Startbahn Presents “Made in Japan 3.0: Defining a New Phy-gital Reality”, an NFT Pop-Up at K11 Art Mall With Leading Japanese Artists and Designers Including TOMO KOIZUMI and ANREALAGE

Startbahn, Inc. (Headquarters: Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, hereinafter “Startbahn”) presents a pop-up showcase of leading Japanese artists and fashion designers innovating with conceptual art, craft, and fashion in the age of blockchain technology. Titled "Made in Japan 3.0: Defining a New Phy-gital Reality", the pop-up will be held at K11 Art Mall, Hong Kong, from April 23rd to May 15th 2022. Haute couture dresses, unique designer pieces, and artworks will be displayed at the pop-up space and in a dedicated virtual showroom created by VIRTRIX, showcasing latest works by Japanese brands such as TOMO KOIZUMI and ANREALAGE. Using “Startrail”, the blockchain infrastructure built by Startbahn, both physical and artworks will be proposed for sale with NFTs, proposing innovative ways that the Japanese creative industries are diversifying sales channels and rethinking long-term IP management and profit return for artists and designers.



HONG KONG – Startbahn and its infrastructure "Startrail" support the authenticity and reliability of artworks and the inheritance of value by utilizing blockchain and NFT technology. For this project, Startbahn is holding a pop-up showcase of contemporary Japanese art, fashion, and craft at K11 Art Mall, Hong Kong. Entitled “Made in Japan 3.0: Defining a New Phy-gital Reality”, the pop-up will use NFT technology to demonstrate the sophistication of showcasing new Japanese era of creativity.

In addition to the physical pop-up, artists and designers will showcase digital artworks and 3DCG digi-couture in the pop-up’s virtual showroom. Startbahn will issue NFTs (blockchain certificates) on Startrail for both physical and digital items, providing audiences at K11 Art Mall access to purchase both physical and digital pieces on view at the pop-up.



Table of Contents
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1. Curatorial Foreword
2. Participating Fashion Brands, Artisans, and Artists
3. Technology Components, Including NFT Technology
   Diversification of Sales Contents
   Physical items: One-of-a-kind Fashion and Design Work + NFTs (Certificates)
   Digital (NFT) items: 3DCG Digi-couture and Digital Artworks
   Management of Secondary Distribution / Use and Return of Monetary Value
4. Comments from Taihei Shii, Startbahn’s CEO
5. Pop-up Dates and Outline
6. Artists and Designers Biographies
7. Pop-Up Organizers and Sponsors
8. Contact for Press Inquiries
   
   
   
   1. Curatorial Foreword
   
   In an increasingly digital-first world, the Japanese creative industries have quickly adopted new hybrid models to elevate physical and digital experiences to new heights. Using blockchain technology and NFTs, “Made in Japan 3.0: Defining a New Phy-gital Reality” will showcase some of the most cutting-edge Japanese creative works of fashion, art, and craft that exist between physical and virtual worlds.
   
   Powered by Startrail, Japan’s leading blockchain / web3 infrastructure for the fine art industry, the pop-up brings together unique physical-meets-digital pieces from TOMO KOIZUMI and ANREALAGE, acclaimed Japanese fashion designers and finalists of the LVMH Prize; products from B-OWND, an online marketplace specializing in Japanese modern crafts including artworks from ceramist Takahiro Koga; and artworks from Yuma Kishi, a Japanese contemporary artist using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to produce digital portraits featured by Nike and Vogue. We believe that NFT technology unlocks the concept of the “digital twin,” a parallel universe where art meets technology and traditions meets innovation. With its focus on Japanese art and technology, the pop-up will explore the ways in which ‘Made in Japan’ avant-garde fashion, modern craft, and post-Pop Art can translate to audiences in the physical and digital realms, beyond physicality.
   
