Tell us first, now that you’re skating with Autobahn Wheels, how did this charity project to help Japan after the March 11th earthquake come together?

When the March 11th earthquake hit in Japan, I could’t believe the devastation Japan suffered nor did I ever expected something like this could happen. I thought it was a nightmare but it was definitely real. At the same time, Jason Rogers at Autobahn heard the news and then sent me an e-mail in which he suggested making a Japan Disaster Relief Wheel model. Soon after, we put some video footage I had into the commercial to get the word out. After that, I thought if we could give some relief to the victims of this disaster it’d be a great contribution from skateboarding. I know I couldn’t have done it myself but with the mutual concern of others, it all worked out so a big thanks to Autobahn wheels. Now, I’m sure that skateboarders and skate companies can make other social contributions and if we all keep going- it’d be awesome. From now on, another friend and I plan to keep trying to organize some demos for the disaster relief on as much of a regular basis as we can. So again, I really appreciate everyone who helped me out to coordinate all of these projects.

You’ve been traveling, so what have you been up to recently?

Well, recently not that much but I usually go abroad for like almost a half year every year. I went to California from last September to last December and just cruised around SF, LA and Costa Mesa, where the Volcom skate house is, then Carlsbad and San Diego. When I stay in Cali, I always tried to get in touch with my friends who are pro and go film or shoot some photos and hang out. There are also a lots of amazing skateboarders out in Cali so I’m enjoying skating with them or just watching how they skate [laughs].

How has it been living abroad? Do you feel settled in the US or do you feel like you are constantly on tour?

Every time I go or stay in California it feels like “I’m on tour” so when I stay in any place, I always meet up with a photographer or skate friend to session every single day. So, I like living in my hometown of Tokyo too but also staying in the other countries since they offer different experiences and happenings than Tokyo. I used to live in North America and Australia so I’m always looking forward to seeing friends there and meeting new people. But the mix of it all balances out.

Sorry, but we have to ask- how did you get started skating?

When I was like a 13 or 14 years old, my cousin was a snowboarder and would take me with him and after that, I started skating then I watched my first skate video at the local skate shop and that just amazed me. I remember which video too- it was Rodney Mullen vs Daewon Song and Mouse (produced by Girl Skateboards). So that blew my mind and I decide to switch to skating. I thought skateboarding was all about the street and that skaters had little regard for anything on street and also, I had never seen people skating like that on streets in Japan. I ended up going crazy on skateboarding and going out every single day- those were the good old times.

and then you ended up getting sponsored…

Yeah, I always skated with Junosuke Yonesaka, Shin Okada and the Volcom guys in Tokyo and they started to hook me up and flowed me some products when I was 16 or 17 years old. At the same time, I skated and drank with my Canadian, Australian and American friends in Tokyo, so they taught me how to speak English. Then one of the guys in my crew hooked me up Modus bearings from Australia so I’ve been grateful for all the support I got. I did’t expect to get sponsored at the time so I was super excited.

What are your thoughts on the skate scene in Japan and for foreigners looking up skating in Japan, what should they know?

Well, I guess the skate scene in Japan will keep getting bigger and bigger for sure. Now, there are a lot of good skate parks in Tokyo and all over Japan that include all the familiar things from the real world of street skating and that will help skaters keep growing and reaching the next level. I also think skateboarding is getting more and more globalized, so I hope that this new wave will raise the popularity of the skateboarding culture more and more in Japan and all over Asia. I think the young guns will make it big internationally if they try hard. Look out for Kota, Ace, Ryou and Shogo- they are intense, got the style and yeah, they are my favorite skaters! As far as actually skating here, I think that the many tough spots and variety of spots we have here in Tokyo and Japan are good points. The street spots are not perfect like in California, I mean here, the street spots in Japan are cracking and not as smooth like in Cali.

Skateboarding became a multi-million dollar industry in the US, do you think Japanese skaters have to go to LA “to make it”?

Well, most of the skate industry is on the West coast but it doesn’t really matter since there are a lot of great skaters coming out from all over the world. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are from anymore- you just have to be a nice and modest person and show your skating skills. There’s lots of ways to approach skateboarding but one thing I know is that I don’t want to forget that our love of skateboarding is at the core of what I, and we all, do.

So what do you have coming up in 2011, what do you want to set out to do?

Well, in May, when I was skating in a pool, I got stuck on some coping and fell into the bottom of the pool and landed on my head. I felt OK at the time but then, just in case, I went to the hospital, and the doctors told me my skull was cracked and there was a little bleeding in my brain. Luckily, the bleeding stopped but it actually freaked me out a lot so now I just want to keep going at my own pace and take care of my head first. Well, after my head recovers, I really want to get back on board as soon as possible, then I will plan to go to California for the summer. That’s the skate life, I’m going to keep going, filming my video parts and photos and improving every day as much as I can.

Definitely. Anything else?

Oh yeah, I also want to quickly mention www.modusfamily.com, www.volcom.jp and www.dcshoes.jp

Thanks and Respect Buchi!

Buchi can usually be seen skating at the new Miyashita Koen skatepark in Shibuya, Tokyo.

From its heyday as one of the initial start up skate companies in Tokyo, Otaki has remained at the helm of T-19 Skateboards and ensured the company and team remain no less creative, defiant and community-focused. When I spent time with Otaki at the T-19 house in Setagaya, what came to the fore of my mind as the history unravelled and our conversation progressed? ‘Family.’  All the anecdotes, pictures on the walls- the house itself- seemed to echo it. So did the team hanging out and chattering in the kitchen, having drinks and eating together- or the bedrooms which were compartmentalized by operational tasks of the company- sleeping included. 

