Tennendo / Scent of Kyoto, Yoshino Hills, Kohrokan Sandalwood, Karafune

Tennendo incenses are among the best price for the quality, perhaps throughout the line. For instance one can buy a roll of Renzan, an aloeswood blend, for about $6, perhaps one of the best deals in Japanese incense. Even the highest end stick in the same line, Kuukai, goes for just over $20 a roll, and it must be said that even at over $100, Tennendo’s magnificent Enkuu is a bargain for its quality. So it’s no particular surprise that the company’s lower end incenses are also rather good for their prices. The four incenses in question here include the two in the same range as Renzan and Kuukai that I hadn’t covered and two other lower end incenses that come in boxes, Scent of Kyoto and Yoshino Hills. It could be said that all four of these incenses represent Tennendo’s versions of four traditional scents. Scent of Kyoto is basically a cherry blossom incense. Yoshino Hills an every day sandalwood. Kohrokan Sandalwood aims for a more high end, old mountain level of quality pure sandalwood. And Karafune goes for a spice blend. All can be easily purchased for under $10.

 

Scent of Kyoto is actually a rather excellent cherry blossom incense, featuring Tennendo’s usual hallmarks of grace, freshness and gentility. The obvious comparison is to Shoyeido’s Kyo-Zakura, what could be considered the standard for this sort of incense, however there’s something even smoother about Tennendo’s version, something that resonates with the rest of the line. While a box of this, due to the increased number of sticks, is likely to cost you more than one unit of Renzan, it seems to be a good buy. While the Shoyeido Daily bases aren’t always perfect for me, I really like the base of Scent of Kyoto. It speaks to the silence surrounding an orchard of these trees on a beautiful spring day.

 

Yoshino Hills is Tennendo’s analog to Nippon Kodo’s big yellow box of sandalwood incense, the prevalent “every day” style that nearly every Japanese company has a version of. While I really do like NK’s version and prefer, overall, Kyukyodo’s many variations on this theme, there’s something a bit bitter at the edges of this one. Over time it’s possible I may come to see this as a plus, but at the moment, I tend to like the sweeter aftertastes with this style - the bitterness seems like it might be more of a binder issue.

 

Kohrokan Sandalwood appears to be the company’s pure/high quality sandalwood entry. Think Kyukyodo Yumemachi, Baieidio Byakudan Kobunboku, or Shunkodo Sarasoju as incenses with similar concentration on top quality sandalwood. Like most of these incenses there’s a tiny bit of spice here, not enough to resemble Minorien’s sandalwood, but a little in that direction. Like the Yoshino Hills this too has a bit of sharpness to it that makes me think it’s an intentional note I haven’t gotten quite used to.

 

Karafune is probably the most low end incense Tennendo exports here, a spicy blend that combines sandalwood, clove, cinnamon and fennel. It’s actually fairly similar to some of the lower end Baieido blends like Syukohkoku or the Kobunboko series in that it’s all about wood and spice. The closest analog is probably Shunkodo’s Chinsoku Koh, except that the ingredients that make up the mosaic that are these sticks are more consonant as a unity in Karafune. In fact where getting used to low end incenses often means one gets a bit bored with them, I’ve found with Karafune that it improves with use, particularly as one gets used to it as an overall scent. It’s definitely less a sandalwood blend than a spice blend and it’s got a nice light smoothness to it that speaks of restraint and taste. One could imagine such a scent browsing Zanzibar spice markets, in fact clove might be the top note here, if there is one.

 

Again, if you already have incenses that are similar to the various styles on display here there would really be no need to duplicate by adding a box of something various similar. Yet on the other hand, the Yoshino Hill and Karafune in particular would make excellent new entries into the style, although I must say that with the green everyday sandalwood, the NK version makes a good base for comparison, and with the old mountain style I’d say it’s almost about even among brands.

