Shiseido Corporate Museum, Corporate museum in Kakegawa, Japan
The Shiseido Corporate Museum in Kakegawa displays beauty products, packaging, and marketing materials from many decades of company history. The exhibits document the shift from Japan's first Western-style pharmacy approach to a worldwide beauty business.
The museum opened in 1992 to mark the company's 120th anniversary. It tells the story of how the business grew from a pharmacy into a major international brand.
The collection shows how Japanese beauty ideals changed over time, visible in old advertisements and different uniforms worn by beauty consultants. You can see how different generations thought about style and appearance.
The museum is easy to reach by taking the train to JR Kakegawa Station and then making a short trip to the building. Getting there is straightforward and does not require a car.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology found materials from this museum valuable enough to include in courses about Japanese advertising and design from the early 1900s. This shows how important the historical collections are for understanding design history.
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