Pursuing different expressions with my own style with playfulness

Work as a maintenance staff
The important work for a Suikei creator is not only creating aquascapes, but also maintaining them. My daily work is mainly doing maintenance work. For the event in Osaka, I was stationed there as a leader of the maintenance work. In general, 2 to 3 people are in charge of a maintenance work for this kind of big event. It is important for each member to understand intentions of every work and to accurately share directions of the maintenance work. In the limited time at a venue, it is important to carefully observe each leaf of aquatic plants and notice changes in the condition in the initial stage to keep a good condition. And by doing maintenance work appropriately for different situations, it becomes possible to constantly keep a beautiful condition. I think that being able to evaluate situations and instruct appropriately are some of the most important roles for a leader. And I would like to keep working hard to be able to show aquascapes with higher level condition to many people making use of my experience.

Behind the scenes of the event
Because it was hard to transport a W3m premade aquascape to Osaka for the event, we brought an aquarium tank and everything else to Osaka in February, created the layout and had been maintaining it since then.

Proactive maintenance
It is important to find issues as early as possible and handle them accordingly. For that reason, it is necessary to check conditions when an event venue is closed.

Learn from Nature
Many of ADA staff naturally love living things and have interests in nature, and on our day off, we often go for photoshoots, fishing and nature observation. My colleagues took me to places when I just joined the company, and it helped me have interests in nature even more. My layout with driftwood in a W120cm aquarium tank that was supposed to be showcased in the event in Osaka was inspired by a fallen tree in Sukkan valley in Tochigi Prefecture. I’m hoping to work on creating aquascapes having the concept “Learn from Nature” in my mind as a Suikei creator of ADA.

Long-cherished event where the Kongo Sugi is located
Played the guitar in front of the Kongo Sugi in Sado, which was named by Amano, and became an object in his masterpiece.

Think original expressions
There are roughly 2 ways to plan layouts for me. One is to go to nature and express inspiring scenery as motifs in layouts. And the other one is to decide what the main feature is, for example, driftwood, stones, aquatic plants or fish, and then develop the imagination. But if it’s just that, it could end up being too ordinary. Therefore, I value playfulness when creating layouts these days. For example, trying out laying Unzan Stones horizontally contrary to a basic theory of placing them upright, or getting inspirations from music. If creating layouts too seriously, they tend to look just OK. So I would like to challenge myself to create layouts with some playfulness. Recently, performance of aquarium products is progressed. Consequently, growing aquatic plants has become easier, so it is possible for anyone to create a wide variety of layouts. For that reason alone, I would like to keep pursuing how I can suggest layouts as an ADA Suikei creator.

“Forests of Harshness and Generosity”
As I can feel relaxed when going to fields, my ideal aquascapes are the ones that can provide relaxing feelings to fish in the layouts and to people who enjoy them.

 

Naru Uchida
7 years since joining ADA. Foodie with a big appetite. Plays the guitar as a hobby. Recently created a soundproofing room at home and rocking the acoustic guitar. His seriousness and good look are the reasons why he is loved at events.