ROYAL MASTER

ROYAL MASTER was founded in Osaka in 2005 by Kunihiko Tanaka, who arrived with a useful credential: before starting his own company he worked as a sales manager at an established beauty-scissor maker and, by the brand’s account, helped push the Yanagiba and Sasaba blade styles into wide use across Japan. Those long, sword-profile shapes are part of the Japanese cutting tradition, and a maker that grew up selling them tends to understand what a stylist asks of a long blade.

Two details say a lot about the brand’s attitude. Every pair is engraved with the logo, model number and manufacturing date, which is the sort of traceability a serious tool deserves. And the company trademarked the word “Scissorist” to describe a dedicated scissor specialist who helps match a stylist to the right tool for their hand and technique, treating the sale itself as a fitting rather than a transaction.

The Maximas line

The flagship is the Maximas Master Series, built around an ultra-high-density carbon steel and sold through the brand’s own shop. The range runs to cutters, thinners and left-handed models, developed off direct customer research, and covers a full spread of work: dry and wet cutting, stroke and slide cutting, chop work, plus texture and volume control. This is a premium brand, with pricing in the roughly $400 to $800 band, in line with serious Japan-made shears.

Buying one

ROYAL MASTER sells direct and also turns up through the Refun store and the Kittemi secondhand marketplace, the latter being a way to find earlier models at a lower entry point. The focus is plainly the Japanese domestic market, so buyers abroad should expect to work a little to get hold of a pair.