Corporate Culture Magazine “Hanatsubaki”
“Hanatsubaki” is a corporate culture magazine issued by Shiseido. It was first issued in 1937. Although it was temporarily discontinued out of necessity for a period of time during and after World War II, it resumed printing in 1950. Since its first issue, “Hanatsubaki” has been delivering hints to enable people to live their lives richly and beautifully through not only visual materials such as photographs and graphics but also reading materials such as essays and novels.
The Shiseido Geppo — November 1924–February 1931
The Shiseido Geppo (77 issues) was created as a newsletter offering information on Western lifestyle and culture. Targeting mainly female readership, its pages featured articles on makeup and cosmetic care, short stories by fashionable authors, and information about fashion and cultural trends abroad.
The Shiseido Graph — June 1933–September 1937
The Shiseido Graph (50 issues), the successor to the earlier Shiseido Geppo, utilized a strongly photograph-oriented format to build an image of “the next-generation woman,” including pictures of modern women engaged in activities that were then new to Japan, such as golfing, tennis, and skiing.
Hanatsubaki (1) — November 1937–August 1940
Shiseido changed the name of the company magazine to Hanatsubaki to match with the launch of the “Hanatsubaki-kai” (“Camellia Club”) Shiseido product user group. The content focused mainly on beauty and cosmetics, but with pages also dedicated to literature, art, fashion, food, and foreign trends, the magazine aimed to position itself as “a medium at the forefront of the times.”
Hanatsubaki (2) — June 1950–
After a ten-year hiatus during and after World War II, Hanatsubaki relaunched in 1950. Initial circulation was about 110,000 copies, but along with Japan’s postwar recovery this grew to over 6.8 million nationwide by the late 1960s.
Hanatsubaki (3) — 1980s–December 2015
This iteration of Hanatsubaki turned the magazine to a new editorial focus, “visual entertainment,” with enhanced orientation toward being a cutting-edge culture magazine with a strongly graphical approach. In 1983, it also established the “Hanatsubaki Contemporary Poetry Prize,” a way of giving recognition to the verbal and literary arts.
Hanatsubaki (4) — June 2016–
With the publication of the December 2015 issue, after 813 issues as a monthly magazine, Hanatsubaki undertook a complete reboot to embrace a new cross-media format that includes both a modern website and a quarterly printed magazine. The ongoing Shiseido corporate ideal of “Inspiring a life of beauty and culture” remains unchanged as the underlying theme, and the new dual format is ideal for conveying the latest in essential information.
