Pacific Bluefin Tuna Mini Model

Interview with Kazuyuki Moria

Fish continue to fascinate us with their individuality, giving us the pleasure of viewing, fishing, and eating them.

The Aquafish series is a new addition to the Favorite collection, featuring fish and other aquatic animals.
Mr. Moria supervised the sculpting and coloring of this series, but what do fish mean to you?

What kind of concept did you have in mind when creating the sculptures?

I am fascinated by animals that live in nature. Not only in this series, but also in my own work, my most important concept is to express the beauty of the wild as a form of art.
In this series, my goal was to express beautiful swimming, majestic swimming, graceful swimming, in other words, the way living things work. I hope I was able to express the beauty of the moment as if I had taken a photograph of the ""movement"" of the creatures that served as motifs.

The colors show a wide variety of personalities, what kind of individuals did you have in mind?

As you can see above, I tried to represent fish living in the wild.
I'll leave the details to the descriptions of each species, but I used the ones from what I consider to be the most distinctive and beautiful period in the fish's life. In this way, I ended up using mostly adult or mature fish that had survived in nature as my motif. Or, from my standpoint as a viewer, I imagined individuals that I would be happy to meet. It may be selfish of me, but it may also contain a kind of wishful thinking that I would like to see this happen.

What do you like about the bluefin tuna mini-model?

The image of the bluefin tuna is one of powerfully moving through the endless sea. The image of the bluefin tuna is that of the king of the bony fishes, and it is sculpted in an imposing form.
When you pick it up, please look at it from various angles. The body shape seems to be a condensation of functional beauty for moving forward quickly. In addition, each fin is shaped according to its function.
Normally, most of its fins are folded and it pushes through the water. The pedestal is also designed to look like a whirlpool as it moves through the water.

Because the figures are palm-sized, they can be easily displayed anywhere and can be enjoyed in a variety of situations.

Mr. Moria, please let us know if you have any recommendations on how to display or present them.

Right now, I have the entire series lined up in a row, and it's spectacular. It's not too big, and the image of the pedestal has been carefully designed, so it's very nice to display many kinds of items side by side.
They are also fun to place next to driftwood, coral, or other natural objects, or next to houseplants.
There are some foreign souvenirs that are becoming more readily available in Japan, such as glass pots on driftwood. I like to put a fish figure next to it. I like to put fish figures next to them, and it makes a great atmosphere.

Are there any fish species that you would like to create for the Aqua Fish series in the future?

There are so many (lol).
Although it's called the Aqua Fish series, it's a series with a lot of potential to include non-fish species. I'd like to create other creatures while enriching the fishes. And maybe there's room for deep-sea creatures and the like. ...... I'm looking forward to it!
And if I had to choose one, it would be the minnow scorpionfish.
And if I had to pick one, it would be the minnow scorpion.
If I had to choose one other than fish, I would say crocodiles. In this series, I mainly use the figure of a swimming crocodile, so it is quite rare to see a swimming crocodile. I'm sure many people would love to have one.

Supervisor profile

Kazuyuki Moria

Natural history plastic artist.
His concept is ""private tropical world"". He has held many solo and group exhibitions, and his work has been widely exhibited in both two-dimensional and figurative media.
He is in charge of the modeling and supervision of the Aqua Fish mini-models.