Japanese Tradition in Contemporary Designs
Our logo was inspired by the kuginuki (nail puller) mon, a Japanese family crest. The kuginuki mon was used by several samurai families, including the Hori clan who governed Shoso’s hometown Muramatsu from the 17th century to 1871.
The colour of the image is mist green (C36 M10 Y45 K0). This delicate greyish green comes from the back of willow leaves, and is one of a suite of traditional colours highly valued in Japan for centuries.
The letters are in smoke blue (C78 M57 Y52 K7). Grey became one of the most popular colours in Japan during the mid Edo period (1604 - 1867) and over a hundred variations were newly invented. Smoke blue, the grey-blue colour of smoke, is one of them.
