Incense Blending Experience at Koju in Ginza -440 Years of Tradition

Incense for Shogun and Emperors

Koju was founded in Kyoto during the Tensho era (1573–1592), at a time when the daimyo Oda Nobunaga was unifying Japan. For 440 years, Koju has supplied the Imperial Palace and other members of Japan’s elite, though most of its branches nowadays lie in Tokyo’s upscale Ginza district. In 2016, Koju opened a small store in its original neighborhood of Ninenzaka in Kyoto.

The company now offers a variety of valuable incense pieces for the modern age, from traditional blended incense balls kurobou to aromatic wood and high-class incense bearing the name of Koju’s founder, Juemon Takai.

Koju’s main store in Ginza

Front Row Seats

Koju provides the perfect place to experience kodo, the formal appreciation of Japanese incense, for the first time. The experience is based on the concept “inheriting and creating Japanese incense culture”, and features professional guidance on the history and etiquette of kodo, allowing guests from all backgrounds to gain a deep appreciation for the practice.

While the walls of the store are lined with tantalizing fragrances and gifts, the counter offers a chance to come face-to-face with a range of scents.

Koju’s counter

The counter is located in the basement, giving guests an intimate space in which to explore kodo.

[Incense-Making Experience] Listen, Feel, and Create Captivating Scent Blends

Following an informative presentation on the history and cultural significance of incense, you will dive right into an incense-making workshop. Guests are invited to combine eleven ingredients, eight essential oils, and two powders to create their own incense pouch. To have access to such a wide range, and with expert guidance, is a rare thing indeed.

A selection of incense ingredients

Koju offers a number of recipes to suit different tastes. Use your favorite recipe as a base, then add your own touches to make it unique. Ingredients are added to a small mortar and pestle and mixed. This process requires great care, especially as the final fragrance begins to take shape.

Mixing ingredients

When the incense is complete, choose from one of several pouch and string designs. Staff will finish each bag for you.

Incense pouches are perfect as charms for keyrings or bags

[Optional: Monko] Savoring the Ash and Aromas

As an optional add-on, you can also enjoy a fragrance appreciation experience. Monko, literally ‘listening to the fragrance,’ describes the practice of appreciating incense, with a suggestion that one sinks into the very heart of what the fragrance conveys. It entails heating a piece of fragrant wood such that it releases its scent without burning. Guests will first learn to prepare a bowl of ash using a small piece of charcoal called a tadon.

Tadon are designed to burn cleanly for a long time

The ash is gently loosened using tongs called koji, and the charcoal is placed into the resulting hole. The process of shaping the ash into a small peak and creating patterns around the charcoal calls to mind a Zen dry garden, or karesansui. 

Shaping the ash

After making a small hole at the top of the ash and placing a silver plate over it to conduct the heat, monko can begin. Three types of fragrant wood are prepared according to the season: waboku, a tree native to Japan that features a relatively delicate scent, agarwood, and sandalwood.

Wood used in monko can cost hundreds of dollars for less than a gram

Gently place a fragment of wood on the silver plate and smell it three times, holding the censer in your left and while covering the top with your right.

Appreciating the scent

The fragrance as it emerges from the hot wood has a different character to when it has cooled in the air. Experience each of the three at different distances to build up a full appreciation.

A Lasting Gift

Exclusively to this tour, guests will also take home three seasonal incenses and an incense holder, for use in the future.

‘Koju Iroha’, a series of incense based on Japanese flowers and fragrant wood

Experience the history and culture of kodo in an intimate space on this exclusive tour.