Perhaps ‘family’ is a word less often associated with skateboarding than words like ‘trick’ or ‘photography,’ ‘gnarly’ or even ‘cops’ but when spending time at the house with Otaki made it clear: T-19 has history and community at its core.  Otaki has been more than just involved in the skate community in Tokyo, he practically helped build and nurture it- the network, the actual skate decks, the first skate parks (with city cooperation), cross-pacific relations as well as a sense of camaraderie and respect. It was Papersky’s pleasure to hang out at the T-19 house for some story time with Otaki-san. 

“You see, back in ’86, there was barely anyone left skating in the streets, you could sense the first skate bubble beginning to deflate. If you brought your skateboard to school you pretty much got made fun for still riding one. People realized it was just a fad but we would keep reading through issues of Thrasher, get excited and then go skate off of that. I remember you could smell signs of a new generation, and that meant a new direction. Some friends and I were skating in the streets of Tokyo but it felt like there were only five skaters in Tokyo. Just us. So after school we would go meet up in Harajuku where there was a Murasaki sports shop. That was it so that’s where we would go. People were also skating in other areas like, in Yoyogi it was more slalom-focused skaters while other kids were skating in kyosho tengoku, the pedestrian areas created by blocked-off roads.”  

Fast forward a bit and Otaki eventually got sponsored to skate and entered a few contests in North Tokyo. ”I remember it was sponsored by the skate shop Max Motion in Ueno, Betties- a surf store in Shonan and Murasaki Sports. I was skating more of a street style but soon after I dropped out of these more formal competitions.” Then, in a life-changing move, Otaki ended up moving to Venice, California on somewhat of a whim. “The owner of Betties was going to California a lot and was filming skaters out there. After watching some of that video footage- I knew that’s where I wanted to go and so that’s what I felt I had to do. I actually stayed at Jim Miur‘s house (of Dogtown and Z Boys fame) and he gave me a job in the factory. Then, I started working for a distributor and made friends with some California, skater-run companies like Real and Anti-Hero.” 

In a way, Otaki, sparked a Venice-Tokyo connection and eventually made his way back to Tokyo.  ”I have to say that there was too much drinking and drugs going on around Venice at that time and that was one reason why I decided to come back. I came back without any money left and found that things had changed in Tokyo- and I had little friends left.  For those two or three years, I had been doing a job silkscreening at the Dogtown factory so when I came back I tried to look for a similar job but couldn’t find it. I got pretty down and felt my dream had slipped out of my hands in a way. I stopped skating.”

Around the same time, Otaki met up with illustrious Japanese skater at the time, known to most as Akiyama who was the owner of the shop BeInworks. “He was skating for a surf company back in 1975 and 1976 and would go to the US for slalom-based competitions. With his younger brother Katsu, who had actually come to visit me in California, they started the first skater-run company in Japan and started up a distribution company with the same name and it’s still running to this day. Katsu called me and said he had heard that I had stopped skating and told me that he was starting up a new company so we started talking ideas. I wasn’t pro then and didn’t get cash from companies but was in a bunch of magazines. We ended up coming up with the name Tokyo Skates. S is the 19th letter of the alphabet so we just changed it to T-19.”

“So like I said, I tried to make T-19 something ‘local’ for Tokyo- for who we were. I wanted to do that here.  It was our community, and not only skaters- graffiti writers and BMX riders were in the mix too. When I first started pressing the boards, at runs of one hundred at a time, I had managed to get two riders on the team and we all rode the same team board. That was the only one I made- it had the Beinworks and T-19 logo handwritten. The original logo was made by Sk8Thing, who most people now know as the designer of A Bathing Ape.   Sk8thing also made original patterns for us. Sk8thing and the original two riders, are still riding for T-19 to this day. Whenever I cruise through Harajuku, I can still see pretty much everyone I know- it’s definitely a family feeling. Here at the T-19 office, I sometimes make dinner here. People come over and hang out and watch videos together or catch up on what’s going on; the barbecues can get pretty out of hand ya know [laughs].”

“For four years I was at BeinWorks, which had their office close to Setagaya. So the local skaters would skate in the open spaces of Setagaya park. Local skaters were allowed to skate there but then we lost the right, we talked to the city government over and over. It turned into this back and forth thing, one year we were allowed to skate there and then for some months we would lose the right again. For about ten years, this has been going on. It eventually turned into a skateboard school because we weren’t allowed to skate there. In a way, I mentored this young guy Rikiya, who had wanted to secure skating in the park and starting up a school, and I told him he had to start the park and school there.  Through the bureaucracy, we secured it and now every second Sunday of the month we have kids young and old, supportive parents, boys and girls in their teens coming out. It’s at about 70 kids each time and the skate school is up and running. On opening day we did a demo, but we ended up finishing up really quickly since all the kids were really clamoring to skate; they were clawing at the chance and I was so glad to see that it’s still that way around here. 

The Otaki-driven Setagaya Skate Park, where the Skate School takes place, are located in Setagaya Park.

