Hajime Tsutsui

Hajime Tsutsui is one of those rare people where you look at the job title and immediately have to do a double-take — photographer, painter, video artist, film director, musician, all on the same business card. This isn't jack-of-all-trades restlessness; it reads more like someone whose ideas keep outgrowing whatever container they're currently working in, so they just pick up a new one. He studied art abroad through the 1990s, opened a restaurant and art space in Setagaya, won the Holbein Prize at the Japan Art Grand Prix and designed textiles that well-known actresses wore on stage and screen, and that range gives the whole thing a kind of deliberate, unhurried confidence that I find genuinely appealing. He's building his own world on his own terms, and that's a pretty good way to spend a life.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Hajime Tsutsui is a Japanese multidisciplinary artist born on December 7, 1970, in Katsushika, Tokyo. He works across photography, painting, video art, film direction, and music. After studying art and performance abroad, mainly in the United States, through the 1990s, he returned to Tokyo in 2000, opened a restaurant and art space in Setagaya, won the Holbein Prize at the Japan Art Grand Prix for his painting "MAMA GOOD BYE" and designed textiles for the brand NINITA. He maintains an official website at hajimerock.com.

Name (English)

Hajime Tsutsui

Name (Japanese)

筒井はじめ

Reading

つつい はじめ

Born

December 7, 1970 (age 55)

Origin

Katsushika, Tokyo, Japan

Occupation

Photographer / Painter / Filmmaker / Film Director / Musician

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Sagittarius / Dog

• Official sitehttp://hajimerock.com
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%AD%92%E4%BA%95%E3%81%AF%E3%81%98%E3%82%81
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1135007

Tags

• From Tokyo
• Photographer
• Painter
• Filmmaker

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.