Hiro Ando is a known name whose work oozes the deep culture of Japan. Majority of his work comprises reformatting the country’s icons like the Maneki-Neko (lucky cat), samurai warriors, sumo wrestlers, and koi fish into colorful sculptures. This eminent artist was born in 1973 on the Island of Shikoku, Japan, and he began his career as an illustrator after graduating from the university.
He founded his foremost studio in 2005, called Crazynoodles. Today, the firm has grown into a strong work force of 10 Neo-Pop artists, including the painter Saori Nakamishi. Ando keeps shuttling between Tokyo, Japan, and Shanghai, China for his professional commitments.
He has now plunged into the NFT space and is constantly working on his new project to make it one of the best in the industry. We ask him what inspired him to step into this industry which is growing at a fast pace and gaining prominence the world over, he said, “Japanese culture has influenced many in their work and the artistic creation of work depicts a lot about his origin. The same happened with me as I too was greatly influenced by the culture and most of my work has references which are deeply inclined towards it.”
The same way as Warhol uses the codes of American ’60s consumerism, contemporary Chinese references to the icons and the semantics of the Chinese Revolution, I use references to the Japanese urban culture and legendary icons, which will be seen to a great extent in my NFT project.
Ando has always looked up to felines as the samurai warriors of Japanese tradition. By depicting the same in his work he has tried to show the similarities, not an actual depiction or reincarnation of the same though.
He says that his creations also have the same strength, elegance and power as the real ones, and that’s what he has tried to show in his NFT collection which comprises a collection of 4747 Samurai Cats NFTs, unique digital collectibles on the Ethereum blockchain.
Furthermore, the Samurai Cats are randomly assembled from over 300 layers hand-drawn by Ando. Each of the Samurai cats come in a variety of outfits, faces and colors. Some NFT have special privileges and give the holders a host of special benefits which are extremely impressive.
The membership also gives access to the upcoming “Galerie Club” in the metaverse, which will have some of the most attractive benefits and features. Steve Aoki, who is one of the most popular DJs in the electro dance scene, is a partner in Samurai Cats as he believes this project is well equipped to conquer the NFT space in a big way.
Samurai Cats (www.samuraicats.io) is slated to launch shortly and are currently offering giveaways to friends and family. The pre-sales for Whitelist @0.17 ETH opened on the 20th December with max 5 mint per wallet.
Ando says that cryptocurrencies have taken over big time and NFTs have been gaining prominence in a global scale with many users getting drawn towards it as it offers vast benefits as compared to others, hence this was the right time to step in and make an impact, thus the idea for Samurai Cats was born, and he promises it will live up to people’s expectations.
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