On August 8, 2022, illustrator Koto Tsumi, who worked on key visuals for the popular music unit “YOASOBI”, updated Instagram for the first time in about half a year since the uproar surrounding the work.
From late January, suspicions of plagiarism by tracing existing works and photos surfaced one after another on the Internet. It developed into a riot, with sales of products that he worked on illustrations being canceled and temporary suspensions one after another.
After the turmoil…Establishment of “new studio”
Furuto gained popularity with his illustrations of young women, and his catchphrase was, “Oh, I can only draw girls. I can only draw nice people.”
What started the uproar was that on January 28th, YouTuber Korekore spread information that trace marks were seen on some of the works sold at Koto’s solo exhibition. .
Other works were also pointed out one after another on Twitter, and on the 30th, the miscellaneous goods maker “Marks” temporarily suspended (and later canceled) the sale of notebooks with Furuto’s picture on the cover.
Regarding the suspicion of tracing, Mr. Koto tweeted a message image on February 3 and denied it. He said, “I made it as a quote, homage, and reconstruction,” and claimed that there was no intention of plagiarism in the reproduction. While apologizing for posting and selling without the permission of the rights holder, Client Work complained that it was “all original works.”
However, the turmoil did not subside because the pictures used in collaboration products with companies were also suspected of being traced. Various places were busy responding to the return of collaboration products, temporary suspension of sales, cancellation of key visuals, etc.
Furuto deleted his Twitter account by March 7. Instagram, which is the only activity place, was last updated on January 19th. The number of followers is still about 280,000 even after the turmoil.
Then, on August 8, he updated his Instagram for the first time in about half a year and posted a video in which multiple illustrations were played continuously. The post is written in English, and reports on the current situation, saying, “We are launching a new studio and producing experimental works.”
While he said that he was immersed in hand-drawn production for a while, he also showed interest in silkscreen printing, a type of printmaking, and called out, “I hope to show it to you someday.” Mr. Furuta,
Furthermore, on the same day, he updated the story twice and posted words that could be taken as meaningful, such as “I hope those who know know” and “Everything is done by drawing”.