// THE SHOTCALLER // Hiroshi Fujiwara

Nike HTM Air Woven boot iDiom jacket from 2004

Unbeknownst to most stateside, the low-key 40-year-old man sitting before me playing his Nintendo DS is the O.G. of Japanese streetwear. That is to say, Hiroshi Fujiwara is your favorite tastemaker's favorite tastemaker. We are with HF in the mountains of Hokkaido, far from Tokyo, where his devotees have been known to bow at his size-nine feet. The DJ-turned-designer pioneered the limited-edition craze in collaborations with Nike (HTM), Burton (iDiom), and Levi's (Fenom), while also developing fly brands of his own like GoodEnough and Head Porter. Along the way, he's made music with Eric Clapton, mentored a kid named Nigo, and even popped up next to Scarlett Johansson in Lost In Translation. In between snowboarding runs and onsen hot springs, the mysterious connoisseur of cool revealed why he doesn't want to tap into anything, but ends up tapping into everything.

What inspires you?

I get inspired by people, by human nature. If I have dinner with you, I get something sometimes. I don't really wanna meet people in a big party because I can't really talk to them, I can't really see how they feel.

It seems like everything you produce is hard to get. Do you think that the limited-edition craze will continue?

I don't think so. People are getting tired of collecting things. People want to buy something they can wear, right now. For me, I don't really collect sneakers. I just like to wear them.

What's next for HTM and Nike?

We're not gonna do retro stuff anymore, like change AF1 colorways, because anyone else can do it. We're just going to do new things.

What's your favorite thing that HTM did?

For me, it was the Desert Woven boot.

You have a new American Apparel–like franchise called Base Station, which is more mass market.

I really wanted to do the platform thing. It's not only T-shirts selling to the consumers, I want to supply them to brands too. Like, for example, if GoodEnough is making T-shirts, they have to buy T-shirts from somewhere to make it. The stores are just the beginning. This year we're gonna do bigger things, like personal order. Say you wanna do your own underwear, maybe like 20 pieces, we're gonna do that kind of thing. I hope I can do it.

A Bathing Ape is a Japanese brand that's gained cachet in the U.S. Does it make you want to blow up in America, too?

No. [Laughs] Bathing Ape is going in a different direction, which I don't go, bigger things like major distribution. I always wanted myself to be independent, underground kind of.  I don't really want to be that famous, I just want to be kind of mysterious.

Do you think American consumers are different from Japanese?

I don't really know about American consumers so much.

So you're not trying to tap into the American market?

I'm not trying to tap into anything. I just find something I like, and I try to show it. Sometimes, it's from my things, sometimes it's got nothing to do with me. You know, deep inside of me, I like to entertain people. My pleasure is to make people happy.

Why did you start web magazine honeyee.com?

I'd been asked for at least four or five years, Why don't you do a website, but I wasn't sure if the Internet was the place for these things. But I spoke to Hiroki [Nakamura] from Visvim and [Hirofumi] Kiyonaga from SOPH., and the three of us were kind of thinking that it was time to do it. People say that I'm showing my private things on my blog, but it's not really true-you can hide anything you want and show everything you want. 

Describe your daily routine.

I go to bed at like 5 or 6 in the morning, and then try to wake up at 11, 11:30. If I don't have any appointments, I go to the office, but usually I have appointments or interviews. And then I go to my studio to do music.

Do you consider yourself a businessman?

Who, me? No, I have a business partner who makes money. I don't even have my bank account information or my bank account stamp that you need to take money out in Japan. I don't even know how much I have.

Tell us about your love life.

I haven't married yet. Maybe if a girlfriend whom I really, really love asked me to marry or otherwise she'd leave, that kind of situation, then I may think about it. But nothing would come from me being married.

Do you want to have children?

No, 'cause it's a risk!

But what about extending your legacy?

I actually always think, I can die today or tomorrow. I mean, I don't want to be killed or get hurt, but if I go to sleep and then don't wake up, that's fine. 'Cause I don't really believe there is another life. If I die, it just ends.

So there is nothing you wish to accomplish still?

Not really.

How much of this was planned?

None. I don't have a business plan. Nike asked me, Levi's asked me. I never said, "I want to work for you." They just asked me, and then yeah, I wanted to do it.

Do you have a mentor?

Hmm, I don't really have [one].

Yet you are a mentor to many.

But I don't know why those young people look up to me. Do they wanna be like me 'cause they don't really know what I'm doing?

What do you think they want?

Honesty.