The Japanese Transparent Umbrella by White Rose

The vinyl umbrella is now a familiar, affordable everyday item found around the world. Yet at the origin of it all is a Japanese vinyl umbrella built not to be discarded, but kept. White Rose, a Tokyo-based maker founded in 1721 and the creator of the world's first clear vinyl umbrella, continues to make their umbrellas to a standard unlike anything most people associate with the transparent umbrella. In this article, we explore the history of White Rose and what sets their umbrellas apart.

The Transparent Umbrella: History and Redefinition

 

The transparent umbrella was born in Japan. In the years after World War II, White Rose — an umbrella maker founded in Asakusa, Tokyo in 1721, and now in its tenth generation — developed the world's first vinyl umbrella, using a newly available plastic film to create something that had never existed before: a canopy you could see through.

Over the decades, the clear umbrella became one of the most widely produced umbrella forms in the world. Inexpensive versions proliferated, and the transparent umbrella became a familiar, everyday item — practical, widely available, and easy to reach for. For many, it also became something disposable — inexpensive enough that losing it hardly mattered.

White Rose: The Maker Behind the Invention

 

As the transparent umbrella spread across the world as an inexpensive commodity, White Rose continued on a different course. With roots stretching back to the Tokugawa shogunate — when the first-generation founder supplied rain gear for the processions of feudal lords — the company has always understood the umbrella as something that carries meaning. After World War II, they developed Japan's first vinyl umbrella. While other makers shifted production overseas in the decades that followed, White Rose held to domestic manufacturing, refining what they had invented — developing proprietary film with greater clarity and durability, engineering frame structures built to last, and treating each umbrella as something worth keeping.

Today, their umbrellas are carried at official Imperial Household events, including the Garden Party and the National Tree-Planting Festival. Every umbrella is designed and produced in Japan, with materials selected for how they perform over years, not seasons. The result is a transparent umbrella equally at home on a weekend walk or a business commute — refined enough for both, conspicuous in neither.

That commitment to craft is finding a new kind of recognition — one that sets White Rose apart from the transparent umbrella as most people know it. Among those who pay attention to what they carry, a White Rose umbrella is no longer just practical. It is something to carry with care, and keep for years.

What Makes White Rose Umbrellas Different

Patented "reverse valve" structure

 

When caught in strong wind, air trapped inside the canopy escapes outward through a patented valve system — preventing the umbrella from inverting and reducing strain on the person holding it. An umbrella you can open with confidence, even in a storm.

16-rib frame with fibreglass ribs

 

More ribs than a standard umbrella means better support across the canopy. Fibreglass on the main and supporting ribs keeps the structure light without sacrificing durability. The kind of umbrella you carry every day and barely notice the weight of.

White birch shaft, natural wood handle

 

The shaft is white birch; the handle, cherry or camellia wood depending on the model. These are materials that settle into the hand over time — denser, warmer, and more considered than anything synthetic. In a vinyl umbrella, that quality of touch is unexpected. It's one of the things that makes White Rose umbrellas worth keeping.

White Rose Products

Catell M17

A refined everyday umbrella with White Rose's patented wind-release valve structure, white birch shaft, and camellia wood handle. Available in navy and other colourways.

Miyabi

White Rose's most refined model. A clear canopy with gold-toned hardware and a natural wood handle that deepens with use.

Izayoi-Zakura

Named after the sixteenth-night cherry blossom moon, this umbrella carries a distinctly Japanese sensibility in its form and in its name. Available in navy.

Amemachi

A portable version of the White Rose standard — compact enough for a bag, precise enough to carry with confidence. The same film, the same valve engineering, folded down.

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