HAYAMI Sho × KAWAMORI Shoji

KAWAMORI
Hello everyone, my name is Shoji Kawamori. Today I have invited a truly wonderful guest, and I would like to ask him about Shining with Life, what he is good at, his roles as a voice actor, and many other various things.
HAYAMI
Hello, my name is Sho Hayami. Today I would like to ask Mr Kawamori about various things and hear more and more about the attractions of the Expo.
KAWAMORI
It must have been 42 years ago when we first met. It was at the first Macross recording studio. I believe it was at that moment, and I’ve said this several times when I’ve given talks, about how I thought Mr Hayami was really cool and dazzling.
HAYAMI
I can’t tell anymore. It was the first Macross film I auditioned for. Whenever I meet Mr Kawamori, I try to tell him that my representative work is Macross.
KAWAMORI
You also went to Expo ’70 in Osaka, didn’t you, Mr. Hayami?
HAYAMI
Yes, that’s right. I think it was summer vacation in the 6th grade of elementary school. What I remember most is that I could not see the Moon rock. There was a huge line.
KAWAMORI
The lines were eight hours long.
HAYAMI
So, where I went was the Zambia Pavilion, the Rwanda Pavilion. I’d go to places like that, and those wooden masks made with the primary colors of Africa were interesting.
KAWAMORI
That’s wonderful. For me, it was in 5th grade, but I went during spring break because it would definitely be crowded in the summer. Since it was spring break, I managed to see the Moon rock. I flew around by myself, without my parents, and visited about 85% of the pavilions within 3 days. But, I still have a strong impression of African pavilions and the masks. As well as the diversity of people from different countries.
HAYAMI
That’s right. The theme was progress and harmony, wasn’t it? At that time, in the 1970s, there was the Cold War between East and West. In many ways, while there were still many colonies, Japan finally had their economic miracle, and was able to see a little bit of the future. So in that sense, I felt that material civilization was the main thing. I remember it was Hitachi, or Sanyo, an artificial, completely automatic bath that could wash itself…
KAWAMORI
Yes, it could. There were many different kinds of robots being made, and the dream of the future I envisioned at that time was becoming a reality. Some of them turned out the way they were supposed to, while some turned out to be completely different. Conversely, while technological advances are beginning to come to a standstill, that being mostly included, if I hadn’t gone to the Expo, I felt like I wouldn’t have been inspired to do the work I have done today.
HAYAMI
I’m not exactly sure if it was the first time or not, but quite a variety of exotic foods were being unveiled. That was when the foodservice industry really started to change, it was a milestone in many ways.
KAWAMORI
When you were a child, did you play in the fields and mountains a lot?
HAYAMI
Yes, I did. I was like the king of the mountain.
KAWAMORI
King of the mountain! (laughs) What kind of king?
HAYAMI
I used to act as Tarzan and all sorts of things like that. When I was a kid, there was a river running near my house, and my parents used to do the big laundry in the river.
KAWAMORI
That’s amazing.
HAYAMI
But on the other hand, there is a washing machine, like this,
KAWAMORI
It’s hand-cranked, isn’t it?
HAYAMI
So it was on both ends of the spectrum.
KAWAMORI
I guess you could say it was a time when the river was connected to our lives. It was the same for me. We talked about it a lot, but there were ditch rivers and drainage ditches in the streets, weren’t there? I thought that if we took the lid off of those, society would slowly descend into madness. And by culverting those and making them invisible, something would go wrong. At this year’s Expo, under the title LIVE EARTH JOURNEY, I wanted to make the concept of “where life comes from, and where it is going” more visible and with actual feeling. And I assumed that due to the strains that have arisen, that concept has become imperceptible. But, with that kind of meaning, it means that we were raised in a place teeming with life.
HAYAMI
When I went to India decades ago, it was certainly not paved, there were cows lying around, and there was a lot of cow excrement as well. I thought of what would happen to this town if a squall came and washed everything clean.
KAWAMORI
It’s very important to be able to see things.
Did you always want to work in voice or acting like you do now, even as a child?
HAYAMI
I wasn’t. My father was a civil servant, so I thought I would become one too. However, when I think back, I have been imitating villains in period dramas on TV ever since I could remember.
KAWAMORI
Villains! (laughs) Excellent.
HAYAMI
So I tried to devise a way to sound like a villain, and it was a loud disturbance. You put a round rice cracker into your mouth. If you spoke into that, you could produce a low echo. That was a make believe that I always used to do.
KAWAMORI
How old were you when you did that?
HAYAMI
I was 3 or 4 years old. To imitate means to be conscious of their words, and to be conscious of their words means to be able to relate to their stories and narratives. I feel that if I express myself with that ability to empathize and be conscious, I could produce something detailed.
KAWAMORI
To be conscious of those words means to open one’s ears to the nuances of the villain’s character if one wants to imitate him or her.
