Toshiya Kubo consistently gravitates to the peripheral. As a teenager, while his friends rushed to buy Beatles records, Kubo searched for lesser-known musicians; the mainstream in media flocked to Tokyo while Kubo preferred Hokkaido, the prefecture of his birth; producers look toward feature films as the pinnacle of success while Kubo favors shorts as "the purest origins of film."

"It always felt more meaningful for me to support the underdog. I think it is dangerous for people to lean toward one side only," he says. "Maybe what I want to do is balance out the world."

Kubo, 56, laughingly calls himself an amanojaku (contrarian) in Japanese but he chose a more positive, English equivalent to name his company. As a creative consultant and film producer, university lecturer and founder of Maverick Creative Works, Kubo forges a road not yet imagined out of tumbleweeds and possibility, a nod to independent spirits worldwide. His dream: to hammer out new paths to creativity in Japan.