Akiko Kamei: From Kochi to Grasse, Opening Doors Through Fragrance

Hermès (in Japanese)’ Parfum d’Hermès and Rouge Hermès. Caron’s Le Troisième Homme. And Diptyque’s Oyédo. Some readers may be surprised to discover that the work of the same Japanese perfumer appears among these names. That perfumer is Akiko Kamei.

Her starting point was studying to become a dietitian and working for a Japanese cosmetics company. An encounter with perfume and a love of French cinema then came together. A woman raised in Kochi entered a perfumery school in Grasse and eventually left her fragrant mark on French houses. Let us trace that journey through her interviews and creations.

Akiko Kamei’s Early Life

A Girl Growing Up in Kochi, and a Working Mother

In a 2020 interview, Kamei said that she was born in what is now South Korea to Japanese parents and moved to Japan at the age of three. Kochi was where she grew up.

The eldest daughter among three siblings, she lost her father in the war and was raised by her mother, a teacher. She attended primary school in her father’s hometown, the former village of Agawa, now Niyodogawa, before going on to Niyodo Junior High School and Kochi Gakugei High School. She belonged to the high school’s second cohort. From lodgings in Asakura, Kochi City, she travelled to the school, which at the time stood next to Kochi University.

Hearing about the schooldays of someone who would become a perfumer, we might imagine that chemistry was a strong subject. Yet in an interview with the Kochi Shimbun at the age of 82, she looked back in these words.

I was no good at maths, chemistry or physics, and I was a bundle of insecurities.

Akiko Kamei | Kochi Shimbun, “Living with Fragrance: 53 Years in France” (11 October 2024)

Her mother encouraged women to have careers of their own. Kamei entered the Department of Human Life Sciences at the prefectural Kochi Women’s University. Her own explanation for wanting to become a dietitian was also to make sure she could find work. Before entering the world of perfume, she had a very practical starting point: securing a profession for herself.

Encountering French Perfume at Opal Cosmetics

After graduating from university, she joined Opal Cosmetics. There she met a Japanese fragrance supplier and was introduced to perfumes including Chanel (in Japanese) No.5, Nina Ricci’s L’Air du Temps and Guy Laroche’s Fidji. Although she initially knew nothing about perfume, she says she gradually came to appreciate it.

Cinema was another force drawing her towards France. Kamei loved French films and was also studying French. Her interest in the culture and her passion for perfume would lead her to move to France.

Becoming a Perfumer in Grasse

From Trainee to Roure’s Perfumery School

In the early 1970s, Kamei moved to France and joined Roure in Grasse as a trainee. The motivation and enthusiasm recognised there opened the door to its perfumery school.

Roure’s school had an educational tradition established by Jean Carles (in Japanese). Givaudan’s corporate history dates its beginnings to 1946. It was a school that developed the ability to distinguish fragrant materials by smell as a skill that could be learned and trained.

Around Kamei were people such as Pierre Bourdon (in Japanese), Édouard Fléchier, Michel Almairac, Jimmy Bell and Françoise Caron. These are the names Per Fumum lists as her fellow students and future colleagues. To those of us who know their later creations, it looks like a remarkably distinguished group.

Smelling, Comparing and Correcting Together

How was fragrance taught at that school? Françoise Caron, who also studied at Roure, describes it in detail in an interview with Nose in Paris.

In Jean Carles’s method, students first learn materials by olfactory family, such as floral or citrus. They chart how materials fade over time and learn them through comparison. Then they study accords (in Japanese) made by combining several materials, adjusting their balance. Caron describes an approach that repeatedly connects olfactory memory with formulas.

We exchanged ideas, corrected one another and influenced one another.

Françoise Caron | Interview with Nose. Translated by this site

How did the people around Kamei learn perfumery? Caron’s recollections convey the atmosphere of learning while checking and discussing fragrances with fellow students.

Ten Years in Grasse, Then Paris

Kamei spent ten years in Grasse. She was then spotted by Jean Amic and invited to join the creative team in Paris.

Amic was responsible for managing Roure and leading its creative team. His work involved teams developing fragrances such as Rive Gauche, Opium and Poison. He worked where fragrance expertise met the creations brands were seeking. His invitation to Paris marked a major turning point in Kamei’s work on perfumes for the houses.

Incidentally, Roure and Givaudan, which appear in accounts of her career, are not separate stories. Roure and Givaudan merged in 1991. The history of the company she joined in Grasse continues into the later Givaudan.

Working as a Woman Perfumer

Her path also involved difficulties that skill in making fragrances alone could not overcome. Per Fumum draws attention to the fact that Kamei was both a woman and someone from another country in the male-dominated perfume industry of the time. Caron, too, recalls a period when there were few women at the school or in the laboratory.

Looking back on the working environment of those days, Kamei herself says this.

