FASHION

2026.11.12

Kampu Kampa Joban Denim Hanten (Hanten) was born from this man! Interview with Hiroyuki Yashima

Don’t imitate others; trust in what you want and make it yourself. What this man created was a hanten unlike any other. An interview with Hiroyuki Yashima, who created the much-talked-about brand Godisru.

The story of the man who made a hanten that doesn’t exist anywhere else

In a back alley a short walk from Ryogoku Station, there is a shop lined with hanten as far as the eye can see. The man who launched the Tokyo-born Ryogoku brand “Godisru” is its representative, Hiroyuki Yashima. As he talks, he laughs over and over, “I’m not thinking about anything.” But the more you listen, the more you can see the one clear thread behind those words—a thread that has remained unchanged since childhood.

Hiroyuki Yashima
HEART・LAND Co., Ltd. Professional Hyper Designer & CEO
Born July 1, 1980, in Edogawa City, Tokyo. After experiencing a variety of jobs from age 16, including used motorcycle sales, he worked for an apparel manufacturer. In 2020, he launched his own brand, “Godisru.”

A boy who wore denim long pants even in summer and “didn’t imitate others”

Yashima is from Edogawa City, Tokyo. When asked about his personal rules, he immediately replied, “Not copying other people.” The root of that seems to go back to when he was very young.

Yashima: “That goes way back. For elementary school kids born in the ’80s, it was an era when you had to wear super-short denim shorts. But I wore denim long pants even in summer. Even in junior high, everyone except the delinquents had black hair, but mine was brown.”

—So you were a boy who didn’t follow the crowd. Among the fashion and style choices you’ve made according to your own policy, had you liked hanten from the beginning?

Yashima: “If we go back to when I was in elementary school, I don’t think I had ever worn a hanten. My image of it was basically, ‘Isn’t that something grandmas wear?’ and until I was about 15, I thought it was uncool. Then around 15 or 16, something switched and I thought, ‘Old stuff is pretty damn cool.’ I guess that’s when it started. After that, I was always wearing it and walking around my neighborhood.”

Making the things you want yourself

—Did that strong attachment to fashion lead you to aim for your own brand in the apparel world?

Yashima: “No, I started working right after junior high. I did all sorts of jobs—motorcycles, mobile phone sales, construction-site work, apparel shop staff, you name it. When I was young, all I really thought about was, ‘I want to be rich someday.’ In my early twenties I started working for an apparel manufacturer, and back then my job was receiving requests from brands and delivering products made in the factory. I was basically just making what I was told to make.”

—When did you start turning your own ideas into actual products?

Yashima: “Back when I was working at that apparel manufacturer. If I wanted something, I’d tell the factory, ‘Make something like this,’ and I’d make one piece for myself here and there. Samples are relatively cheap to make, so compared to buying a pair of denim pants for 20,000 yen somewhere, you can make something in the shape and style you want for less. For example, an aloha shirt where every part has a different pattern—floral for the body, paisley for the sleeves. I like those crazy shirts with combinations you’d never find in a store.”

Kampu Kampa Joban Denim Hanten (Hanten)
Price: 24,200 yen
Colors: NAVY×BLACK, BLACK×BLACK
Sizes: M, L, XL

—I love your commitment to making “things that aren’t sold,” turning your own tastes into reality.

Yashima: “In this industry, once something gets popular, everyone makes the same thing and it just turns into a price war, right? That’s boring. Maybe back then I also just didn’t have anything I wanted. But in the end, I like sharp, edgy things that not many people copy.”

What is a well-thought-out hanten made by a man who “doesn’t think about anything”?

Popular “Kampu Kampa Joban Denim Hanten Kiku BLACK Jacquard”
Price: 25,300 yen

While working for an apparel manufacturer, Yashima created fashion he liked for himself. The turning point came during the COVID pandemic that raged in 2020. When his main job temporarily slowed down and he “had a little free time,” he revisited the hanten he had been wearing since he was 15.

Yashima: “A regular hanten fastens at the front with buttons or something like that, and the sleeves are kind of awkwardly long. The cuffs are wide too, so the wind absolutely gets in and it’s cold. So I added ribbing to the cuffs to keep the wind out, and made the front close properly with a zipper. I even chose the outer denim myself. It looks like a hanten, but I packed in all the ideal functions I could. I made it into the strongest hanten by breaking all the rules.”

—What an incredible idea. Is it your individuality that nobody else had thought of this before and you actually make it happen? And was the Godisru brand, in the first place, born from the desire to turn such ideas into reality?

Yashima: “Well, I thought I’d only be doing it for a moment, so I wasn’t really thinking that deeply about it. I must have chosen the name Godisru after thinking through a bunch of meanings, but I was just doing things casually, so I don’t even remember which one is the real one (laughs). Still, I was making things as a playful project—figuring that even if they didn’t sell, I’d make the things I wanted. Then the number of product codes and the inventory started growing quite a bit. And by then, it wasn’t something I could just let end as a game anymore.”

Kampu Kampa Joban Shadow-Weave Jacquard Hanten (Hanten)
Price: 26,400 yen
Color: Shadow-weave Jacquard BLACK
Sizes: M, L, XL

During the pandemic, when Godisru was just starting out, keeping a sense of distance between people (social distancing) was considered good manners, and camping became very popular. Godisru also started out as a camping brand. Yashima keeps repeating that he “isn’t thinking about anything,” but he says that during this period he “really did think.” The functionality of the hanten was more than enough for outdoor use. However, when he first set up at an outdoor event, he met an unexpected customer.