T-19′s online home is at http://www.t19skateboards.com

トミーは成功の波に乗りながら、スケートボードとともに情熱を抱いていた音楽にものめりこむようになった。トミーにとって、スケートボードと音楽はたえずリンクしているものであり、自らの表現方法として切り離せないものだった。「音楽は、日常で味わう苦しみや衝撃から解放してくれるものだよね。リラックスする手段でもあり、自分を解き放ち、本能的に考えをめぐらせることもできる」

そんなトミーが最初にギターを手にしたのは十代のころ。
「兄貴が友だちとパンクバンドを組んでたんだ。当時パンクバンドといったら、スケートボーダーと同じくらい反社会的な存在だったんだよ」
ところが、最初に手にしたギターはトミーにとってどうでもいいものであったらしく、彼は当時のギターをクズ同然のものであったと苦笑気味に語り、最初にきちんと演奏した楽器はフェンダーのベース、ミュージック・マスターだと言う。90年代まではおもにベースを演奏し、その後ギターに持ち替え、現在のスタイルの音楽をつくりはじめた。
「いつもメロディーが頭のなかで鳴っているんだけど、僕はシンガー体質じゃないんで、ギターでそのメロディーを奏でるようになった。で、ギタリストとして名前が知られるようになってきたんだ。でもいまだに、僕は自分のことをベーシストであるとも思ってる」

スケートロックバンドから、ここ数年は実験的な音楽に方向転換したが、ソロ作である『Year of The Monkey (2005, Galaxia Records) 』や 『Soul Food Taqueria (2003, Mo’Wax) 』は大きな成功を収め、年間トップテンリストに上がるほどのヒットを飛ばした。いまも進化を続けるそのスタイルは、ラテンリズムと粗野なフォークソング、レイドバックしたジャズ、オリジナルのギターブルース、ミニマルファンクやソウルがミックスしている。
最近のアルバム『Soil to the Soul (2006, Quannum) 』では、より成熟度が増した楽曲と演奏を披露。トミーの音楽スタイルは、スケートロックをミニマルミュージックのレベルまで昇華させ、ジャズ、ファンク、ソウル、そしてラテンのリズムを実験的な手法で融合させたレンジの広いもの。これほどまでに多彩なエレメントが混合されているのは、彼自身がアメリカの縮図を思わせるルーツの持ち主であることに起因しているのではないだろうか。トミーは、フィリピン人、チリ人、ポルトガル人、オローン族（ネイティブ・アメリカン）の混血であり、さらには、わずかながらもアイルランドの血も引いているらしい。音楽スタイルを問うと、このような返答が返ってきた。
「僕のスタイルは、あまり手を加えない、きわめてシンプルなもの。言葉なしでコミュニケートしようとする気持ちから生みだされるものさ。言葉ってやつは、クリエイティブなものを阻害する要素もあるからね。僕の音楽でみんなにわかってほしいのは、自由の感覚。それがなんであれ、みんなが魂を癒すことができればいいと思ってる」

幼少時は父親が不在で、トミーは自らの複雑なルーツのことをほとんど知る由もなかった。だがその後、サンフランシスコで母親に育てられたことで、現在の自分自身の核となっている文化と伝統が身体に染みいってきたと感じている。
「宗教や伝統的な習慣にいっさいの先入観をもたないで育ったのは本当に幸運なことだったと思うよ。だから、僕自身のアイデンティティと信念をある程度のレベルまで構築することができたんだと思う」
同時にトミーは、成長期に自分が育った環境が現在の自分に多大な影響を与えたことをためらいながらも認めている。
「育った環境によって人格が形成されるよね。で、知らず知らずのうちにその土地の歴史が身体に染みこんで、多かれ少なかれ同じようなパターンをくりかえしてしまうということもあるんだけど、サンフランシスコは昔からアートが盛んだったから、その影響は大きいよ。土地にも空気にもそのにおいが感じられるんだ」

トミーは、スティーブン“ESPO”パワーズ、バリー・マッギーなどのすぐれたアーティストや、伝説的なスケートボーダーであるマーク・ゴンザレス、同年輩であるアーロン・ローズとも親交が深い。めったにないケースだが、トミーと仲間たちは、少年時代からともに成長し、世界中のあらゆる世代に影響をおよぼした。
「本当にリスペクトしあってつきあっている。アーロン・ローズが僕たちのサークルを築く橋渡し的な役割を果してくれた。彼こそがキーパーソンさ」

いまでもスケートボーディングは、トミーの生活の大きな部分を占めている。「昔スケートボードをやってたときは、自分を表現しようなんて頭になかったし、なんというか、ひとりぼっちの旅って感覚だった。それに、自分がまともになれる行為でもあったね」
ここ数年にいたっては、スケートボーディングにある種の感謝の念を抱いている。
「僕の人生を救ってくれたと同時に、新たな人生も与えてくれた。さらに、忍耐ということも教えてくれたんだ」

現在、トミーはサンフランシスコを拠点にして、マーク・ゴンザレスが設立した会社、クロックドでゴンザレスとともに働いている。「だいたいモニターの前でスケートボードのレイアウトをしたりグラフィックデザインをしているよ」。おそらく彼自身は、ここにどっしりと腰をおちつけてしまおうとは考えなかったはずだし、実際、その意思はないようだ。でも少なくとも現在は、スケートボードをする時間のほかにも、家族、仕事、そして音楽と折りあいをつけなくてはならない。
「仕事を３つもってる感じだよね。まあ、いつも健全な状態を保つように努めていることは言うまでもないことだけど。だから音楽にすべてを注げるんだ」

スケートボードをすることでたえず骨の痛みに悩まされているものの、トミーは自分を取り巻く新しい環境に適応するようになっている。「あんまり骨の痛みがひどいんで、髪の毛だって痛いくらいさ」とジョークを飛ばす。
「でも、自分である程度は痛みを和らげることはできるよ。グルコサミン、オメガ3、ビタミンB…たくさんのサプリメントを摂取してる。それにビールを飲んだりもするし、あまりに痛みがひどいときは、イブプロゲンも使っている」

かつてのように、スケートボードで街から街へ移動することなく、もっぱら車を利用するようになった。
「スケボーで街を移動してたときは、車なんか必要なかった。でもいまは生活が変わって、車に楽器や機材をつめこんでスタジオからスタジオへ移動しているし、ときには予定をきっちり決めないで動くこともある。自分の気持ちに正直に行動したいし、そうあるべきだと思っているんだ。ともかく、停滞してしまうことだけは嫌だね」

