When I was 18 years old, I came to Tokyo from my hometown, Ise, in the countryside. I'd always been really inspired by fashion and music, especially when punk came out in '76 or '77.
Hiroshi FujiwaraThe biggest reason was that when I started deejaying, I'd said that the other DJs in Japan were like salaried employees who I really didn't want to emulate because they didn't even know the titles of the songs they were playing - just that they were playing a hot track or whatever - which I didn't appreciate at all. I realized that I had become just like the kind of DJ that I used to hate, with no knowledge, so I decided that I needed to be honest with myself and quit.
Hiroshi FujiwaraI think we're at the end of all the revivals. People would forget about punk for a while, and then a magazine would do a special issue on the 10th anniversary of punk, for example, and bring it back. But now you can find collectors or friends with the same interest through the Internet at any time, so nothing is ever really gone. Everything is always there.
Hiroshi FujiwaraI actually came from the fashion side, so maybe I knew more about fashion - and music like hip-hop because I was a DJ - so it was really successful when we mixed it all up together.
Hiroshi FujiwaraI'd been asked by Takashi Murakami to collaborate on something, which was an honor for me. I was really pleased. And then he had me as a guest speaker on his radio show, and we were talking about art. I don't think he knew I was interested in the topic - he was really surprised to find out that I own some original Andy Warhol and Gerhard Richter and Jean-Michel Basquiat works. So, in some ways, I think he simply wanted to see what I have.
Hiroshi Fujiwara