I t may be time to stop calling the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami “reclusive” . Over the last few years, he has become a radio show host , a sort of literary agony uncle , and now a fashion icon, having collaborated on his own T-shirt line at Uniqlo .
The eight graphic T-shirts, which will go on sale in mid-March, feature all of the author’s favourite things: cats, birds, records, men sitting in bars ( but not ears , for which he has shown a fascination). Delightfully, Murakami has given a lengthy interview to Uniqlo about his own fashion choices. “I try to wear plain clothes, the simpler the better. Jeans and a T-shirt, with a sweatshirt or sweater. Since I don’t need to show up at an office, I could wear anything I like. But I always wind up wearing the same thing. I’m not sure I can say why that is,” he reveals, somewhat unrevealingly.
From why he always wore ties when living in Italy (“you would get these dirty looks if you weren’t”) to what makes a person stylish (“I think it’s great when somebody can make everyday clothes look comfortable”), it turns out Murakami has more to say about fashion than you might imagine. Perhaps the most intriguing revelation is his habit of carrying around a spare pair of trousers, getting the idea from the novelist Komimasa Tanaka, who shared his love of shorts.
“One time I got invited to a traditional restaurant in Ginza, but when I showed up dressed like that the host stopped me at the door and said, ‘No shorts allowed.’ … Luckily, I always pack a loose pair of pants in my bag for this very situation, so I put them on over my shorts and we were back on track. The host could not believe what they were seeing,” Murakami said.
For the multitudes whose appetite for details about Murakami’s wardrobe is not sated by Uniqlo’s interview, in November, Murakami T: The T-Shirts I Love will be published. In it, the “famously reclusive novelist” (ahem) will show off his T-shirts, “including gems from the Springsteen on Broadway show in NYC, from the Beach Boys concert in Honolulu to the shirt that inspired the beloved short story, Tony Takitani,” says US publisher Knopf . “Accompanied by short, frank essays that have been translated into English for the first time, these photographs reveal much about Murakami’s multifaceted and wonderfully eccentric persona.”
Murakami writing about running was nothing if not wonderful , and the thought of the superstar author hopping into his rucksack trousers outside a fancy restaurant is absolutely joyful – so the perennial Nobel favourite’s ode to the tee is bound to be another treasure.
Asked whether he still sees himself as a private person, given that he has donated a vast collection of his belongings including tens of thousands of records to Tokyo’s Waseda University, which is now constructing the Haruki Murakami Library , Murakami said no.
The Guardian view on modern writers: the myth of the reclusive author | Editorial Read more “My position has gradually changed over the years. I used to be content doing my own thing, but as I’ve grown older and gained a moderate degree of social standing, I’ve started feeling like I need to live up to my responsibilities,” he says. “After all the years that I spent living overseas, I may call myself a private person and say I can be anywhere, but increasingly a part of me wants to embrace my identity as a Japanese author. That mounting sense of urgency, the need to settle into this position, was another motivation for creating the library.”
There you have it. Murakami: not so reclusive after all.
