The first time we met our incense makers in Japan, the meeting lasted for hours. With everything finally agreed, I thought (hoped) we were about to wrap up. Then they brought out a beautiful wooden box with tiny pieces of different fragrant woods inside, and we were asked to select one. It was heated gently, and we all sat together in silence, experiencing it. It was a little uncomfortable at first — kind of intimate. But once I relaxed into it, it's something that's stayed with me. A scented bond I feel to everyone in that room.
The other weekend, I went to a traditional incense ceremony and felt it all again. The ritual and reverence the Japanese bring to scent, one of their three classical art forms, alongside 'the way of tea' and 'the way of flowers'. Special tools, precise customs, and a set of 52 symbols drawn from poetry and the seasons, to identify what you smelled and in what order. The pic above is a copy of these symbols, which I found on our last trip.
In Japan, the word for experiencing incense isn't smelling. It's listening.
Each of our smokeless scents is made in this tradition — find the one that speaks to you
Emily