There were only two women perfumers at the time: Françoise Caron and me.

Akiko Kamei | Per Fumum, “Femme et parfumeur”. Recorded on 11 March 2020; published on 23 July 2021. Translated by this site from the publicly available English subtitles

She is talking here about the workplace she experienced. One particular difficulty for Kamei was her relationship with evaluators, who assessed fragrances and guided their development. She recalls that male perfumers found it easier to push their own creations forward.

We were kind and sincere in our dealings. But that alone was not enough.

Akiko Kamei | Per Fumum, “Femme et parfumeur”. Translated by this site from the publicly available English subtitles

After speaking about manoeuvring, jealousy and competition, Kamei adds that these things exist in every profession. Beyond the title of creator of celebrated perfumes, we glimpse a working person dealing with others in order to have her work recognised.

Tracing Akiko Kamei’s Perfumes

1984: Parfum d’Hermès

An essential creation in understanding Kamei’s work is Parfum d’Hermès. Born in 1984, it led to the later Rouge Hermès. Hermès also officially records Kamei’s name.

Luca Ilorini, writing in the Italian cosmetics trade journal Kosmetica, presented the fragrance as a collaboration with Raymond Chaillan. His account describes flowers unfolding from green galbanum and hyacinth into rose, ylang-ylang, iris and jasmine. The depth of woods and resins further supports the abundant floral composition.

In a 2016 review, Angela of Now Smell This describes the fragrance’s evolution more vividly still. Hyacinth and galbanum initially rise with striking intensity. The flowers gradually grow sweeter, moving towards ylang-ylang, vanilla and a powdery feel. From a glamorous entrance to a quiet lingering presence close to the skin: this transition was also part of the appeal Angela found in Parfum d’Hermès.

Kafkaesque, which covers vintage perfume in detail, also compares owned eaux de toilette judged to date from 1986, 1994 and 1998. The account records sharp greenery in the early bottle and a stronger impression of sweet, soft flowers and vanilla in the later bottles. It also discusses deterioration of the top notes in old bottles.

Differences in impressions of vintage perfume become easier to understand when concentration, period and storage condition are considered alongside them. In Parfum d’Hermès, too, the history of the creation overlaps with the time each individual bottle has lived through.

1985: Le Troisième Homme

The following year, 1985, brought Caron’s Le Troisième Homme / Le 3ème Homme. Listed by Per Fumum among Kamei’s representative creations, it was Caron’s third men’s fragrance.

The name means “The Third Man”. According to Caron, it pays tribute to Carol Reed’s film The Third Man, especially Harry Lime, played by Orson Welles. It is interesting that a perfume with a cinematic origin appears in the work of Kamei, a lover of film. The explanation of the name comes from the house itself.

Caron’s current account centres on a spicy combination of leather and nutmeg, describing a fougère structure of bergamot, lavender, geranium and moss. It layers the character of spice and leather over the freshness of citrus and herbs.

Reviews from different periods, however, reveal other aspects. What Kevin of Now Smell This perceived in 2011 was a harmonious blend of sweet flowers and fruit. While acknowledging its coherence, he also expressed some dissatisfaction with how little it changed over time. A footnote to the article further notes differences between the listed notes in material from 1985 and in later sources.

What France’s Passion Parfums appreciated in 2020 was its multifaceted progression from citrus to spice, aromatic and woody facets. Beyond the fresh opening lay a succession of different expressions. The review regarded it as a creation that brought a new personality to a classical combination of scents.

2000: Rouge Hermès

In 2000, Parfum d’Hermès was reinterpreted and given the name Rouge Hermès. Rouge has been one of the house’s emblematic colours since 1934. Hermès’ red was now given to a perfume as well.

The current official description identifies rose, ylang-ylang and vanilla as the heart of the fragrance. It conveys floral richness and a sweet, enveloping quality. Ida Meister of ÇaFleureBon, meanwhile, explored Rouge’s appeal by comparing older bottles.

In a 2024 article, Meister compares a well-preserved bottle of the earlier fragrance from her collection with Rouge. Against the earlier work’s strong greenery, what caught her attention in Rouge was the balance of flowers, powder, sandalwood and cedar. In her reading, the rich fragrance is brought into balance by its woody support.

Some things are beautiful simply for the sake of being beautiful.

Ida Meister | ÇaFleureBon, “Rouge Hermès and Parfum d’Hermès” (2 June 2024). Translated by this site

Rather than ending with similarities to celebrated perfumes such as Chamade, Nahema and Samsara, Meister seeks to see Rouge’s own beauty. Her criticism conveys how a work born as a reinterpretation of an earlier perfume came to be loved under its own name.

The bottle in the current Parfums-Fondateurs collection also retains the house’s story: a shape recalling a carriage lantern, a black cap reminiscent of a riding hat and an illustration by Philippe Dumas. It is a perfume to enjoy not only as a fragrance but also as a creation situated within Hermès’ history.

