Yasuyuki Shinohara
A Sapporo-based pharmacist and perfumer behind DI SER, working across cultivation, distillation and composition to express Japanese scent traditions.
Japan
About Yasuyuki Shinohara
A pharmacist and perfumer based in Sapporo, Hokkaido, who founded the natural perfume house DI SER. He cultivates his own botanicals and oversees every step from extraction to composition, creating scents that are delicate, pure, and deeply connected to nature.
Career
With a background in pharmacy, Shinohara began making perfumes independently while also developing cosmetics. In 1999, he established DI SER in Sapporo, where he practices natural circulating agriculture—returning all distilled plant material to the soil—and extracts essences from botanicals grown on his own farm.
Creative Style & Philosophy
Shinohara is interested in extraction as well as cultivation. In an interview with Amritara, he describes using low-temperature vacuum distillation to obtain water from plants and investigate their individual aromas. Working with flowers, citrus and fragrant woods, he expresses Japanese traditions through natural perfumery.
His work with plants extends beyond selecting finished essences. On his farm near Sapporo, roses grow alongside herbs and other local plants, and cultivation is closely connected with extraction. In interviews, he describes studying perfumery independently and travelling to France, bringing that learning back into his own small-scale practice in Hokkaido.
Signature Works
- *DI SER Kyara* — an oriental woody composition centered on kyara and agarwood, with rose and cedar
- *DI SER Sasora* — a citrus and woody composition combining yuzu, rosewood, camphor and agarwood
