Incense We Love: Kousaido

The Japanese incense brand Kousaido has quickly become one of our favorites. Based in Kyoto, Kousaido is a newer brand—though plenty of them are when you consider that, according to the Nihon Shoki, a classical history of Japan, incense production dates back to 595 CE. After burning endless sticks of Kousaido's sandalwood-based products, we had to speak to someone at the company. Lucky for us, Ai Takahara was up for it. We conducted this interview via email, and then had the pleasure of hanging out with Ai and touring Kousaido HQ on a recent trip to Kyoto. Here, Ai breaks down what Kousaido incense means to her. 

How do you incorporate incense in your daily life? 

I use incense when I want to change my mood. I burn it in the morning when I wake up and just sit in a daze until the incense has finished burning. I tend to burn clean scents, like Magnolia, in the morning. 

I also burn it at night before going to bed. I like sweet scents at night, like Kousaido's Ancient City.

How did you come to a career in the incense industry? 

In Japan, there are Buddhist altars and incense is burned for ancestors—the smoke is considered to be a meal for the ancestors. My parents had a Buddhist altar and burned incense every morning so it was really familiar to me. 

Can you tell me a bit about the Kousaido's approach to incense?

We hope to provide people living in today's hectic society with a little enrichment and healing in their daily lives through incense. We make our products with the hope that they will feel a sense of spiritual richness.

Although we are still in our infancy and not many people know about us, we hope that our company and the world will be able to say, “Oh, I know Kousaido's incense and it smells great!" We want to create fragrances that will make people say, “This fragrance is unique to Kousaido.” 

You're based in Kyoto. How does the city itself inspire the incense you produce? 

Kyoto is a small city, but it has many shrines and temples, the Arashiyama bamboo grove, Katsura River, Gion, the famous geisha district, and many others. We have many incense products inspired by the atmosphere of these places. For example, we have created an oak moss fragrance inspired by the image of morning mist that moistens a bamboo grove.

Do you have a favorite Kousaido incense?

Our incense is a luxurious blend of carefully selected ingredients based on sandalwood. Since our perfumer is a woman, we have a wide variety of incense with floral scents and soft fragrances. Among them, I like Magnolia because of its elegant and clear scent. It has a long lingering fragrance after burning, and you can enjoy the afterglow.

Personally, I love to light a stick of incense while I read or play board games with my children. Which activities in your life are enriched through incense? 

In Japan, more and more people are doing “suri-shio”, and goods for making suri-shio are sold even at 100 yen stores. I am one of them.

I change the salt at the beginning and middle of each month, and I burn incense before changing the salt. I do it in order to purify the room of evil spirits. In the U.S., I believe there is a custom called smudging, which is similar in that smoke is used to purify the space.

While burning incense, I look back on the past two weeks and make a new pot of salt to start fresh tomorrow. For me, helps me reset my mind.