Dissecting Ura-Harajuku: A Reference
Ura-Harajuku, or Urahara, means the back of Harajuku: the lanes behind the main street and along Cat Street, where from the early 1990s a small circle of friends made labels that changed streetwear everywhere. This reference takes the district apart into its people, its shops and its dates, and keeps the places where accounts disagree in view.
This page belongs to the Reference Shelf of The Fashionista Bible. Dates are checked against published accounts, and where accounts disagree the page says so.
Where and what
Ura-Harajuku lies in the backstreets of Harajuku; Cat Street, which runs between Omotesando and Shibuya, housed vintage shops, galleries and independent boutiques. The movement’s name is a contraction of the district. The map, label by label, is in Ura-Harajuku: A Reader’s Guide.
Anatomy of a scene
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The older brother. Hiroshi Fujiwara returned to Tokyo in 1981 after time in London and New York. In 1988 he co-founded the Major Force label and began the Last Orgy column in Takarajima. His label Goodenough began in 1990.
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The shop. Nowhere opened on 1 April 1993, started by Nigo with Jun Takahashi. It was deliberately vaguely named and easy to miss.
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The label as T-shirt. Nigo’s half of Nowhere sold graphic T-shirts, which became A Bathing Ape. See The Origins of BAPE.
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The label as runway. Undercover, Jun Takahashi’s label, showed for the first time for autumn/winter 1994. See Who Is Jun Takahashi?.
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The neighbours. Neighborhood and AFFA date from 1994. Neighborhood’s founder, Shinsuke Takizawa, took the district’s name for his label; its designs drew on motorcycle and heavy-metal Americana. Hysteric Glamour was founded by Nobuhiko Kitamura around rock, and is dated 1984 in our record. WTAPS, visvim, N.HOOLYWOOD, SOPHNET. and WACKO MARIA follow.
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The media. A column, a record label and the street-snap magazines carried the scene beyond its lanes. See the magazines bible.
When it ended, if it did
Opinion divides. One designer interviewed by Collater.al holds that the sale of A Bathing Ape to the Hong Kong group I.T in 2011 marked the end; another says it ended earlier, when computer-aided design arrived. A third account describes the neighbourhood as still active, with new designers, pop-ups and street art, and names C.E (Cav Empt) as pushing its legacy forward. We follow the third view: the district kept going, and its first generation moved indoors.
Thesis Discussion
Ura-Harajuku is the thesis’s third verb, join, in a handful of lanes. The brands were not rivals. They shared friends, shops, models, music and, often, products, and the collaboration was how the scene became legible to strangers. A T-shirt made by one label and sold in another’s shop is the join at its smallest.
It also shows keeping. Scarcity here was a method rather than an accident: small runs, vague shop names and archive-minded followers made objects that are catalogued and graded today. The back lanes therefore sit in the portal as a database of dated events as much as a style. See The Japonista Thesis and The Fujiwara Orbit.
Related Articles
In the Archive
Goodenough · Fragment Design · BAPE (A Bathing Ape) · NIGO · UNDERCOVER · NEIGHBORHOOD · WTAPS · Hysteric Glamour · VISVIM · Number (N)ine
Read on: Encyclopedia: Ura-Harajuku · BAPE · Takahashi · Tokyo shops · Fashionista Bible · collector guides
The Hunting Salon™
If you are looking for early back-lane pieces such as Goodenough, early Undercover or a first-run Nowhere T-shirt, label era and season detail are part of the search. The Hunting Salon™ can assist discreetly with search, verification and shipping.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Urahara mean?
A contraction of Ura-Harajuku, the back of Harajuku.
Who started it?
No single founder. Fujiwara’s Goodenough (1990), Nowhere (1993) and A Bathing Ape (1993) are its usual markers.
Is Ura-Harajuku over?
Opinions differ; some date its end to 2011 and others see it continuing.
Where does the history begin?
The Reader’s Guide linked above sets nineteen labels in the order of their beginnings.
Notes on Dates
Undercover is dated 1990, 1993 or 1994 in different accounts. Hysteric Glamour is dated 1984 in our record, and one account places it soon after Neighborhood, which would be later. Fujiwara’s Goodenough is called an early-1990s label in several accounts and 1990 in our record.
This volume belongs to the Japonista Universe, Volume VII. The argument behind it is set out in The Japonista Thesis.
Index terms: ura-harajuku history · urahara · cat street harajuku · nowhere shop 1993 · hiroshi fujiwara · goodenough · last orgy · harajuku streetwear origins · back lanes harajuku · a bathing ape · undercover
