A new fragrance experience has arrived in the old capital: "YOKAI JAPAN Kyoto Ichinenzaka Perfume Shop" has opened, offering a way to wear Japanese culture through scent.
It is the brand's second location, following its first shop on Asakusa's Tanuki-dori. The Kyoto store sits along Ichinenzaka in Higashiyama, amid stone-paved lanes and preserved Kyoto townhouses, and offers a taste of YOKAI JAPAN's world through fragrances that capture the air, culture, and the "presence" that lives in the place.
An Old-Capital Experience: Wearing Japanese Culture Through Scent on Ichinenzaka
YOKAI JAPAN is a fragrance brand inspired by the scenery, history, and culture found across Japan, translating each place's unseen "presence" into scent.
Ichinenzaka, the site of the new store, is one of the historic areas that define Higashiyama in Kyoto. Its stone-paved slope and surviving Kyoto townhouses connect to some of the city's most iconic sights, including Ninenzaka, Sannenzaka, Kodaiji Temple, and Kiyomizu-dera.
While the street draws plenty of foot traffic, stepping into a side lane reveals a quieter side, where history meets the present and the everyday sits beside the extraordinary — a distinctly Kyoto atmosphere.
Visitors can experience, through scent, the quiet air felt while walking Kyoto's streets and the layers of culture built up in the old capital over time.
More Than Buying a Fragrance — Taking Home a Scene of Japan
YOKAI JAPAN's proposition goes beyond simply choosing a perfume.
- Letting a scent bring to mind a place's scenery, history, and culture.
- Carrying a landscape encountered while traveling back into everyday life, through fragrance.
- Feeling closer to the many kinds of "presence" found across Japan by wearing a scent.
Treating Ichinenzaka itself as part of the experience, the shop offers a new kind of fragrance encounter that combines scent, space, and local culture.
Also Available at MUSASHI JAPAN Stores in Japan and Overseas
YOKAI JAPAN fragrances are now also available at MUSASHI JAPAN stores in Japan and abroad. Pairing Japanese kitchen knives, a symbol of Japanese craftsmanship, with fragrances that express scenery and culture through scent creates a new point of contact with Japanese aesthetics and culture through two very different products.
Customers visiting MUSASHI JAPAN can try the fragrances and picture scenes of Japan as they do. YOKAI JAPAN continues to pursue this kind of cultural experience that goes beyond the product itself.
Wearing Japanese Culture Through Scent, and Beyond
Going forward, YOKAI JAPAN plans to use Asakusa and Kyoto as starting points to share, both in Japan and abroad, fragrances inspired by the scenery, history, and culture found in regions across the country, along with the "presence" that lives in each place.
Alongside the scents themselves, the brand is also paying attention to the places and spaces where they are experienced, aiming to create opportunities for visitors to feel closer to Japanese culture and the character of each locale.