   
   
   2. Participating Fashion Brands, Designers, and Artists
   
   Fashion Brands
   ANREALAGE
   HIRUME
   Masaya Kushino
   TOMO KOIZUMI
   YUIMA NAKAZATO
   
   Artisans
   B-OWND / Takahiro Koga
   
   Artists
   Yuma Kishi
   
   SBINFT Market Artists List:
   Tsuki
   NauGhtEd
   AURORA
   NY_
   gamaccho
   galcid
   Haioka
   mera takeru
   marimosphere
   
   
   Fashion Brands:
   
   ANREALAGE’s dress on display for “Made in Japan 3.0: Defining a New Phy-gital Reality” was first created in digital form for the costume design of acclaimed Mamoru Hosoda’s animated film Belle. For its 2022 Spring/Summer Collection, presented at Paris Fashion Week, Japanese acclaimed brand ANREALAGE premiered “ANREALAGE x BELLE LOOK,” a fully-digital Screen-Wear look, tokenized and sold as an NFT to NFT Naruto Museum of Art, Japan’s first museum entirely dedicated to collecting and exhibiting NFTs. ANREALAGE x BELLE LOOK” Screen-Wear NFTs are minted on Startrail and will be available for sale for the duration of the pop-up.
   
   
   
   
   
   HIRUME functions as a laboratory for Japanese arts and crafts, where skills and motifs of traditional arts are brought into contact with contemporary design, art, and fashion, exploring the reactions that occur between them. For this pop-up, HIRUME presents an embroidered jacket using traditional kaga-nui embroidery techniques from the historical town of Kanazawa, on the east coast of Japan. Kanazawa is one of the best-preserved major Edo-period city and is part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network as a City of Crafts and Folk Art. Kana-gui technique involves a precise hand-stitching of real gold and platinum threads by a female embroiderer over a period of a month. For this contemporary design, HIRUME’s jacket depicts cranes and sharks on the back, dragons on the sleeves, with a bodice of phoenixes.
   
   
   
   
   
   For “Made in Japan 3.0: Defining a New Phy-gital Reality”, designer Masaya Kushino will present Stairway to Heaven (2013). Taken from Masaya Kushino’s Autumn/Winter 2013 Collection, these sculptural shoes are made of crow wings, cow leather and American broadtail fur. In line with the designer’s ethos to explore the interrelationship between the natural and the sublime, this pair of shoes is a work of design-meets-art, alluding to the vibrancy and vividness of living creatures. For this pop-up, the designer reflects that it may be possible to think of sculptural shoemaking as a further step forward in terms of artistic expression, by taking Japanese traditional painting of animals and landscapes, taking it into a ready-to-wear sculpture, transforming it into a 3D digital version, and placing it into a metaverse.
   
   Also featured in this pop-up is Kushino’s Chimera shoes (2009), which are inspired by the concept of “chimera” from the early modern era of Wunderkammern. European cabinet of curiosities from the 16th to the 18th centuries prominently featured a display of natural history for various “curiosities” or oddities that were new to the European eye at the time. “Chimera” were displayed as imaginary animals created out of several kinds of animals. Kusino’s Chimera is a pair of sculptural heeled shoes, which feature a heel of a lion’s foot in brass, a snake’s nape and a wax tail. While the shoes are made of animal materials, they come alive when worn by humans. These shoes were featured in Lady Gaga’s “Artpop” music video (2020).
   
   
   
   
   
   For “Made In Japan 3.0: Defining a New Phy-gital Reality”, fashion designer TOMO KOIZUMI, LVMH Prize winner, will present some of his signature sculptural gowns commissioned especially for the pop-up. Trained as a costume designer, TOMO KOIZUMI has dressed several artists and celebrities, among them Lady Gaga in 2016 and other major pop stars in Japan. Inspired by John Galliano’s haute couture for Dior, he is known for his voluminous, brightly-colored gowns sculpted in tulle-like polyester organza, featuring embellished ruffles, frills, and flounces.
   
   
   
   
   
   YUIMA NAKAZATO will present pieces from his latest Fall/Winter 2021 Couture collection, presented at Paris Fashion Week, entitled Evoke. Innovating on materials, Evoke is the fourth collection since 2019 for which YUIMA NAKAZATO prominently used Brewed Protein™ fabric on his unique gowns, a fabric produced from plant-derived biomass. His original “Biosmocking” technology creates three-dimensional textures by applying special digital processing to Brewed Protein™ fabric. For this collection, in particular, YUIMA NAKAZATO combined the new material with nishijin-ori, a traditional kimono textile from Kyoto, resulting in a new fabric with exquisitely reflective metallic blue shades. The result is a sensory experience and a new sight that can only be achieved by combining the innovation of science and the tradition of craftsmanship.
   
