Where Fragrance Begins: The Gentle Art of Hand-Harvested Neroli By Yoshinobu Yamabe
Pg. 34-39 - 5-minute read
I was born as the second son of a farming family in Japan, but my early career was in machine-tool engineering, where precision, efficiency, and control shaped how I understood value. Returning to help on my family’s farm, I began to see a different reality. Citrus fruits with minor visual imperfections were often sold cheaply or discarded, while farmers faced unstable incomes, a shortage of successors, and increasing abandoned farmland. These experiences led me to question how agricultural value is defined and whether there might be another way to create value from what was being overlooked.
I encountered distillation as a way to explore that possibility. My first material was the peel of imperfect mandarins from our farm. Without formal training or an established pathway, I learned through conversations with a distillation equipment manufacturer and through repeated experimentation. My early attempts resulted in considerable waste, but they taught me to understand how temperature, timing, and the condition of plant material shape fragrance. I later studied aromatherapy formally through a program accredited by the Aroma Environment Association of Japan, where I began to understand fragrance not simply as something pleasant, but as something that can interact with human perception, memory, mood, and physiological states.
Today, I cultivate citrus in Nagasaki and operate my company in Kyoto, where I continue to explore the relationship between agriculture, culture, and fragrance. Neroli has become especially important to my work. Each flower is harvested by hand, flowers that have touched the ground are excluded, and the fresh blossoms are distilled on the same day. Working with small stainless-steel stills allows me to carefully control temperature and duration, preserving a delicate and nuanced expression. I am also exploring the effects of fragrance through research with the sleep research group at Kurume University Hospital, examining the relationship between scent, sleep, and the chemical composition of essential oils.
Beyond distillation, I am interested in how fragrance can become part of everyday life and support a closer relationship with natural rhythms. This led me to develop junero Night Aroma Shampoo, bringing fragrance into the familiar ritual of bathing. Through cultivation, research, markets, education, and direct relationships with people, I continue to explore how fragrance can create value while remaining connected to land and community. For me, sustainability is not only about the environment; it is also about creating a way of working that can continue across generations without losing its essential character.
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