2000: Oyédo

That same year, 2000, saw the birth of a creation with an entirely different expression: Diptyque (in Japanese)’s Oyédo. Its name and inspiration come from Edo, the former name of Tokyo. From the layered flowers of the Hermès creations, the view now opens onto the world of citrus.

The main scents Diptyque currently lists are yuzu, green mandarin, thyme and raspberry. What is interesting is how citrus is taken in two directions: herbs and sweet fruit. Thyme adds a green aspect, while raspberry gives the fruit a rounded fullness.

The official description also mentions the synthetic fragrance material Frambinone. According to Diptyque, this material expresses the scent of raspberry, which cannot be extracted. Such materials also contribute to Oyédo’s fruitiness.

In 2005, five years after its launch, Robin of Now Smell This perceived sparkling citrus and pronounced sweetness. Robin writes that mint and thyme’s herbal character, together with woody support, keep that sweetness in check. It is a candid account of a perfume that initially failed to appeal but gradually became a favourite.

For Robin, Oyédo was also a fragrance that lifted the spirits in cold weather. On very hot days, however, it was too sweet. Its character may lie in the way it resists the simple assumption that a citrus perfume must be a light fragrance for summer.

Passion Parfums also focuses on Oyédo’s use of thyme, finding something characteristic of Kamei in its combination of citrus, herbs and wood, alongside Caron’s Le Troisième Homme. Here is a side of her that cannot be understood by looking only at the florals.

Mûre et Musc Cologne

Kamei’s work can also be found at L’Artisan Parfumeur: Mûre et Musc Cologne.

The names need to be distinguished carefully here. There is the original Mûre et Musc of 1978, the 1993 Extrême by Karine Dubreuil and Kamei’s Cologne. In a 2006 article, Victoria Frolova of Bois de Jasmin distinguishes these three. Kamei’s work was the Cologne version.

By 2006, when Victoria wrote the article, the Cologne was already described as discontinued. Even a version that has vanished from shop shelves can leave its creator’s name on record in this way.

The better known a perfume’s name, the harder it can become to see who made its different versions. Separating the Cologne from the broad name Mûre et Musc once again reveals the work of an individual perfumer.

Smelling Repeatedly and Recording Even the Emotions

What everyday work lay behind these glamorous creations? There is a striking account of Kamei’s working habits.

In “These Rituals That Made Great Perfumes”, written after listening again to interviews with perfumers, Per Fumum’s Lilian Nomo-Cleon describes how Kamei wrote everything in notebooks. She smelled fragrances many times a day, recording even the emotional impressions associated with each encounter. It had become an indispensable habit, the account says.

She preserved not just the names and proportions of materials but also what she herself felt when smelling them. In this habit, we seem to see both the person who builds a fragrance through numbers and the person whose emotions are stirred by scent.

Simply lining up the names and launch years of her creations does not readily reveal this figure. Smelling, writing and checking again, over and over: knowing this repetition makes us feel that we can look at Kamei’s work a step closer than the finished perfumes alone allow.

Questioning Perfumes That Have Become Too Smooth

After many years of creating fragrances, Kamei also casts a critical eye on changes in the perfume industry.

Per Fumum’s article on changes in the profession and its market presents concern about a craft, in which people earned colleagues’ recognition after long apprenticeships, becoming an industry producing large quantities collectively. One problem was the growing anonymity of creators behind their works.

In publicly available footage, Kamei cites formulas containing 70, 80 or 120 materials, questioning how intermittent adjustments can cause even unnecessary ingredients to accumulate.

The article drawing together the interviews conveys a fear that as formulas become longer and more complex, perfumes grow too smooth and lose creativity. After many materials and repeated adjustments, even memorable characteristics may be diluted. Her criticism invites us to consider that risk.

In the video, Kamei fondly recalls the pleasure of smelling and analysing slightly unusual, original perfumes. She concludes her thoughts on contemporary perfume with a short statement.

I expect more.

Akiko Kamei | Publicly available interview excerpt from Per Fumum (published on 3 December 2021). Translated by this site from the publicly available English subtitles

Oyédo’s citrus and thyme, and the layers of flowers and wood in the Hermès perfumes: after getting to know her work, this expectation resonates as the words of someone who has spent many years engaged with fragrance.

A Voice Left for the Next Generation of Perfumers

On 11 March 2020 in Paris, Kamei gave an interview for Per Fumum’s film project Héritage(s). It was directed by David Richard. The recorded film runs for 1 hour, 18 minutes and 50 seconds.

Her voice was later selected for The perfumer’s guide(s), a special edition for young people studying perfumery. In a 2024 interview, the director explained its themes: why the perfumers entered the profession, how they learned, how the reality differed from the work they had imagined and what they wanted to pass on to those following them.

