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Goro Takahashi (髙橋吾郎, June 29 1939 – November 25 2013), also known as Yellow Eagle, was a Japanese silversmith and leather craftsman renowned for his Native American inspired works and for being the first Japanese person to participate in a Sun Dance.

Goro's jewelry achieved cult status in Japan and internationally, thanks in part to celebrities like Takuya Kimura, Ken Kaneko, Tomomi Itano, Eric Clapton and John Mayer who are known to collect it.

Biography

Early life

Goro was born in Jujo, Tokyo on June 29 1939 as the youngest of 6 brothers. Despite being the sixth child, he was called Goro (after go (五), the number five in Japanese) because at the time of his birth he was the fifth living son, as one of his older brothers had already died in war. His father Seiji (清二) was a hardware peddler who wrote haiku under the pseudonym Seisen (清 泉).

Early career and leather working

During junior high school, Goro attended a summer camp in the forest of Hayama, Kanagawa. There he met an American soldier stationed in Japan who, despite the language barrier, taught him leather crafting. Goro kept visiting him year after year, until eventually the soldier was relived of his duties and returned to the USA. Before leaving, he gifted Goro his leather crafting tools.

After graduation, at the age of 16, Goro used those tools to craft leather belts and engrave them with floral patterns characteristic of the American West. He brought these belts to Nakata Shoten (ja:中田商店), a shop dealing in military paraphernalia in the Ameyoko shopping district in Ueno. The owner, Tadao Nakata (中田忠夫), initially placed an order of 100 belts, and later commissioned Goro leather bags, Native and Western accessories.

During this time he briefly took on an apprentice, his nephew Taro Takahashi (ja:高 橋 太 郎), who would later become a surfer renowned for crafting the first fiberglass surfboard in Japan.

Founding goro's and gaining recognition

In 1956, Goro founded his own brand, goro's (ja:ゴローズ), in Komagome, Tokyo, where he was living. The logo was designed by his friend Vartan Kurjian, an American designer who lived in Tokyo at the time. Since then through the late 1960s, Goro's mostly produced leather goods while gradually experimenting with brass buckles and metal fittings.

In 1966, Goro set up an atelier in his living quarters on the second floor of the Central Apartment building Minami-Aoyama. There he worked on everything from deerskin jackets and trousers, to pieces of furniture, including customizing his own Isuzu Bellett with leather upholstery carved with his designs.

During this time Goro frequented disco clubs like MUGEN (ムゲン) in Akasaka, a hip go-go bar famous for being frequented by celebrities. This is where he befriended designers such as Takeo Kikuchi and Junko Hoshino [ja], as well as mingled with celebrities like Tina Turner, who commissioned him work. It was around this time that Goro made his first appearance in the menswear magazine ja:MEN'S CLUB.

In 1972 he opened the goro's store on Omotesandō in Harajuku, a district of Tokyo internationally recognized as a center of Japanese youth culture and fashion, where the shop remains to this day.

In the United States

In 1967, at the age of 28, Goro visited the United states for the first time, traveling to New York City. Here he visited a museum (likely the Museum of the American Indian now part of the Smithsonian Institution) where he saw Native American artifacts, jewelry, and silverwork in person for the first time Going back to Japan, he saved money and whenever he had earned enough, he would travel back to the United States.

Learning silversmithing

In 1971, Goro visited Flagstaff, Arizona during a trip on U.S. Route 66. Here he was approached by Jed, a sliversmith, who asked him about the leather accessories he was wearing. Despite the language barrier, the two bonded, forming a friendship that would last for the rest of their lives. Jed taught Goro how to craft accessories from silver, his first project being a Concho using a crushed one-dollar silver coin. In return Goro would trade products of his leather crafting skills. Jed would later introduce him to members of the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. After returning to Japan from this trip, Goro started selling Native American inspired silver jewelry.

Becoming Yellow Eagle and attending the Sun Dance

In 1979 he visited traveled to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota where he met Eddie Little Sky and his son Beau Little, who later adopted him in their family. That year Goro underwent a naming ceremony and received the name of Yellow Eagle (as in "eagle from the east") by the medicine man. Also in 1979, Goro was allowed to participate in a Sun Dance ceremony, becoming the first Japanese person to do so.

Back in Japan

Goro's fame grew in the 1980s and 1990s as the Amekaji and Shibuya Casual trends came into fashion, also thanks to publications such MEN'S CLUB and Popeye that featured his work. During this time he was running the store alone, which made him an easy target for shoplifters. To put an end to it, in the winter of 1991 Goro started allowing only one person or group at a time, which led to both a more personalized shopping experience and long lines outside his store, both of which further increasing his fame. One day, thinking of his customers sitting on the cold guardrails in winter, he installed a 9-meter log on the sidewalk, which became an attraction in itself. The log was removed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government after ten years, in 2002.

References

1. FASHIONSNAP (2013-12-13). "原宿の伝説「ゴローズ」創業者の高橋吾郎が死去". FASHIONSNAP (in Japanese). Retrieved 2024-11-20.
2. "Welcome to the MUGEN – MyKaiju®". Retrieved 2024-11-20.
3. ^ "Japanese American Indian". goro's | DELTAone International. 2022-08-15. Retrieved 2024-11-20.
4. October 19, ohtadmin on; 2011 (2011-10-19). "~Beau Little~ - Lakota Times". Lakota Times -. Retrieved 2024-11-20. {{cite web}}: |last2= has numeric name (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
5. "渋カジは現在のファッションの原点と言えるほど大きな功績を残した｜あっきー". note（ノート） (in Japanese). 2021-03-15. Retrieved 2024-11-20.

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