What Does Hiroshi Fujiwara even Do?; Multitalented Art Sensation Discusses His Work

By Yasuyuki Kowa / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

16:10 JST, March 21, 2025

Hiroshi Fujiwara has been active on the music scene since the 1980s. He has been a driving force in street culture, with a heavy influence on various fields. His design group Fragment Design has often collaborated with luxury fashion brands. Due to his diverse activities, people often say on social media: “I have no idea what Hiroshi Fujiwara even does.”

I wanted to hear an explanation directly from the source. Though it may be a rude question, I asked Fujiwara, “What do you do?”

“If people say, ‘I don’t know what he does,’ I feel like my branding strategy has been successful,” Fujiwara said with a gentle expression.

Fujiwara is also known as the “King of Street” and the “Godfather of Street Fashion.”

He started as a club disc jockey in the 1980s, formed the Tiny Panx music unit in 1985 and was active in the early days of hip-hop in Japan.

In the 1990s, he played an important role in the “Urahara boom,” a movement that spread urban fashion and culture from Harajuku in Tokyo. He remains a prominent figure in street culture today.

His Fragment Design group has collaborated with high-end brands, such as Louis Vuitton, Bvlgari and Moncler. The group’s sneakers, made in collaboration with Nike, are also very popular.

Early this year, the group, in collaboration with Casio Computer Co., released the Casiotone CT-S1 x Fragment electronic keyboard. Its body only comes in black, and its speaker net is decorated with a black and white hound’s-tooth pattern.

Fujiwara said: “The shape of the product is fixed, so it wasn’t possible to add to its form. I think I was able to make it look different just with accentuation.”

He also said with a smile: “I like playing the keyboard. I think it’s great to have a musical instrument at home. Aren’t Casio instruments great to keep close at hand?”

Music, fashion share similarities

Although Fujiwara is often thought of as a fashion designer, he began his career as a DJ. He says music is still at the root of how he works.

“My approach to music and my approach to fashion are exactly the same,” he said. “My first experience with hip-hop as a teenager greatly influenced me.”

“I love both music and fashion. They are very similar,” he said. “When I wear clothes, I like to combine several different elements I like from this brand and others from that brand, rather than designing something from scratch.”

“The same goes for music. When I create music, I like sampling, rather than creating it from scratch.”

The term “sampling” refers to the technique of creating music by combining parts of other songs or sound sources. Fujiwara also applies this technique to fashion.

He said: “When I design clothes, I think ‘It would be nice if I printed this pattern on that fabric.’”

Fujiwara says he is not interested in “creating something from scratch.” He even said: “There are so many things in the world, I think it’s almost impossible to create something original. If I said, ‘I made a new type of shoes,’ people would say, ‘They’re just sneakers.’”

For that reason, when he designs fashion items and accessories, he does not change their structure. He refines and elaborates parts of the product, incorporates new elements and recombines them. “If people think that process is Hiroshi Fujiwara’s style, I’m honored,” he said.

Sampling revolution

While in elementary school, Fujiwara listened to KC & The Sunshine Band and James Brown. In junior high school, he fell in love with punk rock.

His connections between music and fashion had already been forged in his youth.

Fujiwara was an early fan of clothes by the Seditionaries and the Worlds End brands created by Malcolm McLaren, manager of the British punk band the Sex Pistols, with Vivienne Westwood.

In 1982, Fujiwara visited the U.K. for the first time, met McLaren and the two became friends.

Fujiwara first came across hip-hop in New York, where it had come into vogue. The sampling technique he experienced at that time was “a revolution” that would have a massive impact on his later activities.

After returning to Japan, Fujiwara established his popularity as a DJ by using sampling and the “scratching” technique of rhythmically dragging and pushing records on turntables.

Later, when he entered the fashion industry, he gained popularity with his sampling-style designs based on hip-hop fashion, incorporating punk elements in the early days of his fashion career. This helped contribute to the Urahara boom.

‘I do what I want to do’

What makes him feel his branding is successful, when people say “I don’t know what you do.”

“When I started DJing, there were no multitalented people in the previous generation. The public despised people who tried different things,” Fujiwara said.

Nowadays, it is not unusual for music artists to design clothes or for fashion designers to work in music.

But at that time, pursuing craftsmanship in a single field was highly praised. Fujiwara was against this cultural norm.

“When I was a DJ, I was called a fashion freak who happened to DJ. When I was active in fashion, I was called a DJ who made his living with T-shirts. I felt like I had always been living in that kind of space,” he said.

But the criticism did not make him give up on either field.

“I hate being categorized. I was frustrated. I wanted to be seen as ‘doing what I want to do.’”

Fujiwara takes the rude “I have no idea what you do” remarks with a smile.

That is exactly how he wanted it to be, and people saying that means his branding strategy has been successful.