Discover the official introduction to Total Custom Theory and its core concepts.

SOU CUSTOM THEORY, known in Japanese as 総カスタム理論, is a theory created by Japanese creator Tento Nemoto, founder of NEMODOPE. It is a theory that observes human existence and explores the common structures connecting humans, machines, cities, nature, culture, and life itself.

SOU CUSTOM THEORY began with curiosity.

The curiosity to understand how things work, the desire to touch things directly, and the instinct to explore what exists beyond the surface became the foundation of this theory.

From an early age, Tento Nemoto developed this way of seeing the world through skateboarding, motorcycles, engines, custom machines, and Lowrider culture.

Through skateboarding, he experienced the relationship between the human body, movement, balance, and the surrounding environment.

Through motorcycles and engines, he discovered that machines are not simply objects, but responsive structures — systems that respond to the human body through sound, vibration, movement, and feedback.

Through custom culture and Lowrider culture, he learned that modifying something is not only about changing its appearance, but about expressing the relationship between a person and the thing they interact with.

These experiences became the foundation of SOU CUSTOM THEORY.

Human beings are not completed beings from the moment they are born.

People observe the world, engage with it directly, feel it, experience failure, struggle, think, and continue exploring.

Through these repeated experiences, humans gradually change their own structure and their relationship with the world.

SOU CUSTOM THEORY studies this process of transformation through humans, machines, cities, nature, culture, and life.

In this theory, the word “custom” does not simply mean replacing parts, improving performance, or changing appearance.

Custom means directly engaging with something, physically interacting with it, intervening in its structure, and discovering the mechanisms hidden within it.

A person cannot truly understand something without directly engaging with it.

By cutting, rebuilding, failing, correcting, and trying again, structures that were previously invisible begin to appear.

This process is not limited to external objects.

Every intervention also transforms the person who performs it.

When the body changes, the way the world is received also changes.

The world itself continues to move through time, technology, culture, and nature.

However, SOU CUSTOM THEORY does not only observe changes happening outside of humans.

It observes how human beings are organized to receive, interpret, and connect with those changes.

The world continues to flow.

But the way each person receives that flow depends on their own structure.

This is why every person sees the world differently.

The difference does not exist only in the world itself.

It exists in how each person is configured to observe and receive it.

SOU CUSTOM THEORY considers this transformation of the observer’s structure to be a fundamental process of human growth.

Touching machines, walking through cities, entering cultures, meeting people, and observing nature are all forms of exploration and intervention.

Through these experiences, humans receive information from the world and rewrite their own structure.

Curiosity creates new curiosity.

Each discovery leads to another question.

Each experience creates another connection.

This continuous cycle becomes an individual sense, a unique perspective, and a personal output.

Tento Nemoto describes this as “Ore no Aji” (俺の味) — a personal signature created through one’s experiences, interventions, choices, and way of existing.

It is not simply a preference or style.

It is the unique expression that emerges from the accumulated relationship between a person and the world.

That personal signature can influence others, create new interventions, and generate new connections.

SOU CUSTOM THEORY is not a theory about changing humans into something else.

It is a theory about restarting the original structure inherent in human beings.

Every person carries an inner fire from birth.

This fire observes the world, receives information, becomes energy, creates action, and continues updating the structure of the self.

The original structure is not a finished form given at birth. Rather, it is continually activated and renewed through connection with the world and repeated intervention.

Even when a person becomes lost, stops moving, or fails, this fire does not disappear.

Therefore, humans can reawaken their original structure again and again, rebuilding themselves each time.

The same process can be found when rebuilding an engine, modifying a machine, moving through a city, creating culture, or changing oneself.

SOU CUSTOM THEORY is a theory that observes the common structures shared by humans, machines, cities, nature, culture, and life by continuously updating one’s own structure through physical experience, intervention, and curiosity-driven exploration.

It is not a theory for simply increasing knowledge.

It is a way of living — a process of restoring connection with the world, developing one’s own perspective, creating one’s own signature, and maximizing the output of one’s own existence.