Aloeswood Resin/A Comparison of Minorien Kyara Ryugen, Shoyeido Ga-Ho and Baieido Koh En

It’s been mentioned a lot here and I generally agree that really high quality aloeswood incense has a steep learning curve. This idea was brought a little closer in comparing the three sticks in the subject line. All three of these incenses use very high quality wood, although if the latter two do not have kyara level wood, they certainly have the next best thing. Sticks like Minorien’s aloeswood, not to mention the various qualities in Shoyeido’s aloeswood chips bring home just how obviously resinated a wood can be. Whether you’d describe it as tarry or turpentine like, it seems to me all the glory of a wood can be found in this element, this conglomeration of aged aromatics.

Yet it’s not always that obvious and in particular I picked out three sticks by three different companies I’ve been using lately that actually have the same sort of element. In none of these did I recognize just how quality the wood was right away. With Ga-Ho I first noticed the dill or cumin notes that bring out the dryness. Second I noticed the floral perfume that balances it. Only after a third or fourth stick did the powerful resin of the wood really make itself known, but when it did this stick opened up like a lotus flower and my impression of it went up.

This is even more obscure with Baieido’s Koh En. Like most of their premium aloeswoods, the sticks are thin and the aroma is mellow and if these sticks use any spices or extra ingredients other than binder, I can imagine the purpose is to bring out the wood alone. But such a stick also fooled me into ignoring the resin quality at first. I think there’s a pretty big difference between Baieido and Shoyeido aloeswood, the latter seems robust and intense, while the former seems to capture the sublimity better, but it’s a quality so fleeting and faint it can be hard to pick up. Because with higher level Baieido aloeswood like Hakusui, the general nature of the resin, while just as conglomerated and fierce as any other good wood, actually seems more floral and/or spicy in quality and less resinous in a tarry sense. And with Koh En you get those qualities more up front. At first it’s hard to differentiate it from the lower ends in the same line, but the more I thought about what makes Koh En different, the more I realized it was the same level of resin. It speaks to a very long learning curve.

Kyara Ryugen, of course, really does up the resin element and at levels like this the whole glory of what makes aloeswood special comes out. Both Koh En and Ga-Ho are great at evoking old memories, but it’s a different level with Ryugen. Koh En definitely has complexity in terms of listening to the wood and Ga-Ho is complex among all its facets, but the quality of Ryugen is high enough to do what Koh En does while making it seem like it’s as multi-faceted as Ga-Ho, without much need for anything but the wood. Ryugen can start, woody, dry and brash like the rest of the Minorien line, but almost instantly the wood’s resin starts to emit spirals of inherent floral behavior, but on a level that is so intense that the incense continually reminds you this character comes from the kyara, at least in part. And like Koh En, the resin feel never quite gets tarry, on the contrary Ryugen has an almost powdery sweet like quality that is almost tropically exotic, so exotic that it resonates with watery, emotional qualities and continually drives one to passionate responses.

Incense Demonstration at Buddhist Churches of America, May 10, 2008 by Ross Urrere

Many thanks to Ross Urrere for sharing this excellent write up of last weekend’s incense demonstration at the Buddhist Churches of America.

 

 

This Saturday, the gentlemen from Japan Incense, Kotaro Sugimoto and Jay Cowan, gave an incense demonstration and talk at the Buddhist Churches of America (BCA) Bookstore, located in Berkeley, California. A very appropriate venue as the Buddhist Church there uses quite a lot of incense in their daily devotions. It was a somewhat small crowd but a very enthusiastic one. For those who were there it was quite a treat. Japan Incense has some very deep connections with the Awaji Island Koh-shi (meaning Incense Master or Meister) group. Awaij Island is responsible for about 70% of the incense production in Japan. The group has about 14 or so companies within it. You could think of it as the Silicon Valley of the incense world.

 

Of course there was incense burning within the lecture area and many different styles and types were burned for the group to sample. A wonderful floral style based on the Osmanthus flower from China followed by Fu-in Kyara (a very rare and wonderful scent) and then on to a sampling of a piece of pure Sandalwood roasted over a burning bamboo coal were just some of scents on hand.

