Transcription
Hello, I'm David, and welcome to the world of Japanese incense. Today, I'll walk you through some of the main types of Japanese incense, from the raw to the refined. First, we'll take a look at koku, then niko, for moving on to the most popular styles, senor and inkor. I'll talk a little bit about each style, their unique properties, and how best to enjoy them.
First up, koku. Koku, or aromatic wood, is perhaps the oldest and simplest form of incense, consisting simply of pieces of aromatic wood. Despite their simplicity, this type of incense is perhaps the highest grade and most expensive, simply because of how pure and high-quality the raw ingredients are. In Japan, three types of wood are primarily used for koku: byakudan, or sandalwood; jino, or alo wood, also sometimes called agaw or oud in English; and the most elite, K, which in English is known as Kō. Simply put, Kō is an incredibly high-grade form of alo wood. These woods get their aromatic qualities from the oils and resins that are present in the wood. The aromatic oils in sandalwood, which is the heartwood of trees of the genus Santalum, are naturally present in the wood, especially in trees over 15 years old. However, for alo wood and Kō, these oils are not naturally present. Instead, trees of the genus Aquilaria become infected with a fungus, and in an immune response, the tree produces these incredibly aromatic resins. It can take centuries for the tree to have enough resin to be considered high-grade alo wood, which is one reason why these aromatic woods are so rare and valuable.
Because koku exists in a raw, unblended, and unadulterated form, it allows you to experience the pure fragrance of these natural materials. Despite its simplicity, however, it is one of the hardest types of incense to enjoy due to the way it needs to be heated. Unlike simple incense sticks, which we'll get to later, koku can't simply be burned. Instead, they must be heated gently, slowly heating up the oils and resins and allowing those to release themselves into the air so you can smell them without setting the actual fibers of the wood on fire, which would produce a smoky combustion smell. To do this, the wood is placed on a plate of mica over a bed of ash, which is gently heated by a piece of charcoal. This style of incense preparation and appreciation is called monor, and instead of being designed to perfume an entire room, this style of preparation is primarily focused on being able to tease out the subtle and specific notes of a particular type of wood. Monor forms the core of the Japanese incense ceremony, or kōdō, in which the participants will smell, or in Japanese, listen to different types of alo wood and try and guess where they're from, for example, from Vietnam or Indonesia. If I were to put this type of incense on a graph, I would rank it high in terms of quality of aroma, but quite low when it comes to ease of use, around about here.
As a response to this incredibly complicated means of preparation, some companies, such as Yamada Matsu, have invented electric incense sensors, which make monor a little more accessible outside of the incense ceremony. Another place koku is frequently used is in the Tea Ceremony, where small pieces of koku are placed in the furo during the summer months in order to perfume the tea room.
Also used in The Tea Ceremony is the next type of incense, niko. Niko, or needed incense, became popular in the 8th century, especially after, as mentioned in the famous Tale of Genji. It is made by taking various fragrant materials, grinding them down into a powder, and mixing them with some sort of binding agent. Traditionally, this is plum flesh or honey. Like the koku we took a look at earlier, niko must be heated instead of burned. In a similar fashion, it is placed on top of ash heated by charcoal, but instead, it is done using the saki technique, which heats the niko to a higher temperature so it can perfume an entire room. As niko contains multiple different ingredients, the possibilities are endless when it comes to creating crafted blends of fragrances. In front of me, I have two of these blends. This is umaka, which is one of the oldest types of niko. The exact recipe varies from incense house to incense house, but generally, it includes sandalwood, alo wood, and a fair amount of plum, which is in the name. Niko is used in the tea ceremony in the same way that koku was, but instead of in the summer months, it is used in the winter months and placed in the sunken hearth. In fact, this blend of incense, called Seikō, is a recreation of the favored niko of Oda Nobunaga, a samurai tea practitioner from the Waring States period of Japan and the founder of the Oda school of Japanese tea ceremony. In addition to alo wood and sandalwood, the main aromatic woods, other common ingredients in niko include spikenard, clove, cyperus, musk, benzoin, borax, and pistacia terebinthus. As niko is only slightly easier to use than koku and still has an incredibly high quality of aroma, I'm going to place it here on my chart.
