Photo/Illutration Zarny Shibuya guides Aung San Suu Kyi at an exhibition of Myanmar silk products held in Tokyo in October 2018. (Provided by Zarny Shibuya)

A fashion designer whose creation was worn by Aung San Suu Kyi has established a foundation in Japan to support citizens suffering under military repression in his native Myanmar.

Zarny Shibuya, 36, named his enterprise the Full Moon Foundation, hoping it will shine on Myanmar’s darkness like moonlight rays from Japan and help compatriots who have lost family members or are taking refuge from the military crackdown.

Shibuya was born and raised in Rangoon, then the capital of Burma. He left the city and moved to Japan in 1993 when he was 8 years old.

His father had taken part in the pro-democracy movement that arose in Burma in 1988 and fled to Japan earlier than his son.

Shibuya still remembers how he was held in the arms of his father while taking flight from the armed forces who, then as now, were pointing their guns at the people.

Shibuya has also never forgotten his mother tongue.

“I used Burmese when speaking to my parents,” he said. “I also continued exchanging letters and phone calls with my grandparents, who remained in Myanmar.”

Shibuya acquired Japanese citizenship in 2012.

He started activities as a model when he was in high school, and began working as a fashion designer after graduating from university.

He was 26 when he set up his “Zarny” label, and has since established the brand in bridal dresses, fashion accessories and other items.

In June 2012, Suu Kyi, then head of Myanmar’s leading opposition party, gave her Nobel Lecture in Oslo, 21 years after she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. She had been freed from a long-lasting house arrest.

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Aung San Suu Kyi walks in a longyi wrap-around skirt tailored by Zarny Shibuya after giving her Nobel Lecture in Oslo in June 2012. (Reuters file photo)

In Oslo, she wore a longyi (lungi), a wrap-around skirt of a national costume status, that featured Myanmar’s traditional patterns woven into light-purple fabric.

Shibuya had tailored the skirt and donated it to her.

The two first met in November 2016, when Shibuya was invited to a banquet held at the State Guest House Akasaka Palace in Tokyo in honor of Suu Kyi, who was visiting Japan as Myanmar’s de facto leader.

Shibuya told her that he was working across Asia with a base in Japan.

“I feel proud of you, as you speak Burmese so well,” he quoted Suu Kyi as telling him.

During Suu Kyi’s visit to Japan in 2018, Shibuya guided her in person at an exhibition that showed, among other things, dresses that he had made of Myanmar silk. He has since remained in touch with her, including exchanges of birthday messages.

Suu Kyi calls him Ko Zarny, where “Ko” is an honorific that means “older brother.”

The Myanmar leader was detained in a military coup in February. Military repression has since killed 870 citizens, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a local human rights advocacy group.

“The coup was staged just as awareness of a democratic state was budding in the public’s mind,” Shibuya said. “The attempt to rule over the public in such a violent manner is so insane. As someone who is not a stranger to the development, I have no choice but to give what little support I can give.”

Donations to his Full Moon Foundation, which was set up in April, will be used to provide food to people and other forms of support through a temple in Myanmar.

Call the foundation (080-3845-1750) or contact Shibuya’s Twitter account (@shibuyazarny) for inquiries.

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