The Goodies Murakami Can't Toss Out: Inside His T-Shirt Collection

Ask most people what Haruki Murakami collects and they'll say jazz records. Fair enough, but there is another pile in that house, and it's made of cotton. Murakami's T-shirt collection is big enough that a magazine once photographed a pile of them, and it eventually inspired a whole series of essays. If you're curious about the everyday habits behind the world-famous novelist, this one is a treat.

The material here comes from a conversation between Murakami and Kunichi Nomura in POPEYE magazine's August issue, plus the T-shirt essays Murakami wrote for that magazine. (Those essays were later gathered into a book, Murakami T, which we think is well worth tracking down.)

A Teenager Without T-Shirts

It's funny to learn that T-shirts barely existed as fashion when Murakami was growing up. Back then, he explains, a T-shirt was underwear: plain, with no words or pictures. Printed shirts started to catch on in the 1970s, with university logos from schools like UCLA and Ivy League colleges, then sports teams like the Yankees, and then rock bands. Murakami says he dressed in the VAN jacket look of the day instead of going for the logo craze.

By the late 1970s, around the time he was writing his first novel, T-shirts had become everyday clothing. Magazines like POPEYE and its American-goods specials helped spread the culture. Murakami was running his jazz bar then, and he bought the magazine to keep in the shop. He remembers the issues being thumbed to pieces by customers.

How Murakami Collects: Thrift Shops and Half-Day Browsing

His method is basically the same as his record-hunting. He doesn't care for nice shirts in nice stores. He prefers secondhand shops, especially American thrift stores such as Goodwill, where he'll happily spend half a day sifting through the racks. He jokes that this is only possible because he's a free man.

Some of his habits:

• Records and record players: a lot of his shirts carry music imagery, because that's the genre he loves.
• Beer and bicycle ads: he has a soft spot for old promotional T-shirts.
• Race shirts: the oldest in his collection is probably the commemorative shirt from the 1983 Honolulu Marathon, his first.
• Rock concert shirts: he started buying these at gigs. He recalls a Jeff Beck shirt that is long gone, and laments that T-shirts are consumables that quietly disappear.

He also owns university shirts picked up during visits to campuses, but admits he feels awkward wearing Harvard or Yale when he didn't attend. A Waseda shirt in Japan is fine, since that is his own school. He says he prefers lesser-known colleges, because it gives strangers a reason to start a conversation.

The Plain White Rule for Portraits

Here is a lovely detail. Murakami says a photographer in the United States once told him that portraits shouldn't be taken in patterned shirts. He showed Murakami a portrait of Truman Capote in a plain T-shirt, and Murakami agreed it looked great. Since then, he wears a plain one for photo shoots. The ideal, he says, is a good rainbow-coloured piece with a perfect collar, though those are hard to keep in shape. Plain shirts from brands like Hanes or Fruit of the Loom have nice necklines, but the good condition rarely lasts.

Shorts, Sneakers and the Emergency Trousers

Murakami wears T-shirts mainly in summer, usually with shorts and sneakers and no socks. He collects shorts too. But when he goes out, he carries a collared shirt and long trousers in his bag in case a dress code appears. He tells a story about being turned away at the entrance of a publishing event in Ginza because of his shorts. He simply pulled trousers from his bag, changed on the spot, and walked in, while everyone watched in shock. He says he picked up the habit from another writer, who does the same at movie previews.

The Shirts He Won't Wear

In the essays, which came out in a book of 18 chapters pairing each shirt with a photo and a short story, he is often funny about the shirts he owns but doesn't wear. Three examples from our drafts:

• The fox shirt: bought without knowing the meme song that made foxes famous around 2013. After watching the video, he decided he didn't like the song and stopped wearing the shirt.
• The monkey George shirt: a cute design, but he says he doesn't have the nerve to walk down Aoyama Street in it. He imagines trying it out in the Bahamas some day.
• The sloth shirt: drawn by the late illustrator Mizumaru Anzai. The creature is labelled in katakana, because otherwise nobody could tell what it is. Murakami admires Anzai's habit of labelling even his portraits, and says women say "cute" when he wears it.

FAQ

Is there a book about Murakami's T-shirts?

Yes. His T-shirt essays from POPEYE were collected as Murakami T, with photos of each shirt. Check the publisher's page for the edition available in your region.

Where does Murakami buy his T-shirts?

Mostly at secondhand and thrift shops, particularly American ones like Goodwill, plus at concerts and races. He says he'd rather find something quirky than shop for brand names.

What does Murakami wear for photos?

A plain T-shirt. A photographer told him that patterns spoil a portrait, and he took the advice.

A Collector's Mind

What I love is that the same instincts show up everywhere in his life: curiosity, patience, a love of the slightly odd, and a very relaxed attitude to status. If you enjoy this side of him, take a look at Haruki Murakami's humble abode too.

Now we want to hear from you: which T-shirt in your drawer could never be thrown out, and what is its story?