   
   
   
   
   Artisans:
   
   B-OWND is an online marketplace specializing in Japanese modern art and crafts. For this pop-up, the platform is continuing to innovate the use of NFTs in the burgeoning Japanese crafts market by introducing the ceramic works of Takahiro Koga.
   
   Born in Fukuoka prefecture, Koga is one of the leading examples of modern Japanese ceramics artists. Blending clay and directing fire, Koga skillfully brings together different elements in breathing life into his works to offer both quality and unique messaging in equal measure.
   
   In the new digital era, Koga creates ceramics that are both immaculate in their finishing and refreshingly original in their designs. His designs such as the Hooyoroihai (sake cup in armor mask design), cups, masks, and helmets with gold and platinum stud decorations attract the attention of both old and new crowds. Their incredible details prompt viewers to wonder if the ceramics are 3D-printed or handmade. As such, Koga proposes new meeting points of physical and digital realities – from kilns to screens.
   
   
   
   Artists:
   
   Yuma Kishi is an acclaimed Japanese contemporary artist using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create data-driven digital works and sculptures. Exhibited widely in Japan, his works have been featured by major brands such as Nike and publications such as Vogue. Borrowing motifs and symbols from the canons of both Western and Asian art history, his paintings distort our perceptions of the history of aesthetics. Using AI technology, his works evoke a sense of momentary dislocation in the viewer’s awareness of the self, creating a liminal space in between the here and now. Kishi’s works showcased at “Made in Japan 3.0: Defining a New Phy-gital Reality” suggest how digital intelligence and physical bodies can be placed in a parallel relationship.
   
   
   
   SBINFT Market Artist List
   
   SBINFT Co.,Ltd is an SBI Group company that operates the NFT marketplace "nanakusa" (‘SBINFT Market’ since March 17). Through the NFT marketplace, SBINFT provides a variety of content based on the latest technologies such as blockchain and virtual space, as well as comprehensive services related to the NFT business such as community building, technical support, and consulting for sales strategy planning.
   
   SBINFT will present 10 Japanese artists who will present digital artworks available for sale on the SBINFT Market. With varied practices spanning different media and core themes, these artists include: Tsuki, NauGhtED, AURORA, NY_, gamaccho, galcid, Haioka, mera takeru, and mairomosphere.
   
   mera takeru is a pioneer of Crypto Art in Japan. He has been tokenizing his digital art since April 2019 and is officially recognized as an artist by SuperRare, KnownOrigin, SBINFT, and MakersPlace.
   
   
   
   3. Technology Components, Including NFT Technology
   
   Currently, fashion brands, artisans, and artists are often limited to selling real, physical products. Taking the example of haute couture, demand and supply are scarce. Based on this context, this pop-up proposes diversification of sales contents, management of secondary distribution and use, and realization of refunds by utilizing the latest blockchain and NFT technology.
   
   a. Diversification of sales contents
   
   By developing new works in digital format, in addition to the actual physical pieces that will be handled in the pop-up, the possibilities of artists’ and designers’ creative expression can be expanded. Achieving diversification of sales channels for brands and utilizing NFT (blockchain certificate) on Startrail, the work’s long-term value will be guaranteed by the fact that it is issued by a legitimate brand or designer regardless of whether it is sold or used physically or digitally.
   
   ① Physical items: One-of-a-kind Fashion and Design Works + NFTs (Certificates)
   The pop-up will offer physical unique designer pieces (one-of-a-kind items from fashion brands and artisans) for sale, with the issuance of an NFT (blockchain certificate) on Startrail for each piece. Fashion and crafts items, as well as their NFTs, can be purchased at the pop-up venue and/ or through the virtual showroom or website.
   
