Just imagine: enchanting peonies, transformed into invisible irezumi to beautify the skin and its surroundings.
This is the introductory line in the press release for Geisha Botan, the newest fragrance from independent perfume house Aroma M.1 This scent is an homage to the peony (“botan” in Japanese) and its cultural significance in Japan and China, where the peony is an auspicious motif and has appeared for centuries in art forms from porcelain and tapestry to printmaking and, yes, traditional tattoos.
The mention of irezumi (tattoos) and these other visual arts is telling, because Botan is much more an artistic interpretation of the peony’s color and texture than a literal recreation of its scent…
