Continued from 1/2.

--It seems like "connecting with people" is a constant theme in Omiya's work.

That may be true. I wanted to make the work I created for this exhibition feel cosmic. When you look at the sky, don't you sometimes see the faces of gods in the clouds? I thought that was really intriguing, and wanted to tell everyone, "Look, (God) is over there," so I painted it on the wall. The jagged edges represent thunder, and I pasted silver foil on the dragon because the venue is in Ginza, so I titled it "Silver Dragon."

--You use colorful colors.

When I was traveling for work, I happened to see some flowers by the roadside, and I was so impressed by the beautiful colors of nature that I thought, "God is a genius!" There are so many beautiful and gentle colors in nature, so I thought that if I surrounded an entire room with pastel colors, people would realize, "Ah, so the world is filled with colors like this." I hoped that people would be healed by being enveloped in the beautiful energy of love.

--Any projects you've worked on that you remember as turning points?

One would be the Nescafé Gold Blend commercial when I was still working. When it was decided that Ogata Ken and Okuda Eiji would do a dialogue play, Ogata was reluctant, saying, "For an actor, lines are something you only say once, so they shouldn't be repeated over and over again in advertisements." But later, Ogata told me, "I lost." He said, "I tried it and it was fun." At the time, he also said, "Why don't you write something a little longer? A play or something like that." I was surprised, but I was also a little embarrassed, so I said, "Well, if I write it, will you do it, Ogata?" He smiled, and the elevator doors Ogata was riding in slammed shut, just like in a comedy skit (laughs).

I was also happy that he treated me as a person, not just an "agency employee," and I thought at the time, "Maybe something like that will happen someday." A few years later, when that actually happened, I happened to meet him at a TV station and told him, "I used to do theater." He passed away a few days later. I'm very sad that I wasn't able to perform with Ogata, but his words have stayed with me deeply.

The second turning point was a promotional short film for my band, Spitz, that I made after going independent, which was also made into a movie called "Story at the Sea." It stars Aoi Miyazaki, Hidetoshi Nishijima, and Rinko Kikuchi. It was like a home video, shot in two days and edited in one, but after it was released online, I got a call from the president of the movie company who said, "I'll screen it in theaters." Then I got to do a stage greeting, right? Once I was up there, I'd have no choice but to describe myself as "film director." That was a turning point in my life. After that, I received offers for 12 films, but I lacked confidence and turned them all down. So I lost my job, but I still had to make a living, so I decided to accept the next offer that came my way. Then, the 13th job I got was a play. I was surprised.

I'm not good at building a career. If you do a film, you make another film and gradually grow, right? But with theater, I was starting from scratch again. So, in the end, I felt like I couldn't become the real deal. How should I put it? I tried to build experience like building a bank, but before I knew it, I felt like I'd "complemented" (laughs), like I'd "covered" (various fields) (laughs). I ended up like that while I was working hard at the job in front of me. So, I'm left wondering what I should do from now on. It's been seven years at the company, seven years since I became independent, and I'm planning to think about the next seven years through this exhibition until the 28th, when it ends... but I'm not sure if I'll be able to decide.

--So, are you undecided about your future plans?

I'm the type of person who gets happy when people ask for things, but I want to do each piece more carefully, and I need to take a rest because I'm putting out too much right now. While I feel like I don't want to do anything, I would like to do the "Conveying Thoughts Exhibition" and the "What It Means to Live Exhibition" all at once. I want to stop doing solo exhibitions after people have seen them properly. But I might end up doing them again, saying I was "asked" to do them.