Kosuke Kawamura's "T-shirts are life."
-Vol.03- AMOK BOOKS T-shirt

This originally belonged to (Masaya) Nakahara (an artist who transcends genres, including novelist, musician, and painter, and is an important figure for those into subculture). I've known him for a really long time, in fact, it's probably my longest relationship with him. When Nakahara fell ill, we sold his personal T-shirts as a charity. An announcement was made online, and Nakahara apparently said, "Please don't sell this AMOK BOOKS T-shirt," so Yamabe from LOS APSON (currently a shop in Koenji that sells music and zines from around the world) said, "Please don't sell that one of Nakahara's." I was like, "Wow, I really want it!" so when I met Nakahara, I asked him, "I really want that AMOK BOOKS T-shirt. Can I buy it?" and he said, "Sure, if it's Kawamura-kun." They sold it to me together with about five other T-shirts.

Nakahara-san was writing for an ultra-independent horror film label, where I was first asked to do packaging for DVDs and such when I was about 21 years old. We met there, and have known each other ever since. For about 17 years, until I was about 37 or 38, I always spent New Year's with Nakahara-san. When I was about 21, we were drinking in Shinjuku's Golden Gai, and he asked me, "Aren't you going back to your parents' house (for the New Year)?" I answered, "I don't have any money, so I can't go back," and he asked, "Are you serious?? So you're in Tokyo for New Year's?" I replied, "I'll be bored in Tokyo," and we'd meet up on December 31st and go to events and stuff, and when the new year rolled around, we'd go to Hatonomori Shrine in Sendagaya for our first visit of the year, say, "Well, I look forward to seeing you again this year," and then part ways around 8am (laughs).

Around that time, Nakahara had just transitioned from his activities as Violent Onsen Geisha to Hair Stylistics (this is the name Nakahara Masaya uses when he's active as a musician; he's released over 200 CD-R series titles to date!), and we went to a show together in Osaka and became closer. One day, Nakahara's book "The Diary of a Violent Man Read by a Kitten" was going to be released in paperback. I'd never designed a book before, but an editor at Kawade Shobo suddenly contacted me, saying, "Nakahara has asked me to design his paperback. Would you be willing?" They knew I had absolutely no money, so they gave me the job. I still remembered the fee, which was 50,000 yen. I'd never received 50,000 yen at the time, so I was like, "Whaaat?!" Thanks to Nakahara, I started the year with no financial worries.