Living Honestly and Following My Passions. -Why I Run a Brand-

My first note.
While on a flight to Paris for a buying trip, as I reflected on everything up until now, things about myself became clearer and clearer.

I felt that I shouldn't keep this just to myself but should properly share it,
so I wrote this piece almost entirely on impulse.

I want to write down the thoughts behind why I run my brand.
What kind of value I want to provide through the brand.
And why I want to provide that value.

I

I strongly believe that.

maruo is not just delivering products; through our products,

I want to provide the value that "choosing what you love makes life enjoyable."

I want to provide that value.

"Choosing what you love makes life enjoyable."

In this modern age overflowing with things,
"making choices" is becoming increasingly difficult.

We, the millennial generation, want to live surrounded only by the things that are truly necessary for us, out of the many options available.

However, it is hard to find the things that are truly important to us or that we can say we love.
We don't even know how to choose.

For such people, maruo offers,

I want to share these things widely.

I run this brand with the hope that maruo can serve as a catalyst, helping those who see it find hints to discover what they can truly call their own "favorites," or even lead them to discover their "passion" itself.

Instead of choosing items just for the sake of consumption (because they are trendy or because everyone says they are good), I want people to be able to choose items they can cherish forever based on their own judgment.

Furthermore, I have a business plan to expand beyond accessories into other product lines. By proposing a variety of items, I hope to help people create a space filled with their own unique happiness, surrounded only by things they truly value.

That is why maruo
sells products by "infusing them with a story"
to serve as a criterion for choosing items.

In other words, this means I am proposing a "reason to buy" that doubles as a "reason to cherish."

A space surrounded only by your favorite things enriches your life.
People who know what they "love" know the secret to enjoying life.
Being able to clearly state what you love means you understand what makes your heart flutter and when you feel truly happy.

Passion and happiness are connected.
That is something I strongly believe.

Through maruo, I want to provide the opportunity for people to "discover their own passions," which is the first step toward happiness.

I want those who pick up my products to be able to fill their surroundings with things they love.
By doing so, I hope they realize that it is actually very easy to make life enjoyable.
Through maruo, that is the value I want to provide.

Why is it important to be honest about and pursue what you "love"? What was the catalyst that made me think this way?

I believe life is made to be very simple, and
for example, we are incredibly happy when we are with the person we love.

By that same principle, I think people who surround themselves with the 'things' and 'activities' they love are incredibly happy.
It means you have created a state where you are surrounded only by what you 'love.' The space you create yourself automatically makes you happy.

However, I suspect that most people actually cannot clearly state what they love.
I was one of those people.

We become too passive in our daily lives, choosing things because 'it's trendy' or 'everyone says it's good.'
But things chosen that way are not actually things that 'resonate with the heart' for that person.

When you truly love something, you feel a sense of 'I can't explain it well, but I love it so much it hurts.'

Partly because the core of the brain is non-verbal, the things you intuitively think 'This is it!'—the things you feel strongly about even if you can't put them into words—are what you truly love.
You can always come up with verbal justifications later.

In my case, I always had a dream at every age.
…To be more precise, I was forcing myself to create a 'dream.'

Since I was little, I grew up in a household where my parents would persistently ask things like, 'Have big dreams,' 'What do you want to be?' and 'How can you become that?'

Back then, I didn't always have something I wanted to do, so I would just say whatever came to mind. There was no deep reason, but because I was asked for deep reasons, I had plenty of time to think about 'dreams' on a daily basis, and 'having a dream' became the natural default. At that time, for me, a 'dream' wasn't something I truly wanted to do, but rather something I felt I had to say.

Because of that family environment, my younger brothers aimed to be 'professional baseball players' or 'talents,' practicing like their lives depended on it, gradually achieving results, and steadily moving toward their dreams in the true sense of the word.

As for me, on the other hand,
I didn't have anything I could dedicate myself to so completely that I would forget myself like they did,
I couldn't even become a regular when I joined a club (which is why I changed clubs often), my grades weren't great even when I studied, and I would quit as soon as I started something new.

Since I didn't love it, I couldn't try my best from the heart, and my parents saw right through that.

'You aren't serious about anything. You leave everything half-finished. I cannot support a child who only does things halfway.'

These words were quite harsh.
People get very hurt and angry when they are told the truth, things they already know about themselves.

They supported my brothers enthusiastically (both financially and emotionally), but there was none of that for me, which was incredibly frustrating. Yet, it was true that I couldn't find anything in clubs or studies that I could commit to as seriously as they did, so I kept wondering, 'What on earth is a dream?'

I truly felt that life was confusing and not fun because I didn't have anything I could be serious about.
From my perspective, not knowing what I liked, my younger brothers, who knew their own 'passions' they could be serious about, looked so happy, full of energy every day, and dazzling.

Comparing myself to my brothers and feeling a strong sense of inferiority made my rebellious phase much worse than the average person's.

I hated being with my parents so much, and being in an environment where I wasn't accepted because I lacked my own 'passions' or things I could be serious about was just too suffocating for me.

