FEATURE 46 Jun Takahashi, Tetsu Nishiyama, and Seven Samurai

Launching in August 2025, UNDERCOVER + WTAPS = ONE ON ONE is a collaborative project between UNDERCOVER and WTAPS. This collection features T-shirts designed by both brands, themed around Seven Samurai, the timeless masterpiece by director Akira Kurosawa. Longtime friends and frequent collaborators, Jun Takahashi and Tetsu Nishiyama come together once again to discuss Japanese cinema and the culture surrounding it.

“Revisiting Seven Samurai through The Phantom Menace”

You two have collaborated regularly over the years, but why did you choose Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai as the theme this time?

Nishiyama (N)The 2022 ONE ON ONE project got the ball rolling again, and we talked about doing something new together. Jun and I often talk about films, and he was still regularly watching Seven Samurai, saying how it’s still the best movie ever.
Takahashi (T)I think I first saw Seven Samurai in high school. At the time, the length and black-and-white format didn’t really draw me in. But when I watched it properly as an adult, I realized it was an incredible human drama. I regretted not paying attention to it the first time.
N“You also referenced High and Low in UNDERCOVER’s 1999 collection, right?”
T“Yeah, I did.”
N“I remember the smoke coming out of the chimney in that film that really stuck with me.”
T“Right. High and Low is a black-and-white movie, but like Rumble Fish, there’s a scene where just one part is in color. That left a strong impression, so I used it as a motif for a T-shirt. Around that time, I was watching a lot of Kurosawa films like Red Beard. As I grew older and had more life experience, the way I approached films changed compared to when I was a teenager. I think I was able to reach a much deeper level of appreciation.”

After that, when you launched UNDERCOVER’s 2000 SS collection “TEASER,” you incorporated inspiration from Kurosawa films that had influenced you both. This new collaboration comes 25 years later. What drew your attention to Kurosawa’s works back in 2000?

T“ In 1999, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace was released. It blew me away. The fact that Star Wars, which I’d seen as a kid, was starting anew as an adult was shocking enough and then on top of that, it was a prequel? That concept blew my mind.”
N“It felt like a festival.”
T“Totally. And that’s when I learned that George Lucas was heavily influenced by Kurosawa’s films. I went back and rewatched Seven Samurai, and it hit me hard. I felt so proud as a Japanese person to know that a Japanese film had influenced something as huge as Star Wars. At the same time, Tokyo street culture was deeply connected to the U.S. back then. UNDERCOVER wasn’t directly part of that scene, but I watched it from a bit of a distance and thought: why not turn this perspective into a collection? What I was creating straddled both streetwear and high fashion, so I wanted to showcase both sides. It was about mixing American and Japanese films and culture, then filtering all that through my own perspective.”

So the Tokyo/Harajuku scene around 2000, the timing of The Phantom Menace, and the broader context of American culture at that moment all lined up.

T“Exactly. And in that time, we both evolved. Back when we were partying at clubs, we were just kids Tetsu was just a skater, and I was just a punk. Then we started working, and somehow ended up all gathered in Harajuku, building ties with the U.S. TEASER was, I think, an attempt to sum up that evolving relationship a decade later. We were both starting to define the direction of our respective work.”
N“The late ’90s into the early 2000s was a time when we were aggressively outputting ideas directly from the subcultures and countercultures we were absorbing driven purely by impulse.”

What do you think makes Seven Samurai so compelling, especially as the focus of this project?

T“Out of all Kurosawa’s works, Seven Samurai is really at the core for me. It’s deeply human.”
N“It captures human nature and it’s easy to empathize with.”
T“While Toshiro Mifune is the lead, each of the seven samurai has a distinct personality and role, and they’re all balanced so well in the story. The premise of these samurai coming together to protect the villagers, and the way it all ends it’s all so powerful.”
N“The way each character is carefully developed really draws me in emotionally. To me, it’s the ultimate entertainment movie.”
T“Yeah, the entertainment value is incredible. It’s a long film, but there’s no fat, everything has purpose. The structure and flow are simple, but within that, it delivers top-tier storytelling.”
N“And you really feel for the small group of ronin and farmers it’s like an anti-hero narrative.”
T“Even if you already know how it ends, you still want to watch each character closely, feel their emotional shifts, and how their bonds with the villagers deepen. That feeling, it’s irresistible.”

Seven Designs for Seven Days

What is this edition of “UNDERCOVER + WTAPS = ONE ON ONE” about?