生活には少々変化が生じたものの、ビデオクリップを製作したりCMを撮影する以上に、あいかわらずスケートボーディングはトミーにとって重要な要素。時を経ても関心は薄れるどころか、いまは自分の短気な性格を更生するための手段としてあらためてスケートボーディングを見直しているくらいだ。スケートスポットの近くにくつろげるバーがあることもまた、重要なポイントだ。

トミーは、人種の坩堝であるサンフランシスコ以外の土地からも触発されている。スケートボーダー、そしてミュージシャンとして世界中を旅したが、日本との絆は強固なもの。いまでは、東京やほかの街にも友人がいる。
「最初に来日したのは1989年、スケートボーダーの世界選手権だった。その後、リアル・スケートボーズを設立してからは、毎年ツアーで訪れるようになった。東京が世界でいちばん好きな都市のひとつである理由は、治安がいいのであまりピリピリする必要がないこと。これはほかの大都市とは大きく異なるポイントだね。あまり警戒せずに行動できるのはすごくいい気分だよ。アメリカ人も日本人のように他人を敬う感覚をもてればいいと思う。日本文化は意識的につくられたものではなく、ただ自然発生的にそうなってしまったもののように、僕には思えるんだ」

トミー・ゲレロ　Tommy Guerrero
1966年生まれ。サンフランシスコ出身の元プロ・スケートボーダーで、ミュージシャン。80年代に伝説のスケートボードチーム 「ボーンズ・ブリゲート」の最年少メンバーとして登場し、ストリートカルチャーに影響を与えた。その後、ミュージシャンとして活動を開始。2009年8月には2年ぶりの新作『Lifeboats and Follies』をリリースし、9月には10日間にもわたる来日ツアーを成功させた。

この記事は『Papersky』No.31 (2010) P.60-63 に収録されているものです。
this text originally appeared in Papersky No.31, Denmark issue, 2010,
text by Vicente Gutierrez.

English » Lone Expression: Tommy Guerrero

“Since I was a kid, I had been painting with my mother, who had done a lot of ceramic painting and my dad actually worked for a paint company so I had endless supplies. I actually wanted to be a comic artist but I ended up getting so involved in skateboarding that I somehow forgot about that dream.  I guess you could say my older brother inspired me to to start skating, although I think I started a bit late actually, when I was seventeen, but I’d been surfing since I was thirteen. I was a student then and just going to the beach on Sundays and in the downtime, I just started having fun with slaloms and turns. One day on my way home I saw some kids doing tricks, which was like my first exposure to street style skating. When I got home I tried a boneless and ended up with a few bumps and bruises which made me stop for a couple weeks but since I started up again, I haven’t stopped. I’d say the other half of my inspiration comes from the Venice skate scene in California. You know, Dogtown and Z Boys. I had been out there a few times and even though they looked a bit tough and gangster, they were all really nice and friendly. The new (school) wave of skateboarding the 1990s brought inwas almost like a fork in the road. Style-wise, things were changing and I remember kicker-ramps and pool skating were fading but I still see the Z Boys as a base of my style, namely guys like Jay Adams, so today, I’m proud to be on the Japan Dogtown and Z Boys Team. I still think about making it back to California to skate some more pools.”

When DEE was in his late twenties, he shared a house with a few artist friends which became an informal unit for painting and skating. “I lived with six friends, one of them was Kami actually and Kami was the one who always said, ‘let’s go out and paint’ so I would go along with markers and cans and started throwing up what I had previously been painting on my own.” The mixed group of artist and skaters eventually formed into a loose crew though made their presence known with exhibitions in Paris, then under the group name M.U.R.,  as well as in Japan as part of a group exhibition at the Art Tower in Mito. “When we had an exhibition at the Art Tower in Mito, which was basically because the curator really liked graffiti, we were all kind of excited about the group show but actually, we thought it was a trap [laughs]!”

Even though groups comprised a large part of DEE’s artistic activity, he affirms he’s a loner at heart. “Even though we were living and practicing together, it was never about being a gang of any kind for me. People talk too much behind each other’s backs in gangs and even though I love getting out to paint and skate, most of the time, I just like going out alone. Especially now that I have my six month old daughter. Not only does she keep me busy but everyday brings something new- it’s actually really inspiring.”  Such a self-affirmed soliloquist, Tanaka even named his own label, simply, Own. “It started in 1994, when a creative unit was starting to form, we called ourselves the ‘Original World Network’ and were practitioners of a blend of art and street culture, making everything from clothes to street graphics.” Every summer, Dee and his team did their own, ‘OwnTour’ and went all over the country doing demos at parks and events with live MCs and DJs. “One of our friends had a camera and came along to document the whole adventure. Whenever we had some downtime, I’d take his camera and photograph people skating, or take a few portraits of the people around us or even just some landscape shots.”

Tanaka’s reportage style of photography has stayed with him ever since. The adventures haven’t solidified into the stuff of legend just yet around these parts, however some of the photos have been published in a previous issues of Sb. “I ended up forming a photography duo with PAI, aka Miyuki Hirai and we based our style on the natural, candid moments we experienced. Since 2003, we have been active as a photo duo and setting up our own group exhibitions, where we show photos of the community- the graffiti, the hardcore bands and well, just skate life. It’s always fun because the younger kids come to check it out as well as the people we took photos of, it’s always a nice gathering. Actually, this summer, is the third one so I’m really looking forward to it.”

Daisuke Tanaka can be found skating at his favorite spot, and upcoming Skateboard File Feature, Felem.