While all this was going on Jay and Kotaro gave a slide presentation of the actual process of incense making in Japan. These had been taken during their many visits to Japan. This was not your average sightseeing excursion or show and tell that tourists would see. This is where the deep connections became really apparent. We got to see three different eras of incense making techniques from how it was done about 60-80 years ago up to the latest computer controlled factories. It is incredibly rare to get to see this kind of thing, very few people outside the actual employees of the companies are ever allowed into the factories. There are people in these factories that have been in incense production for over 50 years. Jay mentioned that part of one plant had been set up so this one particular person (in his late 70s I believe) could continue to be a part of the process. He could actually outpace the 20 year old helper he had next to him. At the same time another factory is run by a man who is in his early 30s. Plus all the different companies tend to look out for and help each other. What a great attitude and set of ethics. Even better when you consider that they are making something that is very healing and centering by its nature.

 

Some of the images that stood out for me were of the bag of gold flecks used in a special incense to celebrate the New Year, the huge climate controlled garden where various plants could be grown as possible new scents for future incenses, and the huge list of ingredients that can go into an incense formula (not that we got to see the formulas, those are a closely guarded secret of each company). The cleanliness of the factories themselves, some of them were almost surgically clean. Having been a glassblower at one point and remembering just how messy the production floor could get, I was really blown away by this. One thing that really stood out was the attention to even the smallest details within the process, be it equipment, environmental control, raw materials and handling or honoring the employees and their contributions to the company.

 

One of the things about incense that was pointed out was that it is now used for more then just religious or spiritual practices. That burning incense just for the sheer enjoyment of the scent and the ambiance it creates has become a part of the culture both within Japan and the world. Kotaro, who is something of a gourmet, mentioned that sandalwoods go well with white wines, aloeswoods with reds and the floral scents go well with dessert. I personally find it is wonderful to come home after work and burn some favorite incenses to help unwind from the day. In other words, you can use incense to increase your enjoyment of many different areas of your life.

 

After seeing this presentation I went home and looked at a box of incense with a whole new level of awareness. The vast resources necessary in time, energy and knowledge to make just one stick of incense is quite large. Especially considering that the raw ingredients are constantly changing, necessitating changes in the formulas and even techniques of production as well as supply chains. As is the balancing act of bringing all of these companies into the US market.

 

I would like to thank Japan Incense as well as the Buddhist Churches of America (BCA) Bookstore for making this presentation happen. The Bookstore has a large assortment of many different companies’ incenses in stock in a very beautiful setting.

 

If you should have the chance in the future to attend one of these lectures do not miss the opportunity. Rarely is this quality and indepth information presented outside of Japan. From the beginning incense user to the long term aficionado, there is quite a lot to see and take in and both Jay and Kotaro are excellent speakers who love the subject and have much to share.

 

Ross Urrere for Mike’s Prattle

 

The Buddhist Churches of America (BCA) Bookstore

Japan Incense

Shoyeido / Aesthetics / Shino-Nome, Miyako-Gusa

Shoyeido have a number of smaller ranges that seem to fill the interstices between their normal ranges. The Aesthetics line itself seems to be sort of a mish-mash. It includes five incenses, three of which are smokeless and will be discussed later. The other two are Shino-Nome (First Light) and Miyako-Gusa (Botanica), one or both of which also show up under the “Classics” range. The versions I am going from are in the Aesthetics small boxes, the motif which is shared with the Heart series. Both incenses are sandalwood blends and very inexpensive.

Shino-Nome appears to be a limited edition, although I’ve seen it available for at least a year so it doesn’t appear to be going too fast. It’s the least of the two, a very subdued, mellow and traditional sandalwood blend with a light spice and faint oil. It’s leavened a little by cinnamon and benzoin, the latter in particular seemingly responsible for most of softness. It’s quite close to an every day sandalwood, but a little more deluxe. Unfortunately it doesn’t hold up as well to a lot of other Shoyeido traditionals, for instance the Heart series works with a similar style but with more distinct oils to set the various scents apart.

Miyako-Gusa works quite a bit better, it’s a definitive step away from a more generic sort of sandalwood bouquet. Perhaps this is due to the clove and patchouli, both of which spice this up a lot more than the previous blend and are actually more distinct than they are in most Shoyeido low enders. The spiciness is really well balanced with what seems like a very slight floral background note, however the name “botanica” probably implies it’s a bit more floral that it really is.