Yashima: “People flowed over from the event next door for custom cars to the outdoor event where we were set up, and when they saw our hanten they’d say, ‘Oh, that’s cool, and cheap,’ and buy quite a bit. People who like custom cars tend to have a bit of a wild vibe to begin with. Honestly, up until then I’d been selling online without imagining who I was selling to, but meeting people face to face at events made me realize, ‘So these are the kinds of people who were buying my stuff.’ And since people who don’t camp were buying it too, I don’t really call it camping wear anymore.”

This is the exact opposite of the marketing standard of deciding a target and making products for them. The lightness of not mass-producing from the start has also supported Yashima’s craftsmanship.

Yashima: “Rather than planning and aiming for a specific customer, it’s more like, ‘If this were for sale, I’d be happy.’ I just hope it resonates with about 0.6% of Japan’s population.”

Maybe that’s why the best-selling colors and patterns of the hanten have consistently defied his expectations. The shape stays the same, and he adds a few new colors and patterns each year, but he often only finds out what sells after putting it on the market.

Yashima: “At first, I started with plain denim in one navy color. Then I added more patterns, and one year paisley sold well, and the next year a completely different pattern became popular. As for the chrysanthemum pattern, I thought, ‘Who’s going to wear something this flashy?’ and made it half as a joke, but now it’s our best seller. And because people buy it online in the summer too, I’m shipping it while thinking, ‘Are they really going to wear this now?’”

Because he releases items in small batches, some people want to get their favorite patterns before they sell out. This year, the popular chrysanthemum pattern was also expanded to include a BLACK lineup. If you compare it to the manga Kingdom, he laughs and says he’s not the general who plots strategy, but rather the “instinct type.” Try first, then check the answer. That was Yashima’s way.

In easygoing Ryogoku, you can get a feel for Yashima’s personality

The Ryogoku store where customers can try things on is on a street a little off from the station, not the kind of place people just wander into. Most visitors are people who saw it on social media and thought it looked cool.

Yashima: “From Ryogoku Station, it’s pretty much on the back side. Inbound visitors even turn back toward the station around our place.”

—When can people talk with you at the shop? Around what hours?

Yashima: “I come in around 8 or 9 in the morning and finish by 4 p.m. Even if work piles up, from 4 on it’s always beer time. Even if an idea for work flashes into my head while I’m drinking with friends, I usually forget it by the next day (laughs).”

—What kind of outfits or situations do the people who come to buy hanten imagine using them for?

Yashima: “Some people said for walking the dog, or that they hate using heating at home. People living in old houses apparently feel cold from the drafts no matter how much heat they run, and they were really happy. As for styling, I’d still like people to go with denim-on-denim. Maybe wear it walking around Shibuya? Well, really, anything’s fine (laughs).”

—Since it’s a silhouette unique to Japan, it seems like it could also become popular with people overseas.

Yashima: “There are fans out there. Some people order online and ask us to deliver it to the hotel front desk to arrive on the day they check in. Of course, it’s great if inbound visitors buy it, but first I’d like people in Japan to wear it.”

(Left) Kampu Kampa Joban Denim Hanten (Hanten) Paisley Pattern BLACK
Price: 25,300 yen
Color: Paisley Jacquard BLACK
Sizes: M, L, XL
(Right) Kampu Kampa Joban Denim Hanten (Hanten) Kiku Jacquard
Price: 25,300 yen
Color: Kiku Jacquard BLACK, Kiku Jacquard NAVY
Sizes: M, L, XL

(Left) Kampu Kampa Joban Denim Hanten (Hanten) Patchwork
Price: 30,800 yen
Color: Patchwork NAVY
Sizes: M, L, XL
(Center) Kampu Kampa Joban Denim Hanten (Hanten) BLACK Ryuzukuri Sukaten
Price: 33,000 yen
Color: NAVY×BLACK
Sizes: M, L, XL
(Right) Kampu Kampa Joban Denim Hanten (Hanten) Kiku NAVY Jacquard
Price: 25,300 yen
Color: Kiku Pattern Jacquard NAVY, Kiku Pattern Jacquard BLACK
Sizes: M, L, XL

His way of life and coolness are passed down from father to child

At outdoor events, there are regular customers who show up every year. What makes him happiest there is hearing, “This is insanely cool.”

Yashima: “Every year there’s a dad who buys one with a different pattern. He buys a new hanten and passes the old one down to his kid. Before I knew it, there were cases where the whole family was wearing my hanten. Usually the hand-me-downs go to elementary and middle school kids, but even kids from generations that don’t know hanten still say it’s cool. That makes me happy.”

For Yashima, who thought hanten were uncool until age 15, that may be a somewhat mysterious sight. Still, even as he says he’s “not thinking about anything,” the one unchanging thread—“not copying other people”—has remained the same since the days when he wore long pants in summer as an elementary school kid. The hanten Yashima creates are cool because of their playful, rebellious design. Seeing their father in one, children will likely admire that look.

Godisru
3-9-7 Ryogoku, Sumida-ku, Tokyo Furuya Building 1F
Hours: Weekdays 10:00–15:00 (irregular holidays)
Closed: Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays
TEL: 03-6240-2458 (during business hours only)
*It’s best to confirm via Instagram DM before visiting.
https://godisru.com/

Photography: Hiroshi Nose, Interview and Text: Nanako Otake