After Kurt Cobain's suicide in 1994, grunge rock began to become popular in Japan, later than in the United States. The first song I listened to was definitely "Smells Like Teen Spirit" during the mid 90's. Around that time, I was in my late teens and I forgot if it was Tower Records, but I got captivated by the PV on the store monitor. The picture was so dim that it hurt your eyes. Suffocating and musty. A cheerleader and a cleaning man who were disproportionately huge compared to a small room they were in. The eerie situation left only a negative impression on me. But the vocals were beautiful! Long hair drummer, the screaming vocalist shaking his hair absent-mindedly. There was no doubt that something that I didn't even know before was hidden inside me rather than on the outside, and I was shocked. After that I started searching for their albums. After learning about "All apologies" for the first time my rock life really began.

When I was in my early teens, I used to play ollies and flips on my skateboard every day. The only small surf shop in a small country town was decorated with t-shirts that I didn't even know the name of, and I had a stronger admiration than skateboarding. When I was 19, I saw a t-shirt on display at a vintage shop in Tokyo that I didn't even know the name of. It was STUSSY. The price was 50,000 yen, and I clearly remember my surprise. I gave up once and left the store, but I really wanted to get it, so I borrowed money and rushed back to buy it, but it was already sold. I remember being at a loss as I was stunned and filled with regret, feeling like I had made an irreversible mistake. From then my obsession with Vintage t-shirts awakened.

The reason why I don't buy shirts other than Nirvana is that I don't have enough money to buy all the shirts out there due to the soaring prices of vintage stuff. I really want to buy more and more, but I've learned patience.

5-10 years ago, 10-20% of t-shirt purchases were from Japanese auctions, and most of the others were from eBay. At that time, even more than now, I was thinking only about tees all the time. I watched auctions a lot, gathered information, and was always on the lookout for new items, getting as many t-shirts I had never seen or owned as possible. From that time on, I started preparing to become the number one collector of Nirvana t-shirts. Since I started collecting Nirvana in earnest, I hardly buy anything from vintage shops. I remember only one instance. In recent years, of course, I use eBay, but more and more of my purchases are made through Instagram. In the past, t-shirts that I used to frantically search for are now coming to me naturally. A lot of items and information on them just naturally come to me every day. That's something I should be very grateful for and I'm grateful for indeed.

I think it's probably over $70k now. I haven't counted the number of shirts exactly, but I think it's around 150-200.

Something about $60 and $6500 at current exchange rate respectively

Similar to "Smiley", "Vestibule" is famous for its highly recognizable design that represents Nirvana, but there are several patterns to it. A frequently seen "Vestibule" is a white print on a black body. The rare "Vestibule" has a white body, and the rarest of them is a t-shirt with a colorful gradient print. My latest grail is this. It's a very rare shirt with the original back print printed on the front. Purchased in 1992 at a stationery and music store in France.

The vintage t-shirts I collect must be in satisfactory condition and suitable size if they're worn by me. Having a proper tag is also important. No matter how rare the t-shirt is, if it's in bad condition I don't buy it as well as I don't buy tees that are too small. Money is, of course, necessary to support your life, but I believe that there are more important things than money you should strive for in order to enrich your life. Everyone has different values, obviously. In my case, no vintage t-shirts means no life. So now every day shines to me.

I still have a list of about 10 t-shirts that I want. For example "In Utero" one. There's a joke t-shirt that says "It's not a Bon Jovi concert". I'm looking for it all the time. I have had the opportunity to purchase it several times, but I still do not have it because it was not in the condition I wanted. Even if I have the chance to get one, I will not buy it if it is too expensive or if the source of the t-shirt is questionable. Bon Jovi t-shirts are one of my favorites because they have a particular humor to them.

My inspiration is my own passion for t-shirts. If you have passion for anything and the higher your level of passion, the more naturally you will be able to receive inspiration.

Knowledge of vintage stuff is very important. Your collection of t-shirts may turn out to not be legit if you're not knowledgeable enough. Fake, reprinted tees are very common on the market. Even good sellers may not realize it's fake. There are few opportunities to actually pick up vintage items and inspect them yourself. Rare t-shirts rarely arrive in the shops and are most probably not displayed to the wide public. Most of the buyers make purchase decisions through the internet based on image judgment and creditworthiness of the store and the store worker. However, it would be difficult for the store and staff to confirm that the shirt isn't fake unless they have had the opportunity to actually touch it. Modern fakes are often well made which complicates the process. The market is flooded with counterfeits where even experienced sellers have no doubt that the item is legit. Please keep in mind that rare t-shirts are rarely available to the public. Counterfeit sellers often sell t-shirts on the assumption that the buyer cannot distinguish the real thing from fake, which is an important thing to keep in mind. Acquiring knowledge is very difficult but always pays off.