A Senior's Startup: Why a 75-Year-Old Founder Had No Choice But to Start a Business

AURISE Inc. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Masato Tanaka), operator of the pure gold art brand 'AURISE,' is officially announcing the launch of its 'DENSHI-HANGA' (Electronic Woodblock Print) series. These works engrave Japanese cultural masterpieces like Ukiyo-e and personal family memories onto pure gold plates.

The founding of AURISE is not the typical startup story of a young entrepreneur spotting a market opportunity. It is the story of a 75-year-old founder finally bringing to life a vision he has nurtured since the year 2000.

The starting point of this vision was a simple question: 'Why is there such a large gap between the price of pure gold jewelry in Japan and the actual value of the gold itself?' The goal was to make pure gold more reasonable, more enjoyable to own, and something that could naturally collaborate with personal memories. That question was the first step.

The founder did not necessarily intend to start a company at age 75. However, technology finally caught up with his long-held vision, expression methods became available, and an era arrived where stories could be engraved into pure gold. At that moment, entrepreneurship was no longer a 'choice'—the vision compelled the founder to start the business.

AURISE aims to be more than just a retailer of gold products. It seeks to transform pure gold into a canvas for family memories, life milestones, beloved cars, pets, Japanese masterpieces, and stories to be passed down to the future. Gold is a material with globally recognized value. But when what is engraved upon it is someone's life or memory, it becomes more than just a gold plate. AURISE overlays four values into a single work: asset value, artistic value, memory value, and certification value.

In 2026, the conditions finally aligned. The founder decided to move forward with a quiet determination, joking, 'I'll do what I can before I fall apart,' accepting the reality of aging while pushing ahead.

In addition to the Ukiyo-e series featuring works like Katsushika Hokusai's 'Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji,' AURISE will offer the 'Uchi no Ko Ichiban' (My Little One is Number One) series for custom engravings of family, pets, and cars. Each piece combines a Mint hallmark for metal purity with an NFT on the Polygon blockchain for authenticity, ensuring the value of the gold work is preserved for the future.

Brand Concept: 'Not carving away, but making it shine.' This is the philosophy of AURISE.