I find it fairly interesting that I tend to like the low end sandalwood blends Shoyeido do more outside of the Daily range than in it. Perhaps I find the bases of those incenses a little less interesting than the ones in this range or the Heart, Kyoto Moon and Zen ranges due to  their slight modern touches. Whatever’s the case, one should be able to check these out without too much financial damage.

Incense News/Kunjudo

Two beautiful new Kunjudo gift sets have arrived in the US, you can find them here and here. And a neat small video presentation below.

 

Minorien/Fu-in Kyara Ryugen

Minorien have joined a select number of companies releasing a high end kyara incense and it’s the triumph of their line. Fu-in Kyara Ryugen is a dry, floral kyara unlike any other, the logical extension of Minorien’s aloeswood-based incenses. You only get hints of this from the Fu-in Kyara incense, which was an incense that seemed a refinement on their Fu-in Aloeswood. This is more than a refinement of the Fu-in Kyara, it’s a move to a more floral aroma than the rest of their incenses, an aspect that seems to come from the quality of the wood. The first time I sampled this, I was thinking the incense had the really dry qualities of all the Minoriens but more deluxe. Thereafter, the presence of this stick was like a garden of black blossoms at midnight, evoking my imagination to even encompass the sheer decadence of this incense. One gets the impression this is going to sit right next to classics like Sho-Ran-Ko, Enkuu, Myo-ho or Koh Shi Boku as one of the truly premiere incenses. I get the impression that I’ve only just begun to explore this one and will be doing so for a long while.

Notes on three Tibetan Incenses

It’s been a little while since I had the samples for the following incenses, but I wanted to transcribe my notes here for three scents that I don’t have quite enough to go on for a full review (although these may be forthcoming some day).

The first is the Samye Monastery blend Samanthabadhra. This could be considered a high end Tibetan at over $20 a box, but in this case it seems to be well worth it. I get an almost clay or even play-doh sort of scent from this one. It’s a bit richer than most Tibetans and also has some unusual, faunal ingredients like pangolin scales in it. It struck me as having quite a bit of energy in comparison to other incenses and has a bountfiul wood presence as well. A box of this is definitely on my list for further purchase as it seemed to have a learning curve that promised unrevealed complexity.

The next two can be found here. Both of these are also close to high end, yet are much closer than the previous blend to what you’d traditionally think of as Tibetan incense. Both are very, dry, wood and herbs incenses. Both of these incenses have an underlying base that makes me think corn or corn chips, combined with hints of the grassy and mesquite. The Saffron Medicinal Incense I liked the least of the two, its floral notes and pepper don’t seem to work as well with the base as the Medicine King Special. With the latter the spices seem to work a little better and the complexity of the incense comes out a bit more.

Incense Workshop in Berkeley, CA 5/10

INCENSE WORKSHOP, MAY 10 at BCA Bookstore, Berkeley

 

You are invited to come to an Incense Workshop on Saturday, May 10, from 1 to 3 PM at the Buddhist Churches of America (BCA) Bookstore, located at 2140 Durant Avenue in Berkeley, California. We will be presenting the history, manufacturing, education, and current usage of incense. We hope this will help make your daily life enlightening with a sense of tranquility by using incense.

The event is free to the public, but seating space is limited and RSVP is requested. For RSVP, please contact Jeffrey Kimoto, BCA Bookstore Manager at (510) 809-1435 or email at manager@bcabookstore.com.Fee parking is available directly across the street in the UC Berkeley parking lot.

http://stores.homestead.com/BCABookstore/StoreFront.bok

 

Regards,

-Kotaro Sugimoto & Jay Cowan

Figuring out Kunjudo and Encens du Monde

One of the great incense companies that has only a small profile in the US is Kunjudo. While our incense companies do cover some of their incenses, usually the low end modern ones, there are a number of truly excellent incenses that don’t see these shores but appear to be available in Europe. I’ll be reporting on a number of these in the near future. One of the most interesting comparisons I found is this (scroll down to the bottom to Ranshuko Temple Blend) and this.  Clearly what we consider Ranshuko Temple Blend is called Celestial Nave under the Encens du Monde trademark. Both boxes and ingredients match up. I’d have covered this on its own at some point, but eventually when I write on it, it will be under the Kunjudo umbrella.

