Howl, the bar in Aoyama, was founded just after Allen Ginsberg's death in 1997.
Proprietor Maki Fujimoto, producer and graphic designer of Heaven Limited, was once sent on an assignment to interview Ginsberg for a special issue on the Beat Generation for the former Japanese popular culture journal Edge. Through an introduction by the Korean artist Nam Jun Paik, Fujimoto found himself on the Lower East Side of New York in Ginsberg's apartment with Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky, being questioned by the former as to whether his notes to his famous poem "Howl" were translated in the Japanese edition.
Later, in 1988, Fujimoto organized an exhibit and reading of Ginsberg with Yu Suwa's translations and lecture in Tokyo at Gallery Watari (now Watari-um).