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Mitsouko
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| Fragrance by Guerlain | ||
| Description | Women's fragrance | |
| Released | 1919 | |
| Label | Guerlain | |
Mitsouko is a 1919 perfume by Guerlain. Its name is derived from the French transliteration of a Japanese female personal name. Its top notes are a fruity chypre, with floral middle notes and spice base notes.
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Mitsouko was created by perfumer Jacques Guerlain in 1919. The perfume has remained continuously available ever since.[1]
One account of the origin of the name is that it was inspired by the name of the heroine of Claude Farrère's novel La bataille (The Battle). The novel is set in Japan during the Russo-Japanese War, and chronicles a fictional amour fou between a British Navy Officer and one "Mitsouko", the wife of Fleet Admiral Baron Heihachiro Togo. Both Togo and the British officer sail to war, and Mitsouko awaits with reserve to see which of the two will return alive to her.[2] The other possibility is that it was inspired by the story of Mitsuko Aoyama, the mother of Richard Nikolaus Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi
One possible rendering of the personal name "mitsuko/mitsouko" in the Japanese language use of Chinese characters is mitsuko (密子)). The "mitsu-" part of that compound means "mystery" or "mysterious". However it is an unlikely character ever to be used in personal names in Japan. Some sources cite this as an additional meaning for the name of the perfume.[2]
Its top notes are fruity Chypre, its middle notes include peach and jasmine, and its base notes include vetiver, oakmoss and cinnamon.[1][2]