Senn Ozawa, co-founder and editor of Sb for nine years now, runs the magazine almost entirely by himself, flanked by photo editor Taro Hirano and their designer who takes care of layouts. Previously, Ozawa and Hirano cut their teeth with an earlier skateboard magazine called Wheel. “Back when we were doing Wheel, which only existed through the boom years of the late 90s, it got to be too much, too hectic and just had to fold with the boom, and when we decided to keep going and started up Sb, we knew that taking things a bit slower, two times a year, would be the perfect balance.” With all original content, that means no client tie-ups, Sb exudes an independent feel with a decidedly minimal layout and even though its only released twice a year, the publication maintains enough of a static presence on Tokyo’s streets, skate shops and newsstands that it stays in the minds of skaters across town.

While Sb shows content from all over the globe, and a careful balance of about sixty percent of Japanese skaters, the publications words nor perspective are completely Japanese. Foreign correspondents, or pros with computers, report from their cities and scenes about the goings-on to make sure that Tokyo, Sb and its readers are plugged in. However, with the editor-in-chief in Tokyo, Ozawa chooses to portray his local city through a variety of photographs which for the editor means plenty of nocturnal shooting and rather rarely, “do we show skate park photos, it’s mostly, if not all, street style. Sure we can all enjoy skateparks but when you go out there, it’s just the feeling. Street skating is more challenging and not everyone can skate everything; people realize they have limits and strengths on the streets.”

With the year’s best in photos from their list of select photographers, including a few by our beloved Yuri Shibuya, the current issue is more of an artistic exposé on the life of skateboarding and what skaters actually do when they are not skating. The documentary-style reportage shows everything from abandoned, hard to reach spots to skaters pushing for the distance, traveling, in contemplation, recovering from injury or exploring in search of the elusive Shangri-la. The spread continues to show composites of what touring vans really look like as well as spreads of kids enjoying skateboarding with a kind of pure fun and innocence which not only remind of skateboarding’s next crop but as well as the sheer joy of skateboarding. With enough room to fit in art works related and influenced by skateboarding, the photo annual sums up the year in a deep breathe of one hundred and sixteen pages and it’s available for just 476 Yen. “When I would go skating, I wouldn’t usually bring my wallet because it would get in the way. I always just had coins in my pocket. Making Sb available for the cost of one 500 Yen coin was important so every skater could get it wherever.”

“I think one thing that people can sense from of the photos in our pages, in particular in Tokyo, is a sense of crowdedness. Readers can see that most things in Tokyo, such as in the background of photos, are cramped or small. There just aren’t so many big and wide skate spots in Tokyo, the city is just that dense.” Rather than see that as something negative, Sb and Ozawa are energized by a self-declared ethos of firstly going spot seeking, then doing a trick and then showing it in a clear and visual way. “As far as how the photo spreads work, we either call up a skater directly and tell them we’d like to show them skating at a particular spot. We ask them if they have a particular trick in mind for this particular spot and let it simmer. If there’s a particular trick we’d like to show at a spot, then we run down a list of skaters and call one up. Word on the street can play a role too. When we hear someone is up and coming or getting hot right now, we want to know. For the Monochrome spread with Deshi, one of our photographers, Iseki, showed me a black and white photo he liked and thought we should do a monochrome feature. When we called Deshi, he was excited to do it so we the spread of black and white photos came together nicely, which made us happy since it is seldom that we run black and white photographs.”

When pressed for where he wants to take Sb next, Ozawa answered with yet another pensive editorial goal, “well we’ve never done a tour-style issue. We’re always doing a lot of Tokyo-based content, which is great and all, but I think we’d really like to hit the road with four different teams, each made up of a photographer, editor and skaters, even a mix of some Japanese and foreign skaters and then map out different tour routes and all converge again in Tokyo. It’d be great, pretty epic for us and even better if it came out like a kind of guidebook too.”

Sb is available at skateboard shops and most major book stores throughout Japan.

In Ozawa’s twelve years of publishing, the Nihon Kogakuin building in Shinjuku, has been the most-photographed location.

Whether a photographer’s vision constructs the photographs or the it’s the photographs which construct the vision, Yuri Shibuya has achieved a style that allows her to operate like a Venn diagram, in intersecting circles of documentary, reportage and travel. Yuri Shibuya initially started documenting her surroundings, “with no preparation” as she frankly puts it. Although Shibuya’s initial interests in photography developed from early trips to New York as an art student, upon returning to Tokyo Yuri soon switched out of her design program at university for the adventure of photography.

One of the early forays into photography was coverage of the flourishing street-skateboarding scene in New York City during the 1990s. The story goes back to a chance encounter with then young and fresh-on-the-scene pro Quim Cardona. While waiting near Saint Marks Cathedral, a group of skaters happen to be seasoning, “I was a bit intimidated to be honest [laughs], Quim just came up to me, checked out my camera and asked if I wanted to take a photo of him doing an ollie. I agreed and then we exchanged contact details.”

Even though Yuri has stayed an average of six months a year in New York since 1996 and spent a good amount of time photographing at the famed Brooklyn Banks, Yuri is forward in stating that she is not an actual skate photographer, “I don’t shoot people doing tricks for skateboard magazines. I’ve always been more about documenting their life. I don’t really care about shooting tricks, to be honest [laughs].” Nevertheless, New York City has had a real impact on not only her work but edification as well- from the recent appearance of her photographs on limited edition skateboard decks to her own self-publishing, “when I had visited Printed Matter in New York, I saw a lot of independent zines produced by a lot of artists and they looked easy to make so I just tried to make one with photos I had. In Tokyo, I brought copies to On Sundays and they agreed to sell it.” Eventually, Yuri’s output of zines morphed into a sponsorship by Xerox to help in the production of her zines which featured reportage from a growing diversity of places on the globe. The extensive travels throughout Southeast Asia and scattered locales the globe over also developed into a now four year-running column in Warp Magazine which features tales and photography from her expanding travel diary; everything from a visit to Paqueta, a small island off the coast of Brazil to Yosemite National Park with Paper Sky.

