KAMEMANNEN
Japan’s oldest eyewear house
SINCE 1917
From metal plating to eyewear
Kamemannen began in 1917 as a metal plating factory in Fukui, founded by Kikujiro Kimura. After the Second World War the factory turned to eyewear, and it has been based in Sabae — Japan’s eyewear-making heartland — ever since.
In 1981, Kamemannen became the first eyewear maker in Japan to work titanium into frames.
IMAGE — KAMEMANNEN
IMAGE — KAMEMANNEN DETAIL
WORTH KNOWING
Built to outlast trends
The name comes from an old Japanese proverb about a turtle living ten thousand years — durability as the whole point, not an afterthought.
Every frame is finished to sub-millimetre precision, with nose pads formed as one continuous piece rather than added on. Colours stay deliberately limited, a side effect of the slow, labour-intensive plating process that gives each pair its finish.
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