Papas' Clothes and What Transcends Generational Divides.

Whether as part of his solo project, TENDRE, or as the bassist and vocalist of a band, Taro Kawahara’s musical style is incredibly diverse and free-spirited, with his repertoire ranging from guitar to keyboard to saxophone. With a father who is a jazz bassist and a mother who is a singer, music has been a constant presence in his life since birth. Although the Kawahara family shared this common language, Taro says he didn’t often have deep conversations with his father, Hideo, who was particularly shy.

"I just didn't have many opportunities like that. “My father was the kind of person who went straight after what he wanted to do. Ever since I was little, I felt like he was living freely, absorbed in extracurricular activities like music and dance. So, there weren’t really many opportunities for him to reach out to me and talk. But it wasn’t that I wasn’t interested—it just felt like I was observing from the sidelines,” Taro reflects on his childhood.

His childhood home is an apartment located on a small hill on the outskirts of Yokohama in Kanagawa Prefecture. In the room right next to the entrance stands a well-worn piano. This space, which Taro calls “the piano room,” serves as his practice room and is also where his musical journey began.

Hideo, who turned 73 this year, once studied abroad at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, where he was exposed to authentic jazz and the world of music. When asked why he became so devoted to music, he gave this answer.

"I really think my parents had a big influence on me. My mom loved music, and she had me and my older sister take piano lessons from a young age. We played from around kindergarten or first grade through our second year of high school. My mom was the daughter of a priest at a temple in Okayama, and there was an organ at that temple, so I guess she wanted to play the piano herself."

Upon hearing this, Tarō said, “I didn’t know about that…,” sounding a little surprised. Ignoring his son, Hideo laughed and said, “I don’t think he knows about that. We don’t usually talk about things like this with Tarō, after all.”

Beside the two of them as they chat are folk crafts their travel-loving mother has collected from her various trips, along with rows of records and CDs lining the walls. All in all, it really brings home the fact that this is where their roots lie.

The influence Hideo had on Taro wasn’t limited to music. As Taro entered his impressionable teenage years, he began to take an interest in Hideo’s closet—Hideo, who often took the stage as a jazz musician and performed in front of audiences.

"When I started getting into fashion around high school, I began to realize, 'Wow, my dad actually has clothes like this...' (laughs). 'Oh! He’s got a really cool jacket! …’ I’d think to myself, on the sly. When I got to high school, vintage clothes were really trendy, so I’d just take clothes from my dad’s closet and wear them as if they were vintage finds. I don’t know if he remembers, but I do recall asking him things like, ‘Can I wear this?’ or ‘What do you think of this?’” said Taro.

It had been about 20 years since we’d had a mother-daughter chat about fashion like that. And for the first time, the two of us went out together, just the two of us, to look for clothes.