unforeseen beauty. Instead of covering the entire head like the typical wig does, these Fancy Creatures can be positioned anywhere, at any angle on the head or even on the face, thus it can also be introduced as a new gadget of make-up.

For Tomihiro, it's through imagination and creation that fulfill our everlasting human desire to metamorphose, to transform our earthly bodies into something else. We hope you, the reader, will enjoy our vision of human’s new metamorphosis.

366 p, Soft cover, ills Full color, 14.5cm x 22.5 cm, English

konomad editions No.006


Layered Personas - The Art of Wig Making 2020

Artist : Tomihiro Kono

Photography : Sayaka Maruyama

Contributing Text : Christopher Schreck

Printed in Italy, Published in November 2020

ISBN 9780998620541
Limited Editions of 150





Identity is no longer a static, fixed entity but constantly in motion, continually evolving and morphing from one state to another in response to an everaltering and always-connected world. There is new confidence to embrace playful self-expression. Japanese wigmaker and artist Tomihiro Kono explores layered personas (masks) - an evolving self-perception - as he explores the multiplicity of an identity. By comparing different hairstyles through his artisanal wigs, he expands the idea of hairstyle as one of the most significant components of our constructed identities.

本書の序文:

今、私たちはこれまで以上に
多面性を受けいれはじめていると感じます。
あらゆる個人は不確かな存在であり、
常に進化し続けています。
そのため、私たちが自分自身を表現するために選ぶ方法も、
絶えず流動していくのです。

アイデンティティとは、今や静的で固定化されたものではありません。
私たちが生きる世界が変化しつづけるように、とある状態から別の状態へと絶えず移ろい、進化し、変わり続けます。だからあそびのある自己表現を受けいれる新たな確信が生まれているのです。
日本人ウィッグメーカー・アーティストの河野富広は、layered personas=レイヤードされたペルソナ(社会的な仮面)、つまり「進化し続ける自己認識」の表現の可能性をヘア表現を通して探ろうとしています。アイデンティティの多面性を、ブロンドをメインとした淡い色調で作られたウィッグを用いて、ヘアスタイルの表現で探るアイデアとともに、繰り広げます。
本書「Layered Personas」で河野が焦点を当てるのは、モデルのブロンドの地毛とのバランスで実験しながら、半透明なマスクのありなしも含め、ウィッグを身につけるバリエーションです。その表現はまるで一つのアイデンテティを作るために複数の仮面を重ねる行為であるかのようです。




memorandom 1 [𝘍𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘉𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴]

Author | Artist | Book Design : Sayaka Maruyama

Hair Sculptures: Tomihiro Kono

Model: Erika Larson, Cameron Lee Phan

Contributing Text : Anna Battista

Contributing Make-up : Marika Aoki, Yuko Kawashima, Chiho Omae

Printed in Italy, Published in May 2020

ISBN 978-0-9986205-3-4
Work-in-progress Editions of 20





Capturing nudity with a surreal touch with a wig master Tomihiro Kono's fingerwave hair pieces of art, this book is made inspired by the word of Japanese pornography 'hair nude', a nude photograph showing pubic hair that once became popular back in the 80s-90s. However this book doesn't contain any photography with public hair showing, instead Tomihiro Kono creates surreal hair finger wave pieces and place them on the body, which has changed the notion of hair nude.

Firstly she launches a book that is work-in-progress, which reflects her random thoughts in the process of book-editing. As a result, each cover has a unique design, some of the inside pages are hand-painted by artist herself.

New York-based artist Sayaka Maruyama (b.1983) is a multi-disciplinary artist who translates her notions of beauty into photography, drawings, books, and short films. "Life as a whole is a collective box of emotional experiences. "memorandom" records the personal practices of Sayaka Maruyama. She first published 'memorandom 0' in 2019, compiling her work between 2011-2019, including photography, drawings, paintings, collages, objects and extracted images from her short films.



PERSONAS 111 - The Art of Wig Making 2017-2020

Author : Tomihiro Kono

Photography : Sayaka Maruyama

Contributing Text : Anna Battista, Laura Regensdorf, Masami Hosono

Printed in Italy, Published in March 2020

ISBN 9780998620503



International distributor: IDEA BOOKS NL

Hairstyles are closely related to our identity; They create both our inner and outer self. This can reflect our personality or, in some way, can hide our true self. We can suddenly make ourselves look like a different person by wearing a wig. Wig is a kind of mask, designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and on the other to conceal the true nature of the individual. Changing how we look is an act of self-reflection, self-assertion, and self-defense. 
We live in the spirals of the world by defining ourselves, and being defined by the others.
Tomihiro Kono finds the diverse possibilities of instant transformations with wigs.



The thrill of transformation is universal — never more so than now, as the longstanding barriers around gender soften. But so is the reluctance to change. In that way, the book functions like a handheld companion to Kono’s real-life installations, where visitors can try on his hand-knotted wigs and catch a frisson of an alter-ego. If the chameleonic nature of Personas has a gravitational pull—each otherworldly photo anchoring us to the page—its spirit of wild possibility sparks a new lightness of being. - Laura Regensdorf Beauty Director, Vanity Fair & Contributing Editor, Vogue


memorandom 0 [𝘉𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥𝘴]

Author | Artist | Book Design : Sayaka Maruyama

Contributing Text : Anna Battista

Printed in Italy, Published in April 2019

ISBN 9780998620527



International distributor: IDEA BOOKS NL

Artistic practice 2011-2019

‘Memorandom’ records the personal expressions of New York-based artist Sayaka Maruyama between 2011 and 2019, including photography, drawings, paintings, collages, objects, and images from her short films. The notions of beauty and other thoughts that randomly pass through her mind have been visualised and then translated into book form by the artist herself, because how each person perceives the world cannot always be explained logically. Maruyama records indefinable emotions and moments, thereby weaving multiple layered dialogues that result in a personal, poetic, and tangible portrait. Includes a conversation between the artist and Anna Battista.

HEAD PROP studies 2013-2016

Author | Artist : Tomihiro Kono

Book Design | Contributing Text : konomad editions

Printed in the U.S., Published in April 2017

ISBN 9780998620510



International distributor: IDEA BOOKS NL
Tomihiro Kono’s distinctive creations, called head props, are the subject of this fascinating book. Already established in his successful international career as a session hair stylist, since 2013 Tomihiro has ventured into new territory with his head props. This book documents the path and inspirations he has followed in his innovative efforts to make decorative designs for the human head, and gives a sense of the uncompromising approach he takes in his work. Filled with detailed sketches, development models, and finished concepts, it makes clear that Tomihiro not only attempts to produce visually striking head designs, but also focuses on functionality in the beauty of form.

230 p, ills colour & bw, 20 x 20 cm, pb, English

konomad editions No.001