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To me, “Takuya Kimura” isn’t just a name, it's my entire being. If my body were to be represented by each of the 4 characters in it, “ki” would be the head, “mura” would be the torso, “taku” would be the hip area and “ya” the legs. And it would feel rugged if you touched it with your bare hands.

If one were to ask what some of the things that define Takuya Kimura are, I’d say the first thing would be my tendency to be crazy earnest in whatever I do. It doesn‘t matter whether it’s work, fun, private life or simply being stupid.  When surfing at the beach, I forget that time even exists. The same thing goes for when I’m fishing.  Even if I don’t get a single bite, every second spent waiting for one is fun for me. And of course, it’s the same for other things I do like drama, music and variety shows.

The next thing would be the habit of wrinkling my brow. When I really get into something, I’d scrunch up the middle of it. Or so I’m told. I suppose that when that happens, it means the switch inside my head is flipped on to thoroughly process everything my senses of sight, hearing and touch are sending to it. But a lot of people don’t know that so I also tend to get asked what I’m angry about a lot.

“Takuya” is the name my parents gave to me at birth so that’s what I’ve always been called. That’s not the case for “Kimutaku.”  It just got coined as a matter of course and before I knew it, it’s already spread far and wide. It was alarming at first but over time, I got used to it and grudgingly accepted it. When I’m out eating, 97 out of 100 people who are there would go, “Oh look, it‘s Kimutaku!” Even if the name plate displayed right outside any dressing room that’s assigned to me says “Takuya Kimura”, anyone passing by who sees it would read it as “Kimutaku” instead.  You know how something written in kanji sometimes have an English reading guide? Like how the word “shitto” would have “jealousy” written near it in kana? It feels kind of like that.

“Kimutaku” is apparently public domain. I can still clearly recall it even now even though it was several years ago that I first found out. There was a pap who was targeting people I know instead of me. When I confronted the guy and demanded for him to cease and desist, he just glibly declared, “You should know that you are a public figure and people have the right to know everything there is to know about you.” Somewhere inside my head understood what he meant but at that moment, it was very a tough concept to swallow.

“Kimutaku,” it seems, is something anyone can freely go in and out of. It’s not a structure of any sort but more a public park of sorts. In Kimutaku Park, people are free to draw and paint whatever picture they want, and those who do not have an interest can walk right on past. It’s open to everyone including myself so I can play in it too if I wanted to. It‘s pretty fun sometimes, but not all the time.

On my radio show, I’d sometimes introduce myself this way, “Top of the evenin’, one and all! This is DJ Kimutaku!!” When doing things like that, I realize I’m at least 70% looking down on Kimutaku. Because inside me, Kimutaku’s existence is lower than that of Takuya Kimura’s.  If Takuya Kimura was a truck rumbling along the freeway, Kimutaku is that other vehicle that’s always trailing behind who also tends to go off on detours on its own sometimes.

When on location at work, I find it essential to see myself from a more objective perspective, like that of the producer and others I work with, rather than become completely self-absorbed. If I don’t gain proper understanding of the work I’m expected to do, then I won’t be completely responsible for it, which isn’t fair to the people I work with. Before, my stance was more that of an outsider’s, with the location staff getting everything ready and myself just being one of the props that they use.  But now, I see myself as one of these location staff. When filming SMAxSMA, I’m a SMAxSMA staff. If it‘s a photoshoot and interview with a magazine, then I’m someone on their payroll too. I make sure to firmly plant myself in the shoes of the people who are creating something. When on location, I’ll always see people hard at work creating something and observing them always makes me think, “Wow, this is amazing.”

So even though I exist as Takuya Kimura in this life, if given a choice in the next one, I’d choose to be a different person. Once is good enough. A part two is unneeded. By thinking this, I’m somehow able to keep moving forward.