Popular Amekaji Brands: A Collector’s Directory of Makers and Shops

Amekaji is a wardrobe, and a wardrobe is made of brands. This directory sets out the Japanese names that matter most to collectors of American-casual clothing: the Ivy houses, the select shops that edited the look, the denim makers who reproduced it, and the military and workwear labels that took reproduction to its limit. Each entry gives a founder and a year where the record supports one, and says so where it does not. The story behind the names is in The History of Amekaji.

Ivy houses

• VAN Jacket. Kensuke Ishizu’s company: a shop in Osaka in 1951, the VAN brand in 1954, bankruptcy in 1978. The house taught Japan the Ivy uniform. A successor company, VAN Jacket Shinsha, was founded on 3 December 1980.
• J. Press Japan. The American Ivy tailor licensed to a Japanese partner in 1974, although one account places it about 1972. Onward Kashiyama bought the Japanese business in 1986.
• Brooks Brothers Japan. The first store opened in Aoyama in 1979, so the brand reached its fortieth year in Japan in 2019.
• Polo Ralph Lauren Japan. Licensed to Seibu from 1978.

Select shops

The select shop is Japan’s great retail invention: a store that edits other makers’ goods into a single point of view, and often commissions its own versions.

• Beams. Opened in February 1976 as a small ‘American Life Shop’ in Harajuku. Accounts disagree on whether the founder was Hiroshi Shitara or his father Etsuzo. Beams Plus followed in 1999. Collection
• SHIPS. The company dates from 1975; a Ginza store opened in 1977, and its predecessor was Miura & Sons in Shibuya. Yoshinori Miura is chairman.
• United Arrows. Founded in 1989 by Kamoshita, Kurino and Shigematsu, with a first store in Shibuya in 1990. Collection
• Nepenthes. Keizo Shimizu’s shop, founded in 1988, with a first store in 1989.
• Ron Herman. The Californian select shop; its first Japanese store opened in 2009 under Sazaby League. Collection
• Journal Standard. A Baycrew’s label. Collection

Denim makers

• Big John. Maruo Hifuku of Kojima, widely called the first Japanese jeans maker; Heddels dates its launch to 1967, another account to April 1965. Collection
• Studio D’Artisan. Shigeharu Tagaki, 1979; the DO-1 jeans appeared in 1986. Collection
• Denime. Founded in Kobe by Yoshiyuki Hayashi in 1988. It is not a Yamane brand and it is not from Osaka. Collection
• Evisu. Hidehiko Yamane, 1991, with test pairs made from 1988. Collection · Guide
• Fullcount. Mikiharu Tsujita; accounts give 1993, 1994 or 1995. Collection
• Warehouse. Kenichi and Koji Shiotani, 1995. Collection
• The Flat Head. Masayoshi Kobayashi, 1996. Collection
• Samurai Jeans. Toru Nogami, 1997. Collection
• Pure Blue Japan. Ken-ichi Iwaya, 1997. Collection
• Iron Heart. Shinichi Haraki, 2003; one list says 2002. Collection
• Momotaro Jeans. 2006, or 2005 in one account. Collection
• Kapital. Founded by Toshikiyo Hirata, with a first factory in Kojima in 1984 and the brand formally in 1985. His son Kiro joined in 2002. Collection · Guide

Evisu’s early staff Mikiharu Tsujita and the Shiotani brothers left, according to Heddels, over Yamane’s reluctance to make more accurate reproductions, and went on to found Fullcount and Warehouse. The ‘Osaka Five’ is a shorthand with no known coiner, and its brands do not use it; see The Osaka Five.

Military and workwear

• Toyo Enterprise. Founded by Susumu Kobayashi on 18 November 1965. It launched Sugar Cane in 1975 and Buzz Rickson’s, its military reproduction label, in 1993. Sugar Cane · Buzz Rickson’s
• The Real McCoy’s. Hitoshi Tsujimoto of Kobe, a vintage dealer from 1978 with a shop in the mid-1980s. Collection
• Engineered Garments. Daiki Suzuki, about 1999 and officially 2002, developed with Nepenthes in New York from 1998. Collection
• orSlow and Needles. Two further Japanese labels collected alongside this wardrobe. orSlow · Needles

The American originals

The Japanese makers measured themselves against American houses, and collectors still hunt both. Levi’s and Lee for denim; Avirex, Alpha Industries and Schott for flight jackets and leathers; Lewis Leathers of London for the rider.

Common misattributions

• Toyo Enterprise does not date from 1927; its own page says November 1965.
• Buzz Rickson’s began in 1993, not 1989.
• Denime was Yoshiyuki Hayashi’s, not Yamane’s.
• Evisu’s dated launch is 1991; 1988 is the prototype stage.
• The Real McCoy’s founder is Hitoshi Tsujimoto.
• Shosuke Ishizu is the son of VAN’s founder, not the founder.
• Not every Osaka Five brand is from Osaka.

Why Japan

Reproduction in Japan is a discipline, not a discount. The makers studied the originals closely, and the garments were mostly bought by people who wore them carefully, which is why the archive comes in such good order.

In the archive now

• Amekaji and Wagara · Flight jackets · Evisu · Kapital

Continue reading

• The History of Amekaji
• What Is Amekaji?
• Kojima and Okayama
• Directory of Japanese Denim Brands
• The Fashionista Bible

Looking for a particular label, year or size? Our Hunting Salon™ searches across Japan’s private collector circles on your behalf.

Index terms: amekaji brands · japanese denim brands · japanese select shops · beams history · united arrows · nepenthes · studio d’artisan · evisu founder · warehouse denim · buzz rickson’s · sugar cane · the real mccoy’s · toyo enterprise · kapital founder · japanese reproduction brands