US stores also carry one called Karin, which is actually a subline for Kunjudo and Encense du Monde and is the first of anywhere from 6-8 fragrances. The Forest of Flowers aroma in Europe appears to be the one we call Karin here. Under Karin is also the unbelievable Golden Waves in short stick form, one of the great world incenses we don’t see here, and Flight of the Swallow, another excellent aloeswood blend. The US also carries the Virgin Snow/Shirayuki sandalwood. But we don’t see the astonishing lily essential oil topped sandalwood Blissful Mountain. Or the very woody and amazing Guiding Light. And there are many more I haven’t covered here. All these you’d need to find overseas, which strikes me as quite the shame. Along with the missing Kyukyodo line, these are some of the best incenses we never see in the US. Perhaps some hurdles are too large?

Mermade Magickal Arts / Serpent Flame, Pan’s Earth, Wings of Air, Mermade Moon, Sacred Spirit, Salome, Wilderness

I will always be fond of Mermade Magickal Arts as one of the companys that really showed me how amazing incense could be. While the company does not make them anymore, at one point loose incenses like Shamanic Circle and Dragon Fire were among my staples, blended incenses with fantastic ingredients that had a similar effect like aloeswood on my subconscious. When these were first available, several of the blends had unusual and possibly psychoactive ingredients like datura in them. I noticed the last time I bought these blends before their discontinuation that the ingredients had changed a little and while the new versions were similar, by then either they weren’t having the same effects on me or they were truly different. I originally tried Shamanic Circle in the practice room of a band I was working with and it had a pretty major impact on everyone. I remember thinking hours after the experience that I could smell the incense floating around my memory. In fact the very existence of this site may be partially because of this blend and its company, so in a way I feel I’m coming full circle in being able to talk about them.

I wanted to set this up to demonstrate that to some extent because of these experiences, I’ll always be fond of this company, one that appears to base their products (from incense to music and beyond) on Wiccan/magickal concepts. Immediately I thought of the Scott Cunningham Llewellyn books on incense and my own experiences in making blends from those recipes over a decade ago. This relatively new line of incense “cones” that I’ll be covering here sticks fairly closely to these spiritually minded methods of making incense allied with an experienced hand in incense creation. Every cone here feels like the recipe was experimented with and slightly changed to reach a balance between the woods, resins, herbs and oils in them. And not only that but those familiar with experimenting with these ingredients on their own will realize that there is a rather high quality of ingredients in these “cones.”

I use the term cones in quotes because these are not your typical cones, rather they’re shaped more like flat triangles. The first five incenses (part of the Nature Spirits series) here follow western magickal elemental correspondances and in most cases the element corresponding with the incense can be guessed from the name. And better yet, the elemental quality of each cone comes out quite obviously upon burning. One thing is for sure, most of these incenses have very high quantities of resin in them and if you’re coming over from the Japanese incense side and known Minorien’s Frankincense, you’ll already have your foot in the door in terms of the spicy resin like quality of the cones.

Appropriately the series starts off with Serpent Flame, the incense corresponding with the fire element. Expectations that this would be spicy and hot were met. The base appears to be benzoin, dragons blood and balsam tolu, but particularly I was thinking of the hotter Benzoin Siam when burning this, except that Mermade have managed to balance some of the more difficult sides of this resin. The quality of (Madagascar) cinnamon in this appears to be high and it gives the incense a sort of cinnamon bun like scent, except with hints of shoe polish (in a good way of course) that I’d chalk up to the dragon’s blood. It’s a very friendly incense that really got the whole series off to a nice start.

