A Movie-Loving Tiger

INTERVIEWER  I hear Tiger is “crazy about movies” and has watched as many as six movies in a single day. It was touching to see him watching Roman Holiday. [Tiger takes his mask off when the film begins.]

SATŌ  I wanted to film his face while looking at a movie screen. I had seen it for myself, and it immediately made me like him. “This is somebody I can trust,” I thought. Tiger pours his entire being into what he’s watching. It’s the pure face of a man in love.

TIGER  Audrey [Hepburn] is my idol. For the tiger to be filmed while watching her in the theater was like a dream for me. I’ve seen that movie more than a dozen times, but it was really special this time, because it felt like the princess and the tiger were on the screen together.

Shinjuku, Beautiful Women, and Stuffed Animals

Tiger rides his bike past the former branch of Mitsukoshi Department Store (large white building in the background) on Shinjuku-dōri.
Tiger rides his bike past the former branch of Mitsukoshi Department Store (large white building in the background) on Shinjuku-dōri.

INTERVIEWER  You’ve been observing Shinjuku since the 1970s, in which time the area has undergone a great metamorphosis.

TIGER  Shinjuku has been cleaned up. You just have to go with the flow of the changing times. That reminds me of the time back when they were filming for a TV drama in front of the old Mitsukoshi Department Store. I went to see what was up, and an actress noticed me and called to me by name. We didn’t really know each other that well at the time. It was before she had become a big name. But I had given her the newspaper. I’m always giving copies of the paper to beautiful women.

INTERVIEWER  I heard you create your attire yourself with materials from a local fabric shop, using safety pins to hold it all together.

TIGER  People give me these stuffed animals, and so my menagerie keeps growing. I call them my family. You know who gave me this bear? Waka Miho [stripper and adult-film actress Wakabayashi Miho]. I went to see the initial screening of a film she starred in, and when she was delivering her stage greeting, she saw me said, “Tiger, thanks for coming!” I got a hug from her, and she handed me this bear from the stage. It was in what they call a “tortoise shell” bondage harness. “You absolutely mustn’t untie it,” she said. I keep it with me constantly. In other words, I’m carrying her dream together with me.

Shinjuku Tiger in his handmade costume, accompanied by his “family” of stuffed animals
Shinjuku Tiger in his handmade costume, accompanied by his “family” of stuffed animals

INTERVIEWER  When you first took to wearing your outfit, I understand you came in for some jeering and harassment.

TIGER  Yes. But I don’t get mad at anything people do to me. And as for violence, well totally fuck that! If you let your anger out, that’s the end of it. I keep it inside and turn it into zeal. That gives me more energy. The tiger has none of the usual likes and dislikes of human beings. There’s just one exception: He absolutely adores beautiful women. He lives with Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and Ingrid Bergman in his heart. His driving forces are beautiful women and movies. Without these he couldn’t keep up his energy.