HAYAMI
Exactly. But at that time, I didn’t even understand what they were saying in period dramas. But there are times when I could understand the expression on the villain’s face, or the hero’s response to that expression, even if I was very young. So, perhaps it’s a nuance that transcends language.
KAWAMORI
But, that’s really interesting, too. Suppose that if you did understand the meaning of the language, you could already understand what they were conveying to begin with, but the power to express the unspoken, nonverbal aspect was probably cultivated at that time.
HAYAMI
Maybe it’s that complexity, that modulation that surpasses strengths and weaknesses. Of course, when I was a kid, I wasn’t aware of that. However, at the time that I was going into this world and starting out, a large part of my life I assumed that producing techniques and proficiencies past my own age would mean that I could do my job better. But at some point, there are definitely things that cannot be covered by that. I also like Noh, and the brilliance that comes from it, or the tradition of starting training from June 6th at the age of 2 to 3, but even if you tried to trace an outline of such things with techniques afterwards, I feel that you can’t bring them out. Then, I wonder about what I could do later in life. I think that by properly actualizing the memories of the original scenes and the emotions I had from my childhood, I could juxtapose it with the roles I have now, and express something that goes beyond the outlines of human beings. In terms of emotion, it’s plants. Then insects. I would be living in Japan and would go, “Oh, the insects are chirping. What is that? A pine cricket? No, that can’t be it.” I would wonder what that is and not look further, probably assuming it was an introduced species that has entered Japan, gradually exterminating ancient Japanese species and disturbing the ecosystem. But, for children that are surrounded by nature, they would know about that firsthand. That’s for sure.
KAWAMORI
I definitely understand. No, that’s really the whole point. But I wonder what that part is. For the current generation, the current generation of youngsters and children, I don’t mean to say that they should stop using technology or anything, but I think it would be good if we could do both, and I think it would be better to have both. If there are children trying to become new voice actors who also have that kind of experience, they will definitely stand out from the rest of the crowd. You play a tremendous number of roles. Do you have any tips or tricks for tuning in or becoming the character for each of those roles?
HAYAMI
It’s in the breathing. There is a certain feeling that you get when you read a scene, right? I could somewhat sense how that character breathes, their heartbeat, and rate of pulse. Then, those breaths are decided. Of course, in most cases, the director of the animation is cutting the prescore, but when you perform the scene in one cut, the breathing and rhythm of the performance changes a little. That’s something I value a lot.
KAWAMORI
Breathing and heart rate, especially for animals, those are the very fundamentals for life, aren’t they? That is certainly where individual differences exist.
HAYAMI
That’s right. I also play non-human characters, so when I think about the heat that the creature has in that moment, I can’t bring it out if I am breathing normally. It’s not just about volume. That’s what I’m trying to feel while doing those kinds of things. Right now, what I’m unable to do are things that float. I want to do something tiny, cute, and buoyant, but with my voice, I can’t seem to make it float. It’s unable to fight gravity. I’m still researching how to do this. (laughs)
KAWAMORI
That’s great research. After all, it’s not as if humans aren’t bound by gravity in some ways.
HAYAMI
I guess I’m trying to break the grammar of my own speech. No matter what role you play, you still have that person’s grammar of speech and so on as a design. I’m hoping to break it down by any means necessary. I know this is off topic, but I love ammonites. Just the other day, I went to Mikasa City in Hokkaido, and there are ammonites like this strewn about there! There are several places where ammonites are exposed, and you don’t have to dig very hard
KAWAMORI
Oh, Hokkaido? That’s certainly a place worth going to.
HAYAMI
I often wonder why I like them so much. There were regularly-coiled and irregularly-coiled ones, but irregularly-coiled did not mean that the ammonites were irregular, but rather that the size and spiral types of the ammonites changed due to the temperature of the sea water at the time, and various other factors on Earth. The world’s largest one is almost 3 meters long, just for its shell, that is. And, like a giant squid, the body comes out from here, so I wonder about how long its actual length in meters is, as it was from a time when the ocean was so rich. But, eventually there was a time when they went extinct. I feel that life is a series of tremendous hardships, but the fact that there are traces of it left behind, and that there are people who think about them, is what gives it its overall meaning.
KAWAMORI
I like looking at ammonites and other fossils, but I had no idea there were so many places in Japan where they are exposed. They are really big if you include the insides.
HAYAMI
That’s right. Moreover, Mikasa City and the surrounding area were originally part of the sea which then rose up, and miraculously large nodules of ammonites were seemingly left there as a result.
KAWAMORI
In the United States, there is the petrified forest that was already strewn with fossilized trees. From afar, they really just look like fallen trees. They don’t look like fossils, but fallen trees that had been lying in the desert. That was particularly interesting, though. It’s something like that, isn’t it? It’s a kind of packaging of the traces of life that used to be alive, something simply so provocative, and it’s like proof of something that has lived.
HAYAMI
I also believe that there is something to suggest that. So, I think we are drawn to them because, far beyond the memories of our memories of our memories, they were probably the traces of souls that are connected to something in the past, and I feel that there we are captivated by them.
