editor’s letter

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Since the ’90s, Purple has been profoundly inspired by Japan, which, in turn, has warmly embraced the magazine. This exchange has continued throughout the magazine’s history, from the first Comme des Garçons campaigns featured in Purple to the many Japanese artists interviewed and the countless fashion shoots in Japan by photographers — from Nobuyoshi Araki to Takashi Homma, from Daido Moriyama to Chikashi Suzuki. We have never done an issue solely about Japan — until now. This issue, devoted to contemporary Japan, is framed as a Tokyo diary. A fragmented vision of Japan as a boundless source of inspiration. Nearly a hundred topics form what is the most comprehensive issue we’ve ever produced, with a typeface created by Gianni Oprandi as a tribute to the iconic photo magazine Provoke.

Japan no longer symbolizes the future as it did until the 2000s, before China surpassed it with its endless megacities, and California took the lead in turning a futuristic dream into an artificial intelligence dystopia. But Japan remains an unmatched source of artistic inspiration, as Wim Wenders tell us in his interview.

What does Japan bring us? What does it teach us that is so special, and more vital today than at any other time? First, a universal lesson in pacifism. Despite American pressure for Japan to rearm in the face of China and North Korea, it remains the only nation to have adopted — initially under constraint and now out of popular desire — a clear pacifist position, enshrined in its 1947 Constitution. This is rare enough to be worth highlighting, and so we conclude the magazine with an evocation of John Lennon’s long stays in Karuizawa and his discovery of the peaceful wabi-sabi philosophy.

In a world saturated with information designed to capture and monetize our attention via screens steering us away from our true desires, Japan is a country that continually brings us back to the essentials. Even in a fleeting visit, even in the midst of Tokyo’s sea of signs, Japan lets us rediscover what truly matters and where our inner focus should lie.

The archipelago, in its paradoxical way, frees us from the Western obsession with the ego through its respect for tradition, its extreme politeness, and its love of intimacy. It encourages a kind of “de-individualism.” It takes us into a different space-time, one that stretches the limits of the self and softens our narcissistic impulses. This country opens up a creative possibility: to leave behind the static ground of our individualistic habits and certainties, and embrace a radical otherness, a “symbolic system unlike anything we know.” Roland Barthes captures it best: “a certain shaking of the self, a reversal of old readings, a rupture of meaning, torn and exhausted to its unreplaceable void” (see the introductory text excerpted from Empire of Signs). An example of self-surrender: the art of the shibari master, Hajime Kinoko, requires complete trust in the one who ties the ropes around your body and suspends you in the air, above the void within yourself.

Japan is, above all, a great fashion nation. It’s a country where the boldest fashion thrives alongside the most minimalist aesthetics, all guided by an unmatched mastery of detail, tailoring, and fabrics (see the features on Kei Ninomiya, Tomo Koizumi, and Jun Takahashi). Designers from around the world come here in search of untainted creativity.

Another lesson from Japan lies in its acceptance of catastrophe. From the haunting memories of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings to the tragedy of Fukushima, from earthquakes to typhoons, the Japanese live with constant awareness of being between disasters. But they don’t just endure this chaotic reality; they turn it into wisdom and awareness — even though Japan is far from being the ecological paradise one might imagine, given the untouched beauty of its landscapes (see the interview with the writer Ryoko Sekiguchi).

Japan is also a harmony of opposites, a fascinating integration of life and death, even within the seemingly superficial realm of fashion. Look to Rei Kawakubo’s hauntingly bloodstained Spring/Summer 2025 collection, or to the monumental Kazuo Ohno and butoh, the dance
of darkness that ignites silence and visceral movements.

And maybe the most profound lesson Japan offers: an obsession with perfection that isn’t about reaching a final goal but about continuously pushing the limits of what’s possible. Japanese artists embrace an extremism that knows no bounds, where perfection becomes a playful exploration of infinite possibilities, sometimes even humor hidden behind radicality. Take a look at Takuro Kuwata’s explosive ceramic sculptures.

Japan, both in its art and daily life, is a magical place where the extraordinary rises from the ordinary. A ceramic piece, a small bar, a bouquet, a face, sex, a dish, striking architecture, the tiny plants surrounding a vending machine… The extraordinary hides in the details, and the everyday becomes a form of art.

— Olivier Zahm