Naruto

Company Background

Naruto Scissors (鳴門シザー) was founded in 1963 in Takarazuka, Hyogo, Japan. The company has been handcrafting professional hairdressing shears at its Takarazuka workshop for over six decades. Among Japanese professionals, Naruto is one of the most recognized names in the industry. Multiple Japanese trade sources reference Naruto as a benchmark brand in discussions about premium shears.

The company operates under the leadership of president Yuji Kawano and maintains a small, focused production team. Every pair is built by hand, not by machine. According to Naruto, their craftsmen finish each set of blades and parts to a mirror polish individually, which is part of what gives the shears their expected lifespan of 20 to 30 years.

Distribution and Purchasing

If you are trying to buy Naruto shears, you will quickly notice that the process is not like ordering from most brands. Naruto uses a deliberately exclusive, dealer driven distribution model. Their website functions more like a corporate brochure than a shop. No prices are listed. You will not find an “Add to Cart” button anywhere. Instead, the site directs you to contact an authorized dealer.

This minimal web presence is intentional. Naruto’s sales channel relies on personal relationships between dealers and stylists, which is a more traditional Japanese purchasing model. In Japan, beauty dealers (ディーラー) visiting salons with sample cases remains the dominant way professionals buy shears.

Craftsmanship and Production

According to Naruto, the ideal blade angle is 45 degrees. Blades are finished evenly from the base to the tip while maintaining consistent thickness throughout. That thickness is what the company says produces their signature “soft cutting feeling.”

The blade curve, which directly affects the cutting sensation, is created by striking the blade with a mallet. The target is about 0.03 mm of curvature, roughly the thickness of a single strand of hair. There is no measuring instrument for this step. Naruto’s craftsmen rely entirely on their eyes and accumulated experience.

Sharpening is done with a whetstone to create the blade line on the inside edge. The craftsmen work by feel, applying just enough pressure so the shears open and close smoothly. Metallic dust produced during sharpening must be removed carefully. According to Naruto, one mistake at this stage and the scissors are ruined.

Naruto describes their construction as a “three-dimensional circular ride” structure. This proprietary internal geometry, combined with their hand sharpening technique, is what the company credits for the longevity and feel of their shears.

The Narashi-Giri Break-In Period

One detail worth knowing before you cut with a new pair of Naruto shears: they require a break-in period. (See our blog post: The Break-In Period: Why New Shears Need 10 Clients Before Peak Performance.) This process is called narashi-giri (慣らし切り). According to professionals who use Naruto, new shears need about 10 clients worth of cutting before they reach peak performance. The blades settle into their final action and feel through actual use. If you pick up a brand new pair and expect them to feel perfect on the first client, you will be disappointed. Give them time. This is normal for shears at this level and is part of the handmade nature of the product.

Pricing

Naruto sits at the ultra-premium tier. Exact prices are not published on their website, which is consistent with their dealer-first sales model. Expect pricing well above the typical Japanese professional range of ¥30,000 to ¥50,000 per pair.