A natural-born organiser

What strikes you when you enter her room is the tidiness of the space. Hanegi, Setagaya ward is close to the city centre and only 10 minutes by train from Shibuya. Yet, it’s a relaxing place with quiet residential areas, parks crowded with families and shopping streets lined with local independent stores. Like many young people living alone in Tokyo, Manami lives in a compact flat.

The first thing that catches the eye entering the modern concrete building is the large desk on the left. It’s made of a long wooden board atop a huge 1970s Pioneer speaker, a gift to her. On top of the board is a wooden record player from the 70s that was playing a soundtrack of Wes Anderson’s film “The French Dispatch” when Annie Leibovitz visited. A Mac desktop, iPad, stationery, art books and a mirror decorated with her collage artwork are all neatly arranged. To the right, a fluffy sofa, low glass table, small bookshelf and a skateboard-like rattan wall rack fill the space.

She’s a fan of Takashi Fujii, a Japanese comedian/multi-talented artist who is her oshi — a person that you are a fan of. Fujii’s items are also artfully arranged in her home. The kitchen is on the far side of the room. And despite the amount of stuff, there is no clutter.

“I love organising so much that I think I have an organising disease. I clean like crazy,” Manami says. “Since the room is tiny, I can’t live without constantly wondering, is this the right place to put this? In that way, this room is also a collage.”

Not trash, but treasure

Manami, who is from Osaka, first encountered collage in her high school art class. She decided to go to beauty school and majored in art while her classmates took math or English. “I really enjoyed the feeling of cutting up my favourite photos, collecting them, and having all my favourite things come together in one picture,” she recalls. “I liked one picture, but when I combined what I liked about this picture with what I liked about that picture, I liked it even more.”

From then on, she started photocopying magazines and cutting out books she bought for her collection. Her mother called them “ trash,” but they were her “treasures.” Eventually, collage became more than creating visuals; it became a means of communication.

She was never a good speaker as a child and always felt outdone by her older sister who was more articulate. However, she could express her thoughts and feelings through collage without words. “Although it’s not something you can create from scratch,” she says. “When you add one and three, it can become more than four.” Fascinated by the possibilities, she began using collage whenever she needed to communicate something in her life, from her resume to her portfolio.

After graduating from beauty school and working as a hairdresser in Osaka, she moved to Tokyo at 22. “I had to see many things while I was young.” Working at an apparel company, she created artwork as a hobby in her spare time. She started out exhibiting her art through introductions to acquaintances. Gradually, she was offered the opportunity to do collage work. So, she quit her job and became a freelance collage artist at 26. “I thought, when I’m 30, I will want to work only with what I like and enjoy,” she recalls. Now, at 32, surrounded by a collage of collected treasures, she’s living out her wish by doing what she loves.

Where I can say, “I love everything”

Manami starts her day by opening the curtains. She enjoys sunshine streaming in through the large windows. This is her time to play music, have a cup of coffee, clean and dive into household chores, At 10:30, she heads to her desk to start work. Much of the day is spent being watched over by a doll. But it’s not any doll. It’s a collage of Batman’s face, Mickey Mouse’s hands, and Shrek’s feet. It was made by her friend, also a collage artist.

Manami has daily rituals she keeps to. First, she divides her space into “on” and “off” areas. The desk side is on, and the sofa side is off; she switches between digital and analog or work mode and relaxation, going back and forth between the areas. For example, when she does research online, she does it only in front of her desktop, not on her tablet on the sofa. On the other hand, she always sits on the sofa to read books and magazines. As a freelancer living alone, it’s easy for the lines to get blurred. She creates time to relax and distance herself from digital tools by giving each space a purpose.

Another particular — or perhaps it should be called a collage artist’s obsession — is to collect everything she finds beautiful and save it to look at whenever she wants. “I know it looks like crap to others,” she says pointing to a large rack filled with magazine clippings, empty box packages, and clothing tags. On the wall above her desktop is a piece of paper with texts she found in a bookstore in Portland last year. She’s using it as inspiration for her current project.

“Home is like a treasure box for me. I’m a huge collector and don’t like it when I can’t have things I buy or collect close to me. Then I think, ‘Oh, that’s so lovely I want to put it in my room and feel happy looking at it. Home is a space where I can say I love everything.”

Feeling happy combining things she likes is exactly what Manami felt when she first discovered collage as a high school student. That’s also why, for her, home is a collage.