In my second year of high school, I left my parents' home in Okinawa alone and went to live with my grandmother in Osaka.
I just couldn't live with my parents and siblings anymore; if I had stayed, I felt like I would have exploded.

Transferring schools in my second year of high school, right before college entrance exams, was something I even thought was stupid.

But I think this choice was the first major turning point for me.
From here, I changed.

Freed from the environment of my family where I was constantly compared to my siblings who were too close to me, I was able to move from an environment of comparing myself to others to one where I could compare my past self with my present self, creating an environment where I could face myself.

Because my family moved around for work, I experienced transferring schools many times and went to many different places.
But outside of the Kansai region, no matter how many years I lived there, I could never grow to like it.
Whether it was when I moved to Kanagawa or Okinawa, I could never fit in until the very end, and it was truly tough.

But Osaka was different.
I don't think I will ever forget my first day of transferring.

Even though we were meeting for the first time, everyone talked to me as if we were just picking up from yesterday.
I thought, 'So this is what they mean by homey.'
I, who was abnormally shy, was able to open up in no time,
and for the first time in a long while, I was able to think, 'School is fun.'
I think the last time I felt school was fun was back in elementary school.

There are many reasons why I felt it was fun.
Being welcomed warmly, and meeting people who shared the same vibe.

Among them, what became a major change for me was
'stylish'
being told that I was.

Until then, no matter where I went, my fashion was never accepted; I was often told it was uncool, and the person I was dating at the time would say things like, 'Why that combination?' or 'It's embarrassing to walk with you, can you go change?'
Fashion was nothing but a bitter experience for me.

The high school I transferred to in Osaka had a casual dress code, so I went in my usual clothes, feeling nervous.
I was certain I would be looked at strangely here, too.
And yet,
for some reason,
for the first time in my life, many people told me my outfit was "stylish."

I couldn't believe it.
I was surprised at how happy it made me to be called "stylish."
I am much happier being called "stylish" than "cute" or "pretty." It had always been a complex of mine.

Thinking back on it now, I believe the reason I was accepted in Osaka
was due to Osaka's "culture of embracing individuality."

If I hadn't transferred to a school in Osaka, I think I would have always felt that fashion was something I was bad at, and I don't think I would have ever made fashion my dream.
For the first time, I was able to like my own clothes, and although I still didn't really understand what it meant to be stylish at the time, my desire to become more stylish kept growing.

I knew I had less sense than others because I had been told I was unstylish countless times throughout my life, and since I had moved out of my parents' house and had absolutely no money of my own, I used the meager earnings I made online to obsessively remake my clothes, search for cheap items that looked expensive, and hunt for clothes that were inexpensive but incredibly stylish.

To me, brand-name clothing was something I longed for from afar (even Lowrys Farm!), and since I didn't have the money to buy brand-name clothes, I wore nothing but secondhand clothes. Moreover, I didn't buy them at vintage shops, but mainly at thrift stores, buying items for 100 or 200 yen.

But in this community where I was told I was "stylish" for the first time,
I wanted to hold on tightly to my place and to the thing I could be truly serious about.

I was desperate.

For one year, I used my creativity every single day, focusing more on my outfits than on studying for entrance exams. As a result, I failed my university entrance exams, but in the graduation yearbook, I was ranked "#1" in the stylish person category.

It might be a small award in the grand scheme of the world, but for me, being ranked "#1 stylish person in the class" was far, hundreds of times more joyful than getting into my first-choice school, which I wasn't even sure I wanted to attend.

During my student days, I was always in the middle-to-lower tier in both clubs and academics, never really standing out or having any major success stories. But becoming #1 in something I was truly dedicated to gave me a lot of confidence, and it made me want to test myself in this world.

Once I understood what I truly 'loved,' my goals became clear for the first time, and for the first time in my life, I felt like 'every day is fun,' and it felt as if my life had finally started moving.
The feeling that school was depressing had vanished before I knew it, and I was genuinely enjoying every single day.

That was when I thought,
'This is it.'
I couldn't explain it well in words at the time, but looking back now, I clearly realize that
back then, I was able to find what I 'loved.'
By finding it, I was able to become serious about it unconsciously, and by being serious, my life naturally became fun and sparkling.

Finding what you love.
I realized that it is a path that definitely leads to happiness.
This is the foundational experience that taught me the importance of 'being honest about what I love.'

To those who think life is boring right now,
people often say that if you take action, your life will change, but I don't think you need to suddenly use that much energy at all.

I think that just finding something you can truly love is enough to change the world you see right now.

There is no need to rush,
relax your shoulders, and at some unexpected moment, you will encounter something that intuitively feels like 'this is it.'
You don't have to force yourself to look for it.
You just need to keep your antenna up.
When the time comes to meet it, you will meet it as you were meant to.

Just by living honestly to what you love, you can make your life fun with your own hands.
I believe that life is literally up to you.

I want to convey that with my whole life.
That is why I launched this brand.

I hope that through maruo, I can provide a spark for you to find what you 'love' and what makes you 'happy.'

With that strongly in mind,
I am making accessories again today.

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