Over 1,500 cosplay works! Hidehiko Ishizuka of “Honjamaka” talks about the birth of his “crazy installation

Hello, everyone. This is Hidehiko Ishizuka, whose heart rate goes up just thinking if air conditioners had not been invented yet.

About four years ago, I started Instagram at the same time as I launched “Ishi-chan Channel” on YouTube. my manager, who encouraged me to do YouTube, asked me if I wanted to do Instagram.

How the crazy Instagram was born

At first, I didn’t understand why I had to share my private information with the world. It was too much trouble to take pictures. I thought so, and left it to my on-site manager at the time to take and post the photos, but as I looked at other people’s happy Instas, I came to the conclusion that I should try uploading them myself. You can choose any theme. It can be photos or videos. You don’t have to write anything. There are no restrictions on Instagram.

At first, I introduced the growth of vegetables and flowers I was growing in my garden, and when I put out a pool in my yard, I uploaded the “opening of the pool. Almost all of the “likes” were from my relatives. I think I had less than 100 followers for a while. Naturally, the question arises, “Is this interesting?” The question arises, “Is this interesting? The growth of plants in people’s homes. I wouldn’t watch it (laughs).

I am also a comedian, so I want to do something interesting anyway. As I stood in the kitchen thinking about this, the red lid of the condiment came into view, and a slight electric current ran through my entire body. I dashed to the bathroom, wrapped a light blue towel around my head, put the red lid on my nose, and looked in the mirror. ‘Perfect Doraemon,’ I thought.

For about four years since then, I have wrapped a towel around my head, attached certain things to my face, and pretended to be something else. I still think of this as “cosplay,” but when I met Hikaru Ijuin, he said, “That’s just makeup on your face, so it’s not cosplay,” and I thought he was right (laughs).

Frankly, I don’t know when to stop.

Human greed is a never-ending thing. What used to be a simple style of wrapping a colored towel around bare skin and putting something on my face that I had on hand, I began to try painting my face white, thinking, “Doraemon’s face is white, isn’t it?” or putting tape on the edges of my eyelids to make my eyes look smaller.

I also went to a makeup shop where I learned from a TV makeup artist. When I bought some white, black, red, and blue doran, the clerk asked me what kind of stage I was going to be in, to which I resolutely replied, “I’m not. At that point I thought for a minute, “What am I doing?” I thought.

I decided to upload one work a day, and I have kept it for four years. I sometimes complete seven works at once in my free time, depending on my work schedule. Still, I enjoy it. I have uploaded more than 1,500 works and have more than 60,000 followers. To be honest, I don’t know when to stop, but I have no intention of stopping.

Instagram is a great way to “connect” directly with everyone who is viewing my work. I can receive comments and requests about my work, and I can also comment on other people’s posts. This is something I could not experience in my TV work. Hidehiko Ishizuka, 63, can’t stop being excited.

From the September 5, 2025 issue of “FRIDAY