#5 Craftsmanship Rooted in Japan’s Regional Resources and Techniques: AND BLISS
Updated: Aug 30
The Chugoku region is located in the western part of Japan’s Honshu island and consists of five prefectures including Hiroshima, Okayama, Shimane, Tottori, and Yamaguchi. The region also is covered by the Sanyo area, which faces the Seto Inland Sea, and the San’in area along the Sea of Japan. Rich in natural beauty, mythology, history, and culture, the Chugoku region continues to preserve landscapes and ways of life that are distinctly Japanese.
International interest in the region has been growing in recent years. Hiroshima, Okayama, and Yamaguchi Prefectures, among others, have seen record numbers of overnight stays by international visitors. Against this backdrop, a growing number of local companies are drawing on the region’s resources, history, and craftsmanship to create new value and take on the challenge of expanding into global markets.
The CO:Design team visited five companies representing each prefecture from the Chugoku region that participated in a workshop jointly organized by JETRO and Parsons School of Design. During our visits, we explored each company's production sites and spoke with business owners and craftspeople about the techniques and philosophies they have inherited, as well as their ambitions for reaching international markets.
In this series, we introduce the values embedded in each company’s craftsmanship, their connection to their local communities, and the insights and lessons gained through their efforts to expand overseas.
AND BLISS (Yamaguchi Prefecture)
The World’s First Beauty Soap Made with Pufferfish Collagen, a Local Resource
Yamaguchi Prefecture, located at the westernmost tip of Honshu, Japan’s main island, is a region rich in natural beauty, history, and culture, surrounded by the sea on three sides. Its coastline stretches approximately 1,500 kilometers, the sixth longest among Japan’s prefectures after Hokkaido, Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Okinawa, and Ehime. With access to abundant fishing grounds, the region has a long history of thriving fisheries and seafood industries.
Among its coastal cities, Shimonoseki is one of Japan’s leading hubs for fugu, or pufferfish, attracting catches from across the country and handling some of the largest volumes nationwide. Over generations, the city has developed highly specialized processing techniques and a distinctive culinary culture centered around fugu, earning it a reputation throughout Japan as the country’s “home of fugu.”
Sukumo-jima, an island in Shunan City, is also known as the birthplace of a distinctive method of fugu longline fishing using steel wire. Longline fishing typically involves attaching numerous hooks to a single main fishing line. However, because pufferfish have extremely sharp teeth, they can easily bite through conventional lines. Fishermen on Sukumo-jima therefore developed an innovative technique using steel wire near the hooks. This innovation made it possible to catch wild pufferfish efficiently while minimizing damage to the fish, and became an important technique supporting Yamaguchi’s fugu industry.
Turning Local Resources into Products, Inspired by a Mother’s Care for Her Child
Based in Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, AND BLISS Co., Ltd. develops beauty products including FUKU SOAP, FUKU FOAM, and FUKU MASK, utilizing collagen derived from pufferfish—an otherwise underused local resource.
The company’s founder and CEO, Yoshiko Era, was inspired to begin developing these products by her desire to create something gentle for her child, who struggled with atopic dermatitis. She began exploring the potential of underutilized local resources, including collagen extracted from pufferfish skin, as well as rice oil and rice flour. With the aim of creating products that are gentle on both body and mind, she launched the brand.
Around the same time, a local pufferfish wholesaler had begun extracting collagen from pufferfish skin as part of an effort to reduce food waste, but faced a challenge: there was no clear use for the resulting collagen. A conversation about this challenge led to a collaborative development project and ultimately to the creation of what the company describes as the world’s first beauty soap formulated with pufferfish collagen.
A World-First Innovation Recognized with a Good Design Award
This innovative approach was recognized with Japan’s 2020 Good Design Award in the Health & Beauty category. The concept was praised for reimagining pufferfish not simply as food, but as a source of beauty ingredients, as well as for its pioneering approach to transforming an underutilized regional resource into something of new value. Marine collagen also melts readily at temperatures close to that of human skin and blends easily with the skin, further supporting the rationale for using collagen derived from pufferfish skin in a beauty soap.
The packaging is equally distinctive. Rather than following the visual conventions of typical beauty products, the design was created to stand out on store shelves and invite people to pick it up. Its playful triangular form is inspired by the concrete tetrapods commonly seen along Japan’s coastline. Cute yet unconventional, the packaging gives the product a strong sense of place while creating a memorable visual identity. The response was immediate: the initial production run sold out within just one month of launch.
Bringing a Local Story to the World
Today, AND BLISS is working to bring its sustainable products to international markets. The company has actively participated in trade shows in cities including Paris and New York, conducting test marketing and exploring new distribution and sales opportunities overseas.
Its ability to transform underutilized local resources into new value—combined with a story deeply rooted in Yamaguchi, sophisticated packaging design, and a brand built with global markets in mind—provides AND BLISS with a strong foundation for further international growth.
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