( ) is a Japanese
retail company which operates a chain of department stores in Tokyo
. They are best known for their women's fashion and accessories.
In 2003–4 the company generated
US$2.75 billion in revenues. Its
president is
Tadao Aoi.
Name and logo
Marui department store logo.
The company's name (丸井) is a combination of the name of its
predecessor's parent company "Maru-ni" (丸二) and the name of its
president "Ao-i" (青井). The name of the department store is
customarily written in Japanese as "マルイ", in
katakana lettering.
The department store's famously ambiguous present-day logo is a
symbol resembling "○I○I", and read "marui". The Japanese symbol "○"
(not to be confused with the
Roman
alphabet "O" or "o") is read "maru", meaning "circle" or
"zero". The symbol "I" ostensibly represents the numeral "1", which
can be read "i" in Japanese (note that the Roman alphabet letter
"I" is also the
Romanized
representation of the Japanese syllable "い", a third visual
pun).
Despite being read as numerals, the symbol is written "OIOI" in
Roman alphabet letters on the company's website, though the address
of the website itself is "www.0101.co.jp". The "○I" in the logo is
repeated, partly for aesthetics and also as an inference to the
"0101" ending of the phone number all Marui department
stores.
MARUIONE.JP
In December 2007, Marui co., Ltd launched an international shopping
and information website, maruione.jp. The site operates in
Japanese, English and French. The shopping site offers
Japanese street fashion and
traditional goods while their LiveJ information site provides
information on fashion, culture and
visual
kei music.
References
- 丸井のロゴはなぜ「0101」と繰り返すのか, Excite.co.jp.
External links
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