   ② Digital (NFT) items: 3DCG Digi-couture and Digital Artworks
   Digital works will be offered for sale at the pop-up venue and/ or at the pop-up’s virtual showroom or website. NFTs (blockchain certificate) will be issued on Startrail for each digital artwork and digi-couture.
   
   
   b. Management of Secondary Distribution / Use and Return of Monetary Value
   
   By utilizing Startrail's NFT (blockchain certificate), the rules set for secondary distribution and use of works will be standardized and inherited across platforms and services, so seamless long-term management of works can be realized. When the work goes to secondary distribution, royalty fee terms to the original artist, fashion brand, or artisan will be inherited.
   
   
   
   4. Comments from Taihei Shii, Startbahn’s CEO
   
   Until now, Startbahn has provided blockchain and NFT technology specifically for the field of art. The value of a work of art is not simply consumed once, ending at the initial transaction, but is rather repeatedly questioned in the process of long-term distribution. For creative works that are re-evaluated multiple times over the course of its purchasing history, such as the works being dealt with at this pop-up, that initial primary value should be preserved from the moment it is born. We believe that blockchain technology is the best way to support such value inheritance. There are also expectations that it will be possible to continue to support creators by diversifying revenue sources through mechanisms such as distribution management and royalty fee.
   
   
   
   5. Pop-Up Outline and Dates
   
   [Pop-Up Dates] April 23rd - May 15, 2022
   [Opening Hours] 12: 00 - 8: 00pm
   [Venue] Shop G01, K11 Art Mall (18 Hanoi Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong)
   [Organizer] Startbahn, Inc.
   [Artists and Designers] ANREALAGE, HIRUME, Masaya Kushino, TOMO KOIZUMI, YUIMA NAKAZATO, B-OWND / Takahiro Koga, Yuma Kishi, SBINFT / Artists
   [Pop-Up Sponsors] Tanseisha, TBS Innovation Partners, LLC., Wacom, SBINFT
   [Design] Itsuki Nomura (marici, ink)
   [Production] NNNNNNN.CO
   [Virtual Experience Partner] VIRTRIX
   [Dedicated Website and Virtual Showroom]: https://www.virtrix.io/startbahn/madeinjapan3.0
   
   
   
   
   6. Artists and Designers Biographies
   
   ANREALAGE
   
   ANREALAGE is a leading Japanese label that was shortlisted for the LVMH Prize in 2019. ANREALAGE’s designer Kunihiko Morinaga was born in Tokyo in 1980. He graduated from Waseda University, in social sciences. While going to university, he started learning fashion design at Vantan Design Institute. In 2003, he launched his own brand “ANREALAGE”. ANREALAGE is a combination of the words "REAL", "UNREAL" and "AGE". In 2005, ANREALAGE presented its first collection for Tokyo Fashion Week at the Tokyo Tower, and won the GEN ART 2005 Avant-garde prize for young designers in New York. After his 10 years of collection in Tokyo, he started presenting at Paris Fashion Week from 2014. He was selected as finalist for the「ANDAM FASHION AWARD」in 2015 in France. In 2017, ANREALAGE held the “A LIGHT UN LIGHT” exhibition in Japan as well as the traveling exhibition JAPAN HOUSE in LA and Sao Paulo and also participated in exhibitions at the Pompidou Center Metz, Rothschild Museum, and Mori Art Museum. In 2019, he was selected as a finalist for the LVMH Prize in France, and won the 37th Mainichi Fashion Grand Prix in the same year. In 2020, ANREALAGE presented a collaboration collection with Fendi from Italy for Milano Fashion Week. He also designed the official uniform for Expo 2020 Dubai starting from 2021.
   
   
   HIRUME
   
   HIRUME is a Japanese boutique studio that stands as a “laboratory for arts and crafts.” At the end of globalization, as William Morris foresaw in the latter half of the 19th century, art and life will reunite. HIRUME is a laboratory where chemical reactions are created by encountering traditional craft techniques and motifs with contemporary design, art, and fashion. HIRUME is also a brand that supports the development of successors to traditional crafts of Japan. HIRUME conveys to the world the power of Japanese manufacturing that circulates between ancient, modern, and future.
   