With all that travel, one would expect returning home to Kichijoji, Tokyo to reset the biological clock and provide a calm sense of settlement. “When I’m traveling and taking photos, I’m concentrated and when I’m traveling I have a lot of time constraints and I just forget I have a body clock. It may get hectic but theres only one place that feels like home, and thats the home where I grew up. I’m still considering a move to New York where I feel comfortable with my friends and can also just see people from all over the world but I’m not sure if I want to stay for the winters, it’s the summer that brings the wanderlust. Looking back, being away is just a constant adjustment really. I just got back from Yosemite which was a good dose of some epic nature, it was really good for my spirit even though it was pretty hectic trip.”

Still in search of capturing the authentic, Yuri’s latest project crosses over into a new boundary. “I’ve been in Jamaica too doing a project with my friend Mike who has a shop in New York called REST STORE. We have a mutual love for Jamaica, he loves the music and used to go down there and take dub recordings and make mixes. Now we are working together on a book about Jamaican craftsmen who are making things like belts, or hats like you’d see in the film Rockers, you know, some real artifacts. It’s the kind of crafts which I think have been copied all over, but this style of craft is actually originally from Jamaica.”

When pressed on what her next adventure is, Yuri just answered, “I’d like to keep doing reportage and documentary-style photography but I feel like I have to be more conscious because the younger generation has a different style than with what I grew up. I have to keep moving on a bit as an individual and as a part of a generation too.”

Yuri’s zines were available at Tokyo bookstore, On Sundays.

Eventually I moved up to Saitama where I currently live and these days I just come to Tokyo for filming video parts. Although, about four years ago, I ended up meeting a pro by the name of Rich Adler when he came out to Tokyo. We got along really well and started sessioning together. At that time he was riding for Traffic Skateboards and still is today. Rich was out here filming some parts for a video and I actually ended up getting some of my own video parts included in that video.  Looking back, it was quite a significant moment for me because it was through Rich that I got on the Traffic team. I ended up having a small part in the first Traffic video and in 2008, I ended up visiting Rich in Philadelphia and got a chance to connect and skate with Ricky Oyola- a living legend in most parts and the man behind Traffic. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Oyola and to be on his team is actually an honor for me. And even though I am based in Tokyo and not Philadelphia, I feel my role on the Traffic team is to create more Traffic-style skaters in Japan.

In terms of skating, I don’t think there were that many differences between the scenes. When I was in Philadelphia, I noticed that street skaters just pushed everywhere- all city, while kids in Tokyo I think tend to take the train between most distances. Actually, living in Japan is as special as being anywhere else- I didn’t really think of it as different. Earth is Earth and scenes are scenes- it’s just all connected. If I was in The States, then sure I could get more exposure as a skater but I want to emit from Tokyo because this is simply where I am at. If there’s one difference I noticed while being back and forth, it’s that Tokyo can often be a city without individuality because there’s always a trend.

Regardless of where you are, it is style that doesn’t and shouldn’t change. My thoughts on style are that, well, I think style is when someone does what they want and can really get a feeling out of what they’re doing- even if nobody else is doing it. As long as the individual is completely into it 100%, then nothing else matters. There also an element of purity to style- when I see someone do a trick with a clean and simple approach, or just straight and raw, it’s the best as long as you can sense the realness of the skater’s emotional honesty. I think that is what we are all aspiring to as an end in someway. Personally, I don’t even have a favorite trick per se, it really depends on the spot. There are times when something just as simple as a clean ollie would feel the best.

My main place to skate these days is Ikebukuro and it is actually where I have been skating since I was in high school. It’s where all my buddies are and it is not so much about the gravity of a particular spot but that there is just such a wide array of spots there that I like. Combine that with being able to see my friends and its simply the best. And for anyone coming to Japan to skate, I’d just point them in the direction of Ikebukuro and tell them to just go and explore like it was anywhere else.

This April 2010, Deshi will have his first pro model released on Traffic Skateboards.

Koji Asada is one of the founding members and main brains behind Lesque. Born and raised in Costa Rica and the United States, Asada re-engaged with the skate scene as an independent videographer when moving to Japan a few years ago. Upon moving to Tokyo, Asada had been working on a video project with two established skaters, Junichi Arahata and ItoShin, entitled “Catch Me.” In addition, Asada was also giving time to another of his personal projects, the English-friendly website J-Skateboard.com which provides information on skateboarding in Japan while taking on a web magazine element with news, interviews, photography and video. “When I moved to Japan, there wasn’t any information in English which I could find about skateboarding in Japan so we decided to set it up and it’s been working out really well.”

By 2005, skaters ItoShin and Junichi Arahata had already established themselves as pros on the circuit; on product flow from Japanese distributors of notable American brands like Chocolate.  Respectively, Arahata and ItoShin began to feel limited, triggering thoughts that their future of making a living from skateboarding was drawing an increasingly eerie degree of uncertainty.  Soon enough, the idea to start up a proper skateboard company started circulating around the small circle of friends.

Debating yet another set of endless questions, the three had to come to terms with their observations of the skateboarding community they lived and breathed within. The soon to be entrepreneurs concurred that the current distributors weren’t doing enough for the skateboarders. Asada recalls an initial impetus, “we wanted to take better care of our skaters and foster a more a positive environment. We wanted to pay our riders photo incentives and things like that. We wanted to be a model company- for skaters and by skaters and well, really show how it should be done.” Shortly after, ItoShin decided to drop all of his sponsors and put his energy into going independent. Support from Arahata and Asada was something of a transgressive power for the aspirational ideas of their many late night conversations to solidify. The three foot soldiers next tapped another photographer friend on the shoulder, reached deep into their pockets and pooled their savings together.  “Looking back, it was almost like a natural combination- we had the skaters, we had the videographers, we had the photographer and with our willingness, we had the solved the equation necessary to get Lesque off the ground.”

