Spend enough time on the streets of Shinjuku, and you¡¯ll eventually spot a flamboyantly dressed figure in a tiger mask carrying fake flowers, stuffed animals and a boombox. This is Shinjuku Tiger, the subject of a documentary of the same name out this week.
Tiger-san, as friends call him, has been a Shinjuku fixture since the early 1970s, donning his outfit whenever he leaves the house, even while at work as a newspaper deliveryman. It¡¯s almost unbelievable his employer allows him to wear his getup while on the job, but this is Shinjuku, after all, which underneath its shiny 21st century exterior, remains a refuge for artists, thespians and other misfits.
The most obvious question is ¡°why?¡± But despite repeated questioning, the otherwise loquacious Tiger remains tight-lipped about what led him, in 1972, to don a plastic tiger mask and never look back. In one conversation, he insists that it was simply instinct. In another, he mentions with a shrug that he¡¯s doing it to save the world. No big deal.
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