SE-JI - Imperfect Trash

完全なゴミ means “imperfect trash,” which is how SE-JI describes his art in his bio. He's a Tokyo street artist who came out of fashion and now releases something almost every day. He makes short animated pieces inspired by Tokyo and puts nearly all of them on SuperRare, with glitch, neon and street culture running through the work. Even the titles follow the same idea, with each one using a Japanese word and its meaning written underneath.

Before the art there was fashion, and it's still a big part of what SE-JI talks about today. He regularly posts about designers, brands and the people he worked with during that time, and it's clear that fashion is something he hasn't left behind.

^{"When I was only involved with people in the fashion industry, I love memories of the creative acquisition managers at Diesel and Maison Margiela in Italy telling me she is big fans of my design. I'll make some cool stuff in that era mixed with my current street style"}

^{All quotes are SE-JI's own writing, from his posts and artwork descriptions.}

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Fashion

SE-JI has a background in fashion design, and even though his focus is now on art, he still spends a lot of time talking about fashion on the timeline. He's also hinted that he'd like to move back towards it in the future, and the designers and brands he references give you a pretty good idea of what he's into.

^{"Fashion I like Demna of VETEMENTS, EX-BALENCIAGA GIVENCHY when Ricardo Tiscci was the director Hublot Collab with Maxime the tattoo artist Pyrex vision by Virgil abloh"}

It's not just the clothes he's interested in either. He follows what happens behind the scenes and how the businesses around these brands change over time.

^{"New Guards Group, which held licenses for Off-White, Palm Angels, Hood by Air, and other contemporary street fashions that were popular at the time, went bankrupt and was acquired by another company. You never know what the times might be like."}

That interest in fashion seems to connect pretty closely with what he's doing now, especially the way he talks about his art as something that belongs to the street rather than sitting separately from it. He's also pretty open about wanting to return to fashion in the future.

^{"I create new street art every day and bring a new wind to the scene. Through @SuperRare, I update my street activities every day like Supreme, and I name it first Street Art. I'm going to start street fashion again someday, so pay attention to my activities"}

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Akihabara (a district in Japan)

That idea of street culture comes up again when you look at how often SE-JI references Akihabara. It's not just a location that appears in the background of his work. He keeps coming back to it as something that represents the mix of things he's interested in.

^{"Akihabara More than a place. A collision of street culture, technology, neon, and imagination. A world where chaos becomes identity, and every corner inspires something new."}

He expands on that idea in another post, where he describes Akihabara as a place where fashion, underground creativity, technology, music and street culture all influence each other.

^{"For me, Akihabara has never been just a district. It is a place where fashion, underground creativity, technology, music, and street culture continue to collide, influence one another, and evolve into something new.
My work isn't an attempt to document that energy. It's an attempt to become part of it.
The destination isn't important. What matters is that the culture keeps moving."}

That thinking has made its way directly into the work. There's a piece called Super Humble Akihabara, as well as Ura Super Humble Akihabara, with “Ura” meaning the unseen side, another perspective or a deeper layer of the same world.

^{"'Ura' (裏) represents the unseen perspective, a parallel story, a deeper layer, and another expression of the same world."}

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SE-JI, Super humble AKIHABARA

"Akihabara is a place in Tokyo, Japan, where our country's culture is concentrated in that small space and its uniqueness is expressed to the fullest. The reason why I used the word 'humble' is that Akihabara is not humble at all but likes to express it very much, but I 'Super-humbly' added my own unique interpretation to Akihabara and created a fresh new street style."

The Meaning Underneath

The Japanese influence doesn't stop with Akihabara. Most of SE-JI's work is titled in Japanese, with the English meaning written underneath. Looking through the titles gives you a pretty good idea of the themes he keeps coming back to: Tenshi 天使, angel. 正義, justice. 一筋の光明, a ray of hope. 生命力, life force. Hirameki ひらめき, inspiration. Dakai, breakthrough. Shinjitsu, truth.

On Shinjitsu, he wrote:

^{"Truth doesn't need to be loud. It reveals itself through consistency, conviction, and the courage to remain authentic when it's easier to follow the crowd. Street culture has always belonged to those who stay true to their own voice, turning experience into identity."}

One of his titles also comes with a pretty direct credit to another artist. ストリート REMNANTS takes the name from XCOPY's REMNANTS collection and combines it with SE-JI's own Tokyo street style.

^{"The title 'ストリート' means street in Japanese. This art was inspired by XCOPY, taking the name from his collection 'REMNANTS', and adding my own Tokyo street style to create a Super Raw Street Style that has never been seen before. I really want to express my gratitude to XCOPY for allowing me to mint this art."}

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SE-JI, 一筋の光明 (A ray of hope)

SE-JI, ストリート REMNANTS

Hirameki

That idea of following an idea when it appears is probably clearest in his current series, Hirameki, which means inspiration. The idea behind the collection is pretty simple: when something comes to mind, he turns it into a piece and releases it without a fixed schedule or forced concept.

^{"Hirameki A new collection built around inspiration. Whenever a new idea suddenly comes to mind, I turn it into a piece and release it as part of this collection. No fixed schedule. No forced concepts. Just inspiration, experimentation, and the moment an idea takes shape. Hirameki 01 is where it begins. More will come whenever the next inspiration arrives."}

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Still Going

SE-JI i still putting the work out. Super Humble Akihabara was the last piece left from his early period, and it's since been collected by ArtGee Gallery. When he listed it he wrote:

^{"This is one of the final works from my early artistic journey, and I'd love for it to find someone who genuinely connects with it. Inspired by the energy of street culture and Akihabara, it remains the only artwork from this early period still available. Every other piece from this era has already found a home with collectors."}

Since then, he's moved further into animation and continues to release something most days.

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Go and have a look. SE-JI is @Kowaii114, and his work is on SuperRare and at se-ji.netlify.app.

All images courtesy of the artist. All quotes are his own published writing.