On November 7 at 11:00 JST, a special religious ceremony to bless the new Tokon Shop in Suidobashi was held with both president Harold Meij and Hiroshi Tanahashi in attendance.
Tanahashi was excited about the size and design of the new store and decided to do his part to help the store get ready. Picking up the vacuum cleaner he said “I’m going to be ace of cleaning too!”
Tanahashi went around vacuuming every inch of the store whilst the Shinto priest set-up a shrine for prosperous business in the middle of the store.
Taking a look around he was surprised to see that the new store has a fitting room inside so that people can check their size before buying New Japan goods. Tanahashi also stopped by the dog wear corner and said “these are my favourite new releases!”
Finally Tanahashi posed for a commemorative photo with the shop staff and members of the NJPW merchandise team.
On seeing the size of the new shop, Tanahashi decided that his next ambition would be to release his own original brand and sell it to the Tokon shop in Suidobashi.
* The new store has an expanded sales area, is closer to the station, has excellent access from street level and is easier to find than ever before.
Please come visit our store!
■ New store
VORT Suidobashi II 1F, 3-3-20 Kanda Misakicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0061
Business hours from 11:00 to 20:00
TEL 03-3511-9901
JR Suidobashi Station West Exit (1 minute walk)
★ The new store will open on November 10th (Sunday) from 11:00 and Manabu Nakanishi will be the store manager for the day
■ Comment from Hiroshi Tanahashi
— What are your impressions of visiting the new shop?
Tanahashi: Firstly, the location is good. It faces the main street and is close to the station, so it’s easy to stop by before watching an event at Korakuen and there’s a lot of passers by, so it’s easy for people who aren’t familiar with professional wrestling to see it.
— So you’d say you were happy then?
Tanahashi: That’s right. I think this is definitely a step up in terms of visibility. The only thing left to do is to make a make a special corner dedicated to Hiroshi Tanahashi and to release my own brand of merchandise…
— Does that mean you’re going to launch your own clothing line!
Tanahashi: I want to launch an original brand and sell it to the Tokon shop. Naturally the brand would have to be fashionable, but it would also capture the essence of Pro-Wrestling. It would be a win for Tanahashi, a win for the shop and a win for the fans. A win-win-win situation if you will.
— This new store must have revitalized one of your ambitions then.
Tanahashi: That’s right. When I was a college student, I was big fan of wrestling and wanted a Pro-Wrestling T-shirt that I could wear around town, but I couldn’t find cool at all. As a professional wrestling fan, I want to wear professional wrestling goods, but I also want to dress up stylishly.
— So something you could wear at both professional wrestling events and as a designer brand you could wear normally?
Tanahashi That’s right. The way I see it Pro-Wrestling goods should have that dual functionality. They would stand out at a wrestling event as something fashionable. Do you think it would be popular?
— I think it would be very popular.
Tanahashi Great! Maybe I’ll start-up an apparel brand called “ITSU” short for Itsuzai (genius) I also asked the shop staff what they thought about making me a mannequin. I saw a TV program about it and I think it would be useful to model clothes on. Even though I never get tired, a mannequin version of myself could stand there all day long! We could call it a Tanaquin!
— Sounds like you’re having fun. Any message for your fans.
Tanahashi: I definitely recommend a visit and I sincerely hope that all of my fans will be pleased with the new shop!
