ÉDIT(h)
エディット

基本情報

Seller：Moriyama INC.
Founder：Kentaro Kuzuwa
Year of foundation：2018
Official Website：here

Brand History

On January 19, 2018, Moriyama Corporation, a red ink(syuniku) manufacturer for over 100 years, launched its perfume brand at the Maison&Objet exhibition in Paris. It is ÉDIT(h) . ÉDIT(h), which began with five eau de parfums, a solid perfume, and three candles, was born with an eye on the world from the start.

Nikko Jirushi

　Moriyama Inc., which launched the perfume brand “Edit(h),” originally began as a store named Seishindo, which was founded in Surugadai, Tokyo in 1905 to sell red ink pads and other impression products. Since that time, the red ink sold under the name “Nikko-jirushi” has contained natural ingredients, and the fragrance is uniquely Asian-derived, used in incense. This was the only company in the world producing vermillion inkpads, and the only Moriyama in the world. This would later become one of the strengths of Edit(h)’s perfumes.

　In 2005, the 100th anniversary of the company’s founding, Kentaro Kuzuwa, now the sixth president, joined the company and soon became the sixth generation.

　In 2012, the company changed its materials from conventional inorganic pigments to organic pigments, and also developed the industry’s first organic kneaded vermillion ink pad, which overcame the drawbacks of organic pigments, and remains at the forefront of the industry as a high-end luxury vermillion ink pad brand.

Tradition and Innovation

　Why would a red ink manufacturer get into the fragrance business? We are often asked this question, but it is not at all out of the ordinary. Although it may be difficult to create products related to “stamping” alone for the next 100 years, we decided to add the secondary element of fragrance and create something that will be needed in the future and that can create new value through its use. However, when we first planned to create something new by focusing on fragrance, our product was not a fragrance, but rather we were thinking of “red ink that spreads fragrance just by leaving it like a room fragrance.

Mr.Kuzuwa from fashionsnap interview

　Growing up in a family where both parents were business owners, Mr. Kuzuwa spent his junior high school and university years immersed in rugby and loved dance music to the point of DJing at the same time. In 1998, after graduating from Seijo University with a Bachelor of Economics degree, he started working for a major record company and in his third year was selected as a director with excellent results. Then, on the occasion of Moriyama Corporation’s 100th anniversary, his parents asked him to take over the family business, and at the age of 29, Mr. Kuzuwa resigned from the record company and joined Moriyama Corporation.

　After joining the company, he learned the art of red ink manufacturing himself from the craftsmen in the company, and began to think about a new business to continue not only the red ink business but also the next 100 years. What caught Mr. Kuzuwa’s attention was the fragrance that Nikko Ink uniquely uses in its vermillion ink. At first, he was thinking of a red ink pad that diffused fragrance like a room fragrance, but when he saw a sample of the liquid brought by the perfumer he requested, he decided to make a new innovation, not as a red ink pad, but as a fragrance. Thus was born the perfume brand ÉDIT(h).

　A seal is an act of leaving a signature, but a fragrance is also something that “remains” in the memory and senses because it is invisible to the eye and constitutes a person’s atmosphere and character. I myself have used the same perfume for a long time, and I believe that fragrance can be a signature that identifies an individual. This story made sense to me, so I decided to launch a new fragrance brand.

Mr.Kuzuwa from fashionsnap interview

Commitment

　Compared to other Japanese brands, Edit’s perfumes, which are produced in partnership with Japanese perfumers, seem to be branded much more solidly and have more attention to detail because they are not owned by perfumers. In particular, it is wonderful that every detail of the brand is reasoned to be possible only because it is a vermillion brand, and it is a core strength rarely seen even in foreign brands.
　Many famous Japanese brands up to now have been launched by perfumers, but I believe that in the future, just as in other countries, brands will emerge where the creative directors will work with perfumers to maximize the potential of perfumes and branding.

Scent

　When creating the Edit(h) fragrance, Mr. Kuzuwa told the perfumer that he wanted him to create a fragrance without any common sense or ideas about fragrances, and without worrying about the cost. In other words, he wanted original and interesting fragrances by breaking down conventional ideas, and at the same time, he wanted ” high-end fragrances”.

　The first five fragrances (Earl Grey, Jardin Tokyo, Reminisce, Rose Mojito, and Yuzuki) were thus created as perfumes, room fragrances, and candles, and presented at the traditional exhibition Maison et Objet in Paris in 2018. From the packaging, the way it was launched, and the branding, it seems that Edit created a perfume that is not made by Japanese people for Japanese people, but a perfume that transmits tradition from Japan to the world, and the fact that it was actually presented at an international exhibition shows how serious Edit(h) is. And the exhibition was such a success that it wowed many perfumers in France, and some stores even wanted to do business with them.

　If a fragrance is made by a manufacturer that makes high-end red ink, it should be made in the same high-end way. Then again, when you are making things, of course technology and quality are important, but you also need to make a decision not to do things that don’t have a reason to be there. For Edit’s scented candles, I started with the idea that since the classic red ink is made with natural materials such as goby wax and oil, it would be impossible not to make candles (wax candles), then.

Mr.Kuzuwa from fashionsnap interview

　ÉDIT(h) currently offers 10 perfumes: the first five (1st collection), four new creations from the 2nd collection (La collection Remixes) created by three French perfumers using the “musical perfumery method,” and the gourmand perfume Club Lonely, created by the same Japanese perfumer who created the first fragrance. The second collection includes four new creations (La collection Remixes) created by the master perfumer using the “musical perfumery method”.
　The second collection is a new fragrance created based on the information from the first collection, “like creating a new piece of music that honors the original while changing the tones and rhythms used” in music. This attempt to reinterpret a fragrance created by a Japanese perfumer by a French perfumer can be considered as a chance encounter between Japanese and French perfume cultures, and it is interesting to see the difference in the way each of them perceives the other’s work.

Design

　As the successor to a brand that has already been around for 100 years, the attention to detail in the bottles is also extraordinary.

　First of all, the shape of the perfume bottle is created by scanning a stamp in 3D and calculating the proportions of length and width. The glass bottle is made of semi-handmade molding (a process in which a team of three craftsmen work together to create the bottle), which is also used for high-end European glasses, and the cap is made of zinc. The cap is made of zinc. This makes it possible for no two Edit(h) perfumes to have the same patterned cap and glass bottle, even if they are the same perfume.

　Incidentally, the cap of the home fragrance is hairlined in the direction from upper left to lower right to add a calm image, and the size of the mouth is based on the image of a representative seal.

　The perfume bottle is housed in the same paulownia wood box and sleeve as the packaging for the Nikko seal’s high-grade kneaded red ink. However, since the goal is to be recognized globally, the company avoids having the appearance of a Japanese accessory. And the sleeve was inspired by a polka dot motif that came to mind when thinking of a modern Tokyo and a photo of a peacock taken at the zoo, and the pursuit of modernity led to a graphic, inverted image of a peacock.

　In addition, the shopper is made entirely from paper material and is recyclable.

　The best way to see our thoughts on ÉDIT(h) is to watch this video.