Introducing Kamei, Richard describes her as the person who created “one of Diptyque’s most beautiful perfumes”. For those who know the beauty of the work, hearing about its creator’s journey may also carry considerable meaning.

In early summer 2024, a local newspaper interviewed her during a temporary return to Kochi. She was then 82 and had lived in France for 53 years.

Kamei left Kochi, studied in France and created fragrances for the houses; now she has become someone passing her experience on to the next generation. Following her works alongside her own words finally brings into view the long passage of time behind the perfumes.

Perfume Creations

These are major creations that can be identified from overseas interview profiles and articles about the works. This is not a complete catalogue including undisclosed assignments.

Launch year	Brand	Creation	Notes
1984	Hermès	Parfum d’Hermès Parfum d’Hermès	Presented in a signed overseas article as a collaboration with Raymond Chaillan.
1985	Caron	Le Troisième Homme Le Troisième Homme	Launch year from Caron’s official account; attribution to Kamei from Per Fumum.
2000	Hermès	Rouge Hermès Rouge Hermès	A reinterpretation of the 1984 creation.
2000	Diptyque	Oyédo Oyédo	A creation inspired by Edo.
Launch year unverified	L’Artisan Parfumeur	Mûre et Musc Cologne Mûre et Musc Cologne	Distinct from the original and the Extrême. Described as discontinued in a 2006 article.

References and Interviews

1. Kochi Shimbun, “Living with Fragrance: 53 Years in France. Perfumer Akiko Kamei (from Niyodogawa): Travellers Through Time, Asking That Person (12)”, 11 October 2024. Interview with Kamei; freely available portion.
2. Per Fumum, “Akiko Kamei Interview: Origins and Her Encounter with Perfume”, published on 4 June 2021. Excerpt from footage recorded on 11 March 2020; English subtitles consulted. The heading is this site’s description of the contents.
3. Per Fumum, “Akiko KAMEI”. Biographical profile and recording details accompanying the interview with Kamei.
4. Givaudan, “Our rich heritage — Timeline”. Used to check the perfumery school and company history.
5. Nose, “Françoise Caron”. Interview with Caron, discussing study at Roure and the Jean Carles method.
6. Per Fumum, “Women in Perfumery”, 23 June 2021. Commentary based on interview testimony.
7. Per Fumum, “Femme et parfumeur”, published on 23 July 2021. Video excerpt featuring Kamei; English subtitles consulted.
8. Per Fumum, “Jean AMIC”. Biographical profile accompanying an interview.
9. Hermès USA, “Rouge Hermès Eau de toilette”. History of the creation and description of the current fragrance and bottle.
10. Luca Ilorini, “Il Profumiere del Mese: Akiko Kamei”, Kosmetica, 1 February 2021.
11. Angela, “Hermes Parfum d’Hermes ~ fragrance review”, Now Smell This, 30 May 2016.
12. Kafkaesque, “A Guide To Vintage Parfum d’Hermès — Part II: EDTs, Parfum & Dating Bottles”, 24 November 2017.
13. Parfums Caron, “Le 3è Homme de CARON”. Launch year, origin of the name and description of the current product.
14. Kevin, “Le Troisieme Homme de Caron ~ fragrance review”, Now Smell This, 19 January 2011.
15. Ida Meister, “Rouge Hermès (Akiko Kamei) 2000 and Parfum d’Hermès (Akiko Kamei and Raymond Chaillon) 1984”, ÇaFleureBon, 2 June 2024.
16. Diptyque USA, “Oyédo Eau de toilette”. Inspiration, principal notes and explanation of Frambinone for the current product.
17. Robin, “Perfume review: Oyedo by Diptyque”, Now Smell This, 26 July 2005.
18. Victoria Frolova, “L’Artisan Mure et Musc and Mure et Musc Extreme: Perfume Reviews”, Bois de Jasmin, 24 February 2006.
19. Jessica M., “Hermes ~ shopping for perfume in New York”, Now Smell This, 19 January 2008. A shop-visit account reporting the sale of Rouge Eau Délicate at the time.
20. Lilian Nomo-Cleon, “These rituals that made great perfumes”, Per Fumum, 1 July 2022.
21. Per Fumum, “The evolution of the perfumery professions and its market”, 2 December 2021.
22. Per Fumum, “Akiko Kamei Interview: On Contemporary Perfume”, published on 3 December 2021. Video excerpt featuring Kamei; English subtitles consulted. The heading is this site’s description of the contents.
23. Lilian Nomo-Cleon, “Interview with David Richard, director of the films Héritage(s)”, Per Fumum, 4 July 2024.
24. Passion Parfums, “Akiko Kamei, le nez discret”, 21 May 2020. A comparative fragrance review, not used as an interview with Kamei.

The location where the full-length films are made available can be reached through Per Fumum’s main Héritage(s) page.