KAWAMORI
Certainly. That may be true. After all, if you go back far enough, there was a long period of time when humans did not like humans. Also, the theme of this year’s Expo is Shining with Life, but for you, Mr Hayami, was there a moment when you felt that life was shining brightly? It’s kind of abstract, though.
HAYAMI
It’s a very small thing, but I cook every morning. And I would always make miso soup. There are many kinds of soup stock, aren’t there? Bonito or Iriko soup stock. When the soup stock, ingredients, and type of miso are matched wonderfully and when you taste it, you think, “This is amazing, this is good!” When this sense of taste is matched with the various things that go into the process of making something, it makes me feel like I’m alive.
KAWAMORI
Especially with miso soup, since it’s food and that it is directly related to life, it is easy to realize such things.
HAYAMI
Mr Kawamori, in your pavilion, you’re using concrete, which has not been used before, but you’re also using a lot of new technologies, such as visual ones. Is that pretty much something that we have never experienced?
KAWAMORI
That’s right. I was thinking about what I had never experienced before, and it turns out when considering the exhibits for this year’s Expo, I was looking for what’s on the forefront, what could be achieved with the current technology. I didn’t mean to imitate them, but I wanted to create something unique somehow, so I looked around. It’s intellectually stimulating, but it’s kind of uninspiring. Theme parks are entertainment and would work as they are very exciting, but the theme or conveying that is hard to retain, so with both of those in mind, I wondered if we could somehow fuse them together. I was thinking about the possibility of creating something that would reach not only the mind, but also the heart and soul, while still having a sense of entertainment, which is difficult to achieve with existing technology. XR Goggles, VR and pass-through cameras to see reality. I used the ones that utilizes both of those, which is not another world in VR. You think you’re going into a virtual space, and then you come back to the real world, and then something magical happens before everyone who sees it, and you go back and forth between the two. I’ve never seen such a back-and-forth exhibition used before.
HAYAMI
I’d get nauseated, but I would like to experience it.
KAWAMORI
On the other hand, if you have people who experience sickness earlier, they can see where they start to get dizzy. It’s tough because I really don’t get nauseated myself. Figuring out how to bring those kinds of emotional expressions and psychological aspects of the ecosystem of drama into the production is a point we’re trying to work on. Also, even though there are no mechas or anything like that in the production, the climax of Macross is a song, a drama, and a battle scene, all going on at once. This is something that almost no one else does, so I wanted to express that sense of simultaneous progress. Being within both the macroscales and the microscales in the ecosystem, and the sense of being in the flow of life and so on, all advancing at the same time, was something I wanted to express. That’s where I was trying to be creative.
HAYAMI
Does that feel like the person experiencing it comes in as the main character?
KAWAMORI
That’s similar to it.
HAYAMI
Regarding the feedback that Mr Kawamori received on your animation production…
KAWAMORI
I still get some of it. I’m already making something, but at the same time, I’m also thinking, “I’ve never expressed this much before,” or, “How was this part?” There are several works that I’m working on now, but I’m already changing my writing style a little, even when I’m writing the storyboards. It’s not that they’re not related at all, or that I’m doing completely different things, but now I’m getting faster at making transformable mecha and so on. I’m getting faster at it, and I think it’s because I’m doing this job, I feel like the area of my senses have gotten more extensive. I’ve been saying great diversity, but the diversity I’ve been thinking of has been done in a narrow place. I believe that there’s a wider range of possibilities, and I hope I can create something that will make you feel that way, even if just a little.
Thank you so much for your time today. It was a lot of fun and stimulating to discuss things that we normally couldn’t talk about before, I’m getting all kinds of tips from the things we’ve talked about today, so if you were to do something else in the future, I’d love to hear from you!
HAYAMI
Thank you so much, honestly. The possibilities and the future seem a little brighter when I talk to you, Mr Kawamori.
KAWAMORI
I’m glad to hear that.
HAYAMI
After hearing your story, I felt like I could still see some hope that I would be able to watch something enjoyable as I get older.
KAWAMORI
Thank you very much.
HAYAMI Sho
After training at the Seinenza Theater Company and working with Shiki Theatre Company, in 1980, he won the Grand Prix in the “Amateur Voice Actor Contest” hosted by Nippon Broadcasting. He made his voice acting debut in the animated feature film Queen Millennia.
He has appeared in numerous works, including animation, foreign films, commercials, and corporate narrations. In addition to releasing vocal albums and narration CDs, he has also created original works, writing the story and script for S.S.D.S. (Super Stylish Doctors Story), through which he has released numerous CDs and DVDs and hosted events. He has also produced and provided scripts for CD drama series.
As an artist, he continues to explore a wide range of expressions, including live readings and dinner shows.
OFFICIAL WEB
https://rushstyle.net/talent/show_hayami/
OFFICIAL X
@show_ism