The Japanese port town of his youth and New York City share the same latitude—a serendipitous thread of fate that fuels his creative drive. The Singer sewing machine, born in New York, embodies the pinnacle of industrial design and functional beauty. With it, he pays homage to vintage denim, embedding the pulse of Gold Rush laborers and Japanese artisans into every stitch. From a collection of over 100 black sewing machines, he handpicked 15, each with its own distinct “voice.” One, revived in Osaka, mirrors the model used in Levi’s early factories, its needle carrying the dreams of immigrants and the legacy of denim.
Using an authentic American factory cutting table, chair, lights, and tools, he transforms the act of sewing jeans into a ritual that transcends creation, set against the backdrop of industrial history. When he became an American citizen, he adopted “Singer” as his middle name—a nod to the New York-born machine and a symbol of his fusion with its industrial aesthetic, immersing himself fully in his craft. The fuzzy raw denim feels soft and forgiving, each subtle waver in the stitching infused with his breath and memories.
As the creaking stairs of the nagaya whisper Japanese tradition and New York’s heartbeat pulses with metropolitan experimentation, these jeans become a vessel for labor, travel, and dreams, transcending time and place. In the stillness of the nagaya, the rhythm of the sewing machine crafts an art piece—a bridge between past and present. Touch the fabric, feel the history woven into every stitch.