Pan’s Earth reminded me quite a bit of some of the Cunningham earth-related recipes. I was pretty surprised not to see patchouli on the list of ingredients as it seems by far the strongest note in this incense. This sort of patchouli oil is similar to the types that tend to put some westerners off, except that this is definitely higher quality than what I walked by this morning, a little sweeter and closer to the Himalayan patchouli that I’m fond of. I’m left wondering if part of this might be the vetivert. The other ingredients in the incense are aloeswood, Hougary frankincense and juniper and I particularly get the juniper which gives it a bit of evergreen spice. I thought I got benzoin and lemon from this as well which undoubtedly was the frankincense ingredient.

Lavender is almost always associated with the air element, so its presence in Wings of Air was not surprising. Adding sweetgrass and Himalayan juniper to the mix intensifies this feeling and in terms of hitting the element on the nose, this is almost close to perfect. Using lighter resins like elemi and mastic seems like a very intelligent choice, you get the depth of aroma from the resin without the more definitive notes that come with frankincense, myrrh, benzoin and the like. If the oil note in Pan’s Earth was somewhat overwhelmed by the patchouli (or vetivert) notes, in Wings of Air it’s almost picture perfect. While every single one of these incenses really gets the elemental correspondances right, this might be the classic example in the group.

Mermade Moon is the line’s water incense and as of today looks like the company’s number one bestseller. It’s basically a spicy myrrh incense with quite a bit of play in the oil, which, given the ingredient list, I’d probably chalk up to the Jasmine Sambac. In fact it’s hard to imagine many watery incenses without jasmine as its perfume tends to really capture the changeable nature of a body of water. Apparently the base was white sandalwood, which was a note I didn’t notice so much probably due to the stronger aromatics. Or better yet, this incense uses the fixative onycha, an ingredient from a certain seashells that was apparently used in the original Hebrew temple incense. It all adds up to a rather sultry and slightly Scorpio-like musky blend that could rank as one of Mermade’s best cones.

The Nature Spirits series final “elemental” incense is Sacred Spirit. This is the series woodiest incense by far with liberal amounts of aloeswood and sandalwood. While both of these ingredients do show up in some of the other cones, this was the first where I really noticed them as part of my notes. The woods give this scent a bit more of a sublime scent than the other four, which strikes me as perfect for the “akasha” element in that it’s the one that triggered the most subconscious impressions for me. Like Pan’s Earth, this also has a bit of frankincense to it that gives the scent some more depth.

Mermade’s line Scents of the Sensuous includes Salome. This appears to be a much thicker cone than usual, possibly due to the high number of ingredients in the blend. It’s slightly reminiscent of the above-mentioned Serpent Flame, although not as spicy (and certainly not firey). I’d assume the Tolu Balsam is the ingredient that connects the two. It seems with this incense that it’s a little less about a concept and more about the aroma itself and as such this seems a bit more complex than the elemental line, with varying notes of frankincense and labdanum. It’s very rich and sultry and it strikes me that you actually need very little of the cone to fragrance a space. I was reminded at this point just how important resins are to Mermade incense and there were times this reminded me of a catholic or orthodox resin blend.

I couldn’t find Wilderness on the Mermade site (and it also took me a while to track down Salome), which makes it a little more difficult to describe. But like Salome, Wilderness is very similar to loose resin blends, in this case usually close to forest/celtic type blends with overtones of greenery and trees. I found this a really nice, evocative scent, with the base resin blend spiced up by various herbs. Some of these were spicy, roughly in the nutmeg, mace, clove and cinnamon territories except I wouldn’t swear to any of these being part of it per se. Of the incenses here, this was the one that took the longest to absorb as there seems to be a lot going on with it.

Mermade Magickal Arts have been around since 1984, a family operation whose long years of experience really shows in the creation of these incenses. All of their cones show a great deal of thought in terms of combining base notes, oils and resins and as so many of their incenses are based on various resins, it’s almost as if these cones are a new class or style of incense and as such are a welcome element of one’s diverse collection of scents. It’s great to see this outfit still in operation over the years, still combining art, music, spirituality and craft into a distinctive name brand that continues to be one of the best creative enterprises for scent in the US market.

A second installment of Mermade incenses is forthcoming, covering a few of the company’s loose blends, all of which take me quite a bit longer to go through.