Kanebo

Kanebo traces its roots to 1887, when it began as the Tokyo Cotton Trading Company — a textile enterprise whose mastery of silk would eventually seed a lasting cosmetics philosophy. By the 1930s the company was producing luxury silk-protein soap, and by the 1960s it had fully committed to beauty, launching both a cosmetics division and an early programme of Japanese fine fragrance. Kanebo made history in 1964 with Coronation Bell, a perfume created to celebrate the era, and in 1969 commissioned the artist Toko Shinoda to design packaging for its fragrances Hinotori and Morinosei — an early instance of fine art informing Japanese perfumery. Acquired by Kao Corporation in 2006, Kanebo today presides over a portfolio of beauty brands ranging from mass-market lines to the ultra-prestige Sensai, distributed across nearly fifty countries. Its fragrance heritage, while less prominent than its skincare renown, reflects the broader Kanebo conviction that beauty is an act of personal discovery rather than social performance.