Setting up in Western Tokyo in a two-story home office, essentially a glorified skate house, Asada and his new “associates” hit the books. Rather than injuries as the primary setback to almost anything a skater does, the only obstacles these skaters-at-desks faced was learning new software for design and production in addition to the bland nature of legal procedures and accounting.  Once that was under enough control, the next task was getting their new boards stocked in skate shops. Asada recounted it being a difficult at first but in their second year, things began to pick up as word of mouth spread and Lesque let their skating do the talking. The original five shops who stocked Lesque boards seems indeed miniscule when comparing to the over one hundred nationwide who stock the Lesque decks today. Guided by their ethos of positively electrifying the skate community, things rapidly changed for the Lesque team as they trail blazed across the country.

In early 2008, the Lesque team hit the road and went on their first tour stopping by Osaka, Shikoku and Shimane and other points through out the Kanto region.  “We wanted to travel around Japan and link up with skateboard shops and really stimulate some of the young kids out there.”  The hard work paid off and a considerable swell in attention came when Lesque earned the coveted Team of the Year award from mainstay magazine Transworld Skateboarding. More heads began to turn when Okinawan Masataka Yamashiro, the 2005 “Rookie of the Year” according to Transworld Skateboarding, came on board the Lesque team.

Asada reflected on the Lesque work ethic,  “we had put out two videos in two years and we stopped and thought about it- there were other companies who have been around longer than us and not even put out a solid video. Things seemed kind of stale, companies were stalling at the time and well, we saw a lot of open opportunities and just acted on them.”  Other companies had barely tapped into the web while Lesque was doing something of a do-it-yourself world premier with their videos on YouTube.  With their continuous travelog video reports documenting their travels as a team around the country and world, their exposure steadily increased. The trailer for the Endless Question video has reached over 14,000 views while Junichi Arahata’s footage has excited more than 27,000 viewers.

When pressed for what’s in store for 2010, Asada assured there will be more touring and, “we’ll continue working on our next video and just try to keep stimulating the skate scene even more.”  True to his word, on April 3rd, Asada and the gang are getting together the first ‘Battle of the Skateshops’ contest which will take form as an all night showcase in a club setting to see which skate shop team can come out on top. In the meantime, the Lesque skateboard family is likely to be sighted during team practice at Nogawa Park in West Tokyo.

Address: 6-4-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan

When in New York during his student years, Taro recalls visiting the original location of the then, run down and dingy Alleged Gallery. It was that time and place which triggered thoughts about having his own functional art space. Acknowledging the artist community around the Alleged Gallery at that time, Taro believed he and his circle of friends had the same kind of community but were just missing a proper space. Once Taro had decided on the place, moved in and cleaned it up a bit, the idea to have art shows with his friends and the surrounding skate community, ended up being closer knit than previously thought- the first show at the gallery Taro jests was actually with his sister. Soon word spread and things picked up in the community and Taro got together his first group show for which he asked twenty skaters and artists alike to take their old and worn ordinary skateboard decks and hand cut them into a new skateable shape or sculpture. After exhibiting their own works, the showing evolved into an informal skate competition at the now staple mini ramp in nearby Komazawa Park. As the months passed, Gallery No. 12 extended its reach with international group shows which tended to feature artists like the editor of SLAP magazine Mark Whitely and professional skaters such as Jerry Hsu. But not wholly limited to the skate world, in 2004 Ari Marcopoulos, whom Taro met on a previous trip to California, was also invited over for a show at Gallery No. 12.

It was actually on one of Hirano’s several trips to California when a once elusive dream that had stemmed back to his teenage years, appeared in the real. “I grew up skateboarding and watching videos came along with that and I just had to eventually come to terms with the fact that pool skating was the only kind of skating that I couldn’t experience in Japan.” More than wanderlust, Taro’s fantasy of skating idolized pools in sunny California came to turn into a personal project. Over months of exploring and photographing around California, Hirano compiled somewhat of a historical compendium of an otherwise forgotten monolith of skateboarding. Entitled, Pool, the collection of photographs achieves more than serving as a personal document of skateboarding’s culture and physical aesthetic, but also allows more of an historical light to shine on the subject. In fact, one could say pools are a symbol in the legacy of skateboarding. A reminder of a place where actual vertical skating was born- an event, or dynamic in itself, which fundamentally changed the skateboarding world forever. Since pool skating has by and large been deemed illegal over the years, the chance to skate an abandoned pool still remains increasingly elusive and even something of an often secret, privy invitation. The fantasy still thrives throughout the skateboarding world and the back of every skater’s mind. More than occasionally, skateable pools are portrayed in photo and video as simply- the stuff of lore.

In 2008, Taro’s personal project evolved into a front cover shot for the beloved and cult (and now solely digital) skateboarding magazine, SLAP.

This Spring, Gallery No. 12 with play host to a reading room-style exhibition by Nieves which also publishes one of Hirano’s latest works.

We’ve recently seen Tommy tour the world as a guitar-toting musician but if you remember far back enough, Guerrero was a key member of the most prominent professional skateboarding team ever. The Bones Brigade was formed by epic skate brand Powell-Peralta and dominated the 1980s as a platform for the best skaters of the day like Tony Hawk and Lance Mountain. Guerrero became known for his effortless skating style and smooth flow that developed from riding the hills of the Inner Sunset area of San Francisco. As a teenager, his calendar filled with international tour dates as well as appearances in now-classic team videos like Public Domain and The Search for Animal Chin. After a few years of the pro circuit as the norm, Tommy started his own skateboard company, Real Skateboards.