T“ It’s a set of T-shirts for each day of the week, Monday through Sunday. We each made three designs, and there’s one shared visual. We expressed Seven Samurai through various graphics. The key point for me was how to portray the characters. But I trust Tetsu’s sense as a graphic designer, no flattery, I really think he’s the best so I left it all up to him. I just focused on incorporating his graphics properly into the clothes. I approached it thinking, “If I were wearing it, I’d want it like this,” and tried expressing that through things like jacquard using photos.”
N“Your version is really refined, Jun.”
T“You think so?”
N“I’m not so sure about mine…”
T“From my perspective, yours feels polished too.”

The models featured in the collection visuals span a wide range of ages.

T“I wanted to create something that could be passed on. Including people we've spent time with until now, and younger people. It was kind of like that. I shot it with a bit of that storyline in mind. It’d be cool if 10 or 20 years from now, they form relationships like we have.”
N“ I’d love for the next generation to watch Seven Samurai too.”
T“They’ll definitely be moved by it. It’s packed with really important things, friendship, how to connect with others.”
N“Watching it in a theater is still the best.”
T“About ten years ago, there was a revival screening of Seven Samurai at TOHO Cinemas. I went and was blown away. There was a 15-minute intermission, and even that break in the middle felt amazing.”

Just like how you, Nishiyama, rediscovered the greatness of Kurosawa films after The Phantom Menace, maybe having some kind of external trigger helps make it more accessible.

T“Yeah, exactly. My kids have seen a lot of Star Wars too. But I really want them to properly watch Japanese films as well.”

Teenage Years Spent Immersed in Japanese Films at the Rental Shop

N“Not just Kurosawa’s films, you’ve always introduced me to all kinds of Japanese movies, Jun. I watched that one again recently, the one where the father and mother become ghosts.”
T“Ah, The Discarnates (Ijin-tachi to no Natsu)?”
N“Yes, that one. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. It was remade overseas recently, right?”
T“Yeah, set in the UK. The original novel was by Taichi Yamada. Morio Kazama was great in it, and (Kataoka) Tsurutaro too—he was amazing. It kind of turns into a weird horror movie at the end though.”
N“The characters start wasting away… But it's still great. Japanese films have something special.”
T“Young people just don’t watch them though.”
N“I guess I didn’t watch them when I was a kid either.”
T“I watched tons of them. Around upper elementary school I got really into Yūsaku Matsuda. There were so many great films in the early ’80s. (Yuya) Uchida was cool too.”
N“ATG stuff too, right? (The Art Theatre Guild, a Toho-affiliated film company active from 1961 to the '80s)—lots of masterpieces.”
T“Yeah. I watched everything—from underground stuff to Kadokawa films. I got hooked. I’d rent tons of tapes and watch them one after the other.”

You like foreign films too, but would you say you mostly chose Japanese films?

T“I definitely watched foreign films too, but Japanese films dominated. When I was little, theaters still did double features. When Akira came out, I was just finishing high school or maybe just starting college. I saw it at a theater near my parents’ house, and it was shown alongside My Neighbor Totoro. Isn’t that wild?”
N“That’s amazing. Getting both Katsuhiro Otomo and Hayao Miyazaki in one go! (laughs)”
T“ I went for Akira, but ended up loving Totoro too. That’s what it was like back then. And you could stay in the theater all day.”
N“Right, no audience turnover system. You could even come in mid-film.”
T“And the pairings were totally random. Some people would stay there from morning to night.”
N“I’d stay and watch the same movie two or three times in one visit.”

That was before the internet too. Nowadays it’s easy to access films online, but maybe fewer chances to enjoy movies as a full experience.

N“Going to a rental shop was part of that experience. Jun, did you go to DORAMA in Ōhashi (in Meguro)? There was an Art Coffee in Higashiyama, and across from that was a DORAMA rental shop. Remember it?”
T“Hmm… was it there? I lived around there, but...”
N“I think your regular spot was probably the DORAMA on Yamate-dōri in Ōhashi.”
T“Then yeah, I definitely went. That would’ve been my era. And of course, I’d get hit with late fees.”
N“And the staff would scold you: “Please rewind the tape!” You had to rewind VHS tapes before returning them, but you’d forget. I hated getting in trouble for that.”
T““Rewind”? What even is that? (laughs) But seriously, going to a store, picking out something, and renting it, it really was a different time.”
N“But it was such a great experience. Going with friends, debating over the spines of the tape boxes...”
T“Still, kids today do go to the movies. I’m happy that the feeling of that kind of experience still survives in some way.”
Jun Takahashi Born in 1969. Fashion designer. He launched UNDERCOVER in 1990 while studying at Bunka Fashion College. In 1997, he received the Mainichi Fashion Grand Prix Newcomer Award, and in 2001, the Mainichi Fashion Grand Prix from the Mainichi Newspapers. Since 2002, he has participated in Paris Fashion Week. In 2023, he held his first solo exhibition of oil paintings—originally a personal hobby—in Tokyo, followed by another in Hong Kong in October 2024.