Now, on to more accessible types of incense: senor and inkor. Senor, or incense sticks, are by far the most popular style of incense worldwide and perhaps was the only type of incense that you knew about before clicking on this video. Compared to koku and niko, they are relatively recent, dating from around the 1500s, which isn't really that recent. Like niko, incense sticks are made by taking various aromatic ingredients, grinding them into a powder, and creating a sort of dough by mixing them with a binder. Unlike incense sticks from some other countries, where the incense is then wrapped around a wooden core, incense sticks in Japan simply consist of these aromatic ingredients and the binder. This binding agent is something called makko, which is made of the powdered bark of the Japanese bay tree. This is because, unlike koku and niko, which are heated gently over charcoal, incense sticks are designed to be burned directly, which is what makes them so accessible. Because all you need to do to enjoy an incense stick is set it on fire and blow it out. Now, you need someone to put it there. There are many solutions to this problem, including little stands, plates, and my favorite, an incense sensor full of incense ash. This is my preferred solution, as not only does the ash hold the incense stick straight up, it also collects all the ash that falls off the stick as it burns. Also, if you have an incense sensor and incense ash, it's a lot easier to get into some of the more complicated styles of incense, like the ones we looked at earlier, niko and koku.
In addition to their ease of use, incense sticks are incredibly versatile. If you don't want to burn the whole thing, you can just break a piece off and only burn this much. If you want, you can actually lay it flat on the ash bed, if you so choose. I just put it out, didn't I? Can I get that bed out? Oh no, I didn't put it out. You can even burn things laying flat in the ash because if the ash is well-ventilated, it means oxygen can get to the stick no matter which way it's oriented. If you want a stronger aroma, you can burn multiple sticks or take the same stick and break it into little pieces and set them all on fire and put them in the ash. As you can see, it's a very versatile way to experience incense. Like niko, incense sticks are blends, which means the aroma profile can vary greatly depending on the quality of ingredients and the ratio of aromatic ingredients to binders. Cheaper incense blends will have more binder and less incense, whereas a higher quality incense blend will contain more aromatic woods and fewer binders and fillers. My favorite incense stick blends are made by Yamada Matsu. Kokuten, which use a strong core of koku, or aromatic woods, as the foundation of their various incense stick blends. Here, I'm burning Suigetsu, which is an alo wood-based blend. Some of my other favorites include Kumyō and Ōru. If you want to sample some of these aromas without committing to a whole box, you can try a little sampler of their higher-end aromas or of their more daily aromas. Incense sticks score a lot of points when it comes to ease of use and versatility, but the quality of aroma can vary drastically depending on the quality of the blend, which makes it quite hard to put on my chart, but I'll place them in roughly this area.
Our last incense of the day is the more colorful and less stick-shaped inkor. Inkor, or pressed incense, is in many ways quite similar to incense sticks, in that it is made again from aromatic ingredients, ground out into a powder, and held together with a binder. The actual composition of inkor varies drastically between incense houses, but the ones I have here from Yamada Matsu are combustible in the same way as incense sticks, which makes them very easy to burn. Like an incense stick, you can take one of these pieces of inkor, set it on fire, and blow it out, and you can place it on a little stand or, like with incense sticks, on a bed of ash in an incense sensor. Another way you can enjoy inkor is the same way you would with niko, by placing a lit charcoal under the ash, which will heat the ash and therefore heat the inkor. This will release a more subtle, gentle aroma than burning it directly, but will have less smoke. These inkor come from a set from Yamada Matsu called Hanakō, as you can see, they are shaped like little flowers, one for each month of the year. As they are very similar to incense sticks, they will go roughly around here on my chart.
And there you have it, a brief introduction to some of the most popular types of Japanese incense. This was just a short look at one of Japan's oldest and most interesting cultural traditions, which has evolved alongside tea for many centuries. If you want a deeper dive into this topic, please let me know in the comments down below. As always, I'll leave a link to all of the incense and equipment used in the video in the description. If you enjoyed this video and learned something new, please give us a like and subscribe. Thank you very much for watching, and have a nice day.