   
   Masaya Kushino
   
   Masaya Kushino is a Japanese designer who graduated from Kyoto Art College of Design fashion design course, later studied in Istituto MARANGONI in Milan, Italy, and also completed a Diburoma in Fashion Design Master Course. After returning home to Japan, he was awarded the Grand Prix at "JILA LEATHER GOODS AWARD 2007", to expand his leather goods brand, with a special focus on his sculptural shoe designs. Inspired by nature, Kushino combines traditional and cutting-edge technology to produce shoes with the theme of “final design”. He is currently focused on integrating art with science, such as biotechnology. His works have been acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, England, and the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York.
   
   
   TOMO KOIZUMI
   
   TOMO KOIZUMI is one of Japan's leading young designers and has been called a “breakout star” by Business of Fashion. He has been selected as one of the 500 most powerful figures of the fashion industry by BoF500. Born in Japan in 1988, Koizumi studied arts at the National Chiba University, during which time he launched his namesake brand, and graduated in 2012. While working as a costume designer, Lady Gaga wore one of his designs on a visit to Tokyo in 2016. He debuted TOMO KOIZUMI at the Autumn/Winter 2019 shows in New York, attracting international recognition and acclaim. In 2020, he was one of the winners of the LVMH Prize. Koizumi showcased his Autumn/Winter 2019 collection during New York Fashion Week, orchestrated by Katie Grand, Love magazine Editor-in-Chief. Since then, Koizumi’s work has featured in international editions of Vogue, Love, V and WWD. He has also dressed Miley Cyrus and was commissioned by the actress and singer Miriam Yeung for her world tour. In 2019, Thailand-based fashion editor and entrepreneur Nichapat Sop Hap wore one of Koizumi's designs to the Met Gala and singer-songwriter Misia wore one of his dresses to perform at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 opening ceremony.
   
   
   YUIMA NAKAZATO
   
   A custom-designed garment can provide not only great functionality, but also a sense of enrichment and freedom to the person who wears it. Having had designed many costumes for artists all over the world, YUIMA NAKAZATO developed a desire to bring the joy and comfort of one-of-a-kind garments to more people. With a sculptor father and a jeweler mother, designer Nakazato was raised in an environment surrounded by modern art and various forms of expression from early childhood. He began making clothes by self-education before entering the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp's Fashion Department. Nakazato’s graduation collection earned multiple awards in Europe. In 2016, Yuima Nakazato presented his first Paris Couture collection as an official guest designer selected by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. He continually combines the latest technology and craftsmanship in his creative processes.
   
   
   B-OWND
   
   B-OWND is a Japanese online marketplace that celebrates works of craft as the highest quality of art, expressing the beauty of Japan. By carefully introducing artists and works, B-OWND aims to be a platform that connects artists and collectors of fine craft in the modern age, as products are sold with their accompanying blockchain digital work certificates.
   
   About Takahiro Koga
   
   Born in Fukuoka prefecture, Koga is one of the leading examples of modern Japanese ceramics artists. Blending clay and directing fire, Koga skillfully brings together different elements in breathing life into his works to offer both quality and unique messaging in equal measure.
   
   At an evolving intersection of art and crafts, he employs century-old techniques to release compelling messages to modern society through his works.
   
   He views his works as a counter to a society in which uniformity increasingly governs, and his life as a continuous refinement of counter-culture messages.
   
   Koga’s best-known works include “SPIKY series” and wearable ceramics. He has held numerous solo exhibitions in Japan and participated in international art fairs. His works have been shown at Foire de Paris and Salone del Milano, among other venues, and he has also collaborated with other Manga artists and apparel brands.
   
   
   Yuma Kishi
   
   Yuma Kishi is a Japanese new media artist whose work has been featured by Nike and Vogue. Having exhibited multiple times throughout Tokyo, he considers Artificial Intelligence (AI) not as something that imitates people, but as alien intelligence from another dimension. By installing this intelligence into his own body and lending it as a substitute, Kishi creates works in which the digital intelligence and the analog body are always placed in a parallel relationship.In his works, he often borrows motifs from past art history, which are distortedly combined with technology to evoke a sense of momentary dislocation in the viewer's awareness of the self and the world that exists in the here and now.
   