While riding that wave of success, Guerrero concurrently followed his second passion of music. For Guerrero there is always a connection between the two forms of expression, they are inseparable, “it’s a release from the daily tribulations and bombardment of life, it’s a way to relax and to let go, a way to think without being conscious of the moment.” Back in his teenage years, Tommy recounted picking up his first guitar, “my brother and some friends formed a punk band, it was pretty much as anti-social as skateboarding was.” Downplaying the significance of his first instrument, Guerrero jokes that his first guitar was a piece of junk and actually considers his first instrument to be a Fender Musicman bass. Up until the 1990s, Tommy’s main instrument was the bass until he switched back to guitar and started making the music we hear today. “I always hear melodies but I’m, not much of a singer so I would start to play them on the guitar and that’s how I came to be known as a guitar player. Even though I would still like to think that I am still a bass player to this day.” While playing in skate rock bands and veering into experimental music over the years, Guerrero has found more success as a solo artist with albums such as Year of The Monkey (2005, Galaxia Records) and Soul Food Taqueria (2003, Mo’ Wax) appearing on several annual top ten lists. Tommy’s latest is a progression in many ways, encapsulating Latin rhythms, stripped down folk, laid-back jazz, blues guitar, minimal funk and soul.

Even on his most recent, From the Soil to the Soul (2006, Quannum), Guerrero continues to express maturity in his song writing and playing. Guerrero’s style is horizontal- evolving from skate rock to a a level plane that is a minimal yet inventive mix of jazz, funk, soul and Latin. To better understand that hybrid in his music, it helps to know Tommy is the an epitome American of sorts- a self-declared, total mix of Filipino, Chilean, Portuguese, Ohlone and even a bit of Irish. Although when pressed to describe his own style, Guerrero isn’t shy to come up with a response, “my style is pretty crude and raw, it’s really about emotions and trying to communicate without words- language can hinder anything creative.” If there’s anything I want people to get from it is that it’s all about a sense of freedom, for people to do whatever heals your soul.”

Although Guerrero’s father was absent from his early childhood, he knew close to nothing of his culturally entwined roots. Rather, Tommy was raised by his mother in San Francisco, an urban upbringing to which he feels a sense of indebtedness as his bedrock of culture and heritage. “I think I am lucky to not have grown up with any preconceived notions regarding religion and traditional customs, so that has allowed me to have been able to create my own identity and beliefs to some degree.”

At the same time, Guerrero hesitates that his geography had such a major impact in his development as he would like to admit. “We are all informed of the environment we are in and we are unknowingly absorbing history and well, just regurgitating it all to varying degrees but then again San Francisco has such a rich artistic past. Its in the soil and in the air.” Personally, Guerrero has been able to develop close and fruitful relationships with other remarkable artists like Stephen “ESPO” Powers and Barry McGee or legendary skateboarder Mark Gonzales and contemporaries like Aaron Rose. An opportunity few would have otherwise, Tommy and his circle friends came of age at the same time and ended up influencing an entire generation all around the world. “We have a lot of mutual respect for each other, its all very reciprocal. Aaron Rose played a major role in connecting all of us, he is the link.”

Still today skateboarding continues to be a big part of Guerrero’s lifestyle. “Back when I was skateboarding, I never felt that I was trying to express myself, it was more of a loner trip, one for the solitary man and it was something to keep sane.” Today there is a sense of gratitude from skateboarding that has stayed with Tommy all these years, “it saved my life and gave me one at the same time. Skateboarding taught me about perseverance.” Based in San Francisco, Guerrero and Mark Gonzales work together with Gonz’s company, Krooked. “Now I mainly sit in front of a monitor laying out skateboard and graphic designs.” Perhaps its somewhere he thought he would never end up and while Guerrero claims he is not “built” for it, necessity calls and if he can even find time to go skateboarding, it’s now got to be scheduled in line with family, work and music. “It’s like having three jobs…not to mention trying to maintain my sanity so I just put everything I have into music.” Add some aching bones and Tommy has happily gotten comfortable in his new surroundings, “even my hair hurts” he jokes, “but there are ways to self-medicate. I take lots of supplements, glucosamine, omega 3, Vitamin B, beer and once in a while I’ll take an ibuprofen when it all just aches.”

Instead of skating from one end of the city to the other, Tommy is constantly driving everywhere, “I just didn’t need a car, we would skate from one end of the city to another. Now life is like I am moving everywhere all the time, I am constantly moving music gear from one studio to another and at times I don’t know when that is going to be, I’m still a spontaneous person and I need to be, stagnation is a killer.” Even though his role has slightly changed, skateboarding is more about preparing to slam rather than making video clips and shooting advertisements. Time has not faded Guerrero’s interest but rather he’s recalibrated to make it more about battling the impatience to stretch and making sure there’s a bar nearby to relax at afterwards.

Guerrero has also found inspiration outside of his San Francisco melting pot. As a traveler, Tommy has toured the world with skateboarding and music and somehow along the way forged a relationship with Japan. “It all started in 1989, a whole crew of pros came over for a contest. Then I would come back every year for demos and tours with Real Skateboards.” With several friends throughout Tokyo and beyond, “I have to say that Japan is one of my favorite countries to explore for one main reason, you don’t have to worry about being a victim and you don’t have to be constantly looking over your shoulder like one would in other big cities. It’s an amazing feeling to be able to let your guard down. I wish the U.S. has the same sense of respect for others as the Japanese do, it seems to be so steeped in the culture that it is not even a conscious way of being, it just is that it is.”

This story originally appeared in Paper Sky No. 31 (Denmark, November, 2009)

In 2009, Tommy Guerrero played the Sunset Live Festival in Fukuoka.