Tetsu Nishiyama a.k.a. TET Born in 1974, Tokyo native. Director of WTAPS. Currently writes the serial column “Tetsu’s Room” in the magazine POPEYE published by Magazine House.
251ZUUCD-CSM01S
Seven Samurai BOX SET TEE / BOX TEE / COTTON. UNDERCOVER
COLOR: BLACK
SIZE: 01 (SMALL) / 02 (MEDIUM) / 03 (LARGE) / 04 (X-LARGE)
¥170,000 (+Tax) Limited quantity (50 pieces) / Includes a catalog with serial number
Available only at W_Lab® TOKYO and UNDERCOVER Aoyama flagship store
251ZUUCD-SHM01S
TXT / SS / COTTON. BROADCLOTH. TEXTILE. UNDERCOVER
COLOR: BLUE
SIZE: 01 (SMALL) / 02 (MEDIUM) / 03 (LARGE) / 04 (X-LARGE)
¥50,000 (+Tax)
251ZUUCD-CSM02S
Seven Samurai / SS / COTTON. UNDERCOVER
COLOR: IVORY
SIZE: 01 (SMALL) / 02 (MEDIUM) / 03 (LARGE) / 04 (X-LARGE)
¥18,000 (+Tax)
251ZUUCD-CSM03S
K.S / SS / COTTON. UNDERCOVER
COLOR: MINT
SIZE: 01 (SMALL) / 02 (MEDIUM) / 03 (LARGE) / 04 (X-LARGE)
¥18,000 (+Tax)
251ZUUCD-CSM04S
Maai / SS / COTTON. UNDERCOVER
COLOR: PURPLE
SIZE: 01 (SMALL) / 02 (MEDIUM) / 03 (LARGE) / 04 (X-LARGE)
¥23,000 (+Tax)
251ZUUCD-CSM05S
The One / SS / COTTON. UNDERCOVER
COLOR: BLUE GRAY
SIZE: 01 (SMALL) / 02 (MEDIUM) / 03 (LARGE) / 04 (X-LARGE)
¥20,000 (+Tax)
251ZUUCD-CSM06S
Individuality / SS / COTTON. UNDERCOVER
COLOR: CHARCOAL
SIZE: 01 (SMALL) / 02 (MEDIUM) / 03 (LARGE) / 04 (X-LARGE)
¥18,000 (+Tax)
251ZUUCD-CSM07S
Squad / SS / COTTON. UNDERCOVER
COLOR: ORANGE
SIZE: 01 (SMALL) / 02 (MEDIUM) / 03 (LARGE) / 04 (X-LARGE)
¥20,000 (+Tax)
251ZUUCD-PTM01S
SDDS2001 / SHORTS / COTTON. BROADCLOTH. TEXTILE. UNDERCOVER
COLOR: BLUE
SIZE: 01 (SMALL) / 02 (MEDIUM) / 03 (LARGE) / 04 (X-LARGE)
¥38,000 (+Tax)
251ZUUCD-HT01S
T-6M / CAP / CTPL. TWILL. UNDERCOVER
COLOR: BLACK, OLIVE DRAB
SIZE: FITS ALL
¥15,000 (+Tax)
251ZUUCD-CG01S
GYM SACK / BAG / NYCO. WEATHER. UNDERCOVER
COLOR: BLACK
SIZE: FITS ALL
¥8,500 (+Tax)

© TOHO CO., LTD.
© Kurosawa Production Co., Ltd.
© Mifune Productions Co., Ltd.

Release Date
Saturday, August 2, 2025
Participating stores (excluding the limited BOX set):
WTAPS ONLINE STORE / WTAPS® (W_Lab) stores / HOODS stores / Stores carrying UNDERCOVER

WTAPS ONLINE STORE will begin general sales from 12:00 PM on Saturday, August 2. Please note that high traffic may cause difficulties accessing the site.
At WTAPS® (W_Lab) AOYAMA, an entry lottery will be held at 10:00 AM on the same day.
At WTAPS® (W_Lab) KYOTO, the lottery will begin at 11:30 AM.
Customers who arrive after the lottery time will not be eligible to participate for any reason, so please be careful.
Other stores besides WTAPS® (W_Lab) locations will also conduct entry lotteries. For details, please contact each store directly.
Sales may change or end without prior notice.
For information about stores carrying UNDERCOVER and their sales methods, please contact UNDERCOVER directly.
VIEW ALL