   
   SBINFT Market
   
   SBINFT Co.,Ltd is an SBI Group company that operates the NFT marketplace "nanakusa" (‘SBINFT Market’ since March 17). Through the NFT marketplace, SBINFT provides a variety of content based on the latest technologies such as blockchain and virtual space, as well as comprehensive services related to the NFT business such as community building, technical support, and consulting for sales strategy planning.
   
   
   
   7. Pop-Up Organizers and Sponsors
   
   ■ Startbahn, Inc.
   
   Startbahn is a leading Japanese art tech company aiming to enrich the society by providing the technology needed by artists and all those involved in the art around the world. Startbahn operates Startrail, a sustainable and scalable blockchain infrastructure that assures the reliability, authenticity, and traceability of artworks.
   
   https://startbahn.jp/en/
   
   
   About Startrail
   
   Startrail is a sustainable and scalable blockchain infrastructure that assures the reliability, authenticity, and traceability of artworks, including NFTs. Startrail has a strong focus on the art ecosystem and a long-term perspective to protect and increase artworks’ value. Startrail maintains and assures the value of artworks by permanently recording provenance as well as auction and exhibition history. Artists can also set terms for their issued artworks, including royalty rights, that may be triggered after their primary sale.
   
   https://startrail.io/en/
   
   
   Virtual Experience Partner:
   
   ■ VIRTRIX
   
   VIRTRIX is a Hong Kong based VR/AR/metaverse architecture and NFT solutions partner specialized in developing virtual experience for fashion, art, and live entertainment, taking brands and businesses through their web 3.0 transformation journey and actualizing new business potential. VIRTRIX’s projects include virtual art gallery and exhibition, digital fashion retail pop-up and showroom, metaverse building, live event and game development.
   
   https://www.virtrix.io/
   
   
   Pop-Up Sponsors:
   
   ■ Tanseisha
   
   Tanseisha aims to contribute to the enrichment of society and people’s lives by creating better spaces. Based in Shinagawa, Tokyo, and established in 1949, Tanseisha provides solutions for commercial spaces such as retail establishments, cultural spaces such as museums, exhibition and event spaces, and many more environments for various social interaction. From research and planning, all the way to design, construction, spatial direction using digital technology and operations, we offer full support throughout the whole creative process. As the new business development, Tanseisha also provides the services of B-OWND.
   
   https://www.tanseisha.co.jp/en/company/about
   
   
   ■ TBS Innovation Partners, LLC
   
   TBS (Japanese: TBSテレビ) is the flagship station of the Japan News Network (JNN), owned-and-operated by the Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Inc, subsidiary of JNN's owner, TBS Holdings. It operates in the Kantō region. The TBS Group aims to deliver timeless content and services to the world, respecting diverse values and striving to make a positive contribution to society.
   
   https://www.tbsholdings.co.jp/en/about/corporate/companyprofile.html
   
   
   ■ Wacom
   
   Wacom is the global leader in the pen display and tablet market for creative users. As a technology company, we provide cutting-edge digital ink solutions for a wide range of partners using and producing smartphones, tablets and digital stationery.
   
   https://www.wacom.com/en-jp/about-wacom
   
   
   ■ SBINFT
   
   SBINFT is the latest venture of SBI Holdings, a Japanese corporate entity that provides a variety of one-stop financial services over the Internet now that two major events, the Financial Big Bang resulting from deregulation, and the Internet Revolution resulting from IT innovation, have radically transformed the financial industry.
   
   SBINFT Co., Ltd. operates the NFT marketplace 「nanakusa」, a service that allows users to issue, sell, and purchase NFTs. Through the NFT marketplace, SBINFT provides a wide variety of content based on the latest technologies such as blockchain and metaverse, in addition to consulting services such as community building, technical support, and sales strategy planning to maximize the value of NFT.
   
   https://www.sbigroup.co.jp/english/company/group/sbinft.html
   
   
   
   8. Contact for Press Inquiries
   
   Startbahn, Inc.
   Public Relations: Risa Mizuno, Sophie Mayuko Arni
   pr@startbahn.jp
   
   If you are interested in media coverage, please contact us using the contact information above. We will individually accept media coverage during the pop-up period.