Does the age of the agarwood tree matter??!! Actually….. the age of the infection/resination is the most important, not particularly the age of the tree. If you have had chopped down an agarwood tree that is a couple hundred years old.. you will find quite significant amounts of white wood. Poor old tree. And if… [Read More…]
Impressions of the Ranjatai
Several incense houses in Japan have been known to create blended incense sticks based on their impression of the Ranjatai through Mon-koh. Small fragments of the Ranjatai are known to be in possession of descendants of kodo masters and big incense companies, from which they draw inspiration into crafting a representative incense based on the… [Read More…]
Milling your own agarwood powder
Most of the agarwood powders on the market are generally made from ground up post-distilled agarwood chips, thus missing a large and important proportion of olfactory notes that could have existed in the non-distilled agarwood chips. As decent quality agarwood chips are expensive, powders made from these chips are just as expensive, if… [Read More…]
Perspectives on the Rikkoku Gomi
The Rikkoku Gomi set was first assembled around the 15th Century with the establishment of a formalized “way/art” of the Incense by founder Sanjonishi Sanetaka (1455-1537 AD), a noble under the Muromachi Shogunate of Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa. Without the benefits of modern logistics, and being more isolated from the rest of the world, agarwood import… [Read More…]
Comparing Jinkoh and Kyara
A summary of the comparisons between normal aloeswood and kyara/kynam in a table. Enjoy!