柿湯 is a persimmon bath.

Kaki is persimmon. Yu is bath water. The same construction as yuzu-yu, the citrus bath families in Japan still take on the longest night of the year. It reads exactly as it looks: ka-ki-yu.

Fermented kakishibu, and very little else.

Kakishibu 柿渋 is the juice of unripe persimmons, pressed and left to ferment until it turns deep amber. For centuries it was used in Japan to seal wood, strengthen paper, and to wash with. The tannin is the point. Persimmons are the richest natural source of it.

Every Kakiyu bar is built around that extract, made by the traditional Japanese kakishibu method. It is certified at over 90% tannin and lot-tested for every batch. The certificate is on file, and we will show it to anyone who asks.

Persimmons ripen once a year. We press one harvest, and when it is gone, it is gone until the next autumn.

Skin past fifty changes the way it smells.

The compound is called nonenal. It is not sweat and it is not a hygiene problem, which is why more showers and stronger soap never seem to help. In Japan this is common knowledge, and persimmon soap is the ordinary answer to it. Elsewhere, most people have never been told.

Kakiyu is made for the women who noticed, and who would rather not talk about it. So we keep it quiet. Nothing on the box names the problem. The bar simply does its work.

• 01
  We claim only what we can show.Every number on this site traces back to a certificate, a label or the bar in your hand. The bar is translucent for a reason.
• 02
  We do not sell on Amazon.Kakiyu is sold here and nowhere else. If you find our name there, it is not ours.
• 03
  The shelf stays silent.Nothing on the box, the tin or the parcel says a word about soap or smell. It reads as a gift because it often is one.
• 04
  Small batches, one harvest.We would rather run out than stretch the extract. When a harvest sells through, we say so.