Alices Incense

2012-03-19T09:07:00.000-07:00

We are moving quickly into the Cherry Blossom season in Japan. This in terms of incense is a time when Jinko (aloeswood) takes on less importance and Byakudan (sandalwood) takes on more importance.

Tea masters will begin burning sandalwood chips instead of the heavier neriko incense.

Your own preferences in aromas will move to the lighter florals and sandalwoods, although aloeswood is still nice in the evening hours.

I thought I would post a little video I took in Japan some years ago.

Tips from the Masters at Baieido

2012-03-08T19:36:00.002-08:00

Mica plates are placed over the vent and buried charcoal. One of their benefits is they distribute the heat evenly across the surface of the incense wood. If the wood smokes the fire is too hot. The proper method is to warm the wood just enough to release the aroma without burning the wood.

Often oil will ooze from the wood and stick to the mica plate. Cleaning this residue and restoring the plate to a reusable condition is very easy. Brew some fresh green tea and use the leaves to rub the plate and remove any resin. There is something in the leaves that dissolves the resin. I couldn't say what but it works.

White Ash

2012-01-11T08:56:00.000-08:00

Recently our sales of white ash have been sky-rocketing and so I would like to take a moment for a few words on the subject.

Our white ash is made from pure bamboo and contains no additives, silicone, or fibers. This is important for kodo presentations and incense games because the ash and charcoal must be pure and non odiferous.

In addition to the incense ceremony there are many other uses for this ash. It can be used in a cup to hold incense sticks (senko) upright. This is the method used by most Zendo's as with this method you don't have to empty out the stick ashes and remainder of the incense stick each time you burn a stick of incense.

Another use is in incense burners (koro's) covered or uncovered where you bury a piece of charcoal and burn incense materials on top of the ash.

Ash is re-usable!

When your cup or koro begins to clutter with un-burned ends or pieces of material or charcoal it can be completely restored by 1. Sifting out the debris, and 2. Placing ash in an oven-safe container and baking in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. This will remove any residual aromas and your ash will be as good as new.

David Oller

2011-12-02T11:46:00.001-08:00

Before my friend Silvio Bedini passed on he wrote two exclusive articles for me to publish on the Japanese Incense website. He also sent me several photographs of Incense Clocks. Although I still encourage you to look at the illustrations and photos on our website, and to buy his book: The Trail of Time -- Silvio Bedini I am going to publish some of those photos here.

Feedback, Comments, and Questions

2011-09-11T18:45:00.000-07:00

I would like to make readers aware that I have not found a way to easily access feedback, comments and questions, posted on the Blog. I do check for comments after I post an article, but not the articles in the archives.

We do have a Baieido page on Facebook and it is much easier to dialog in that format, so please consider joining that group if you have questions etc.

You will also find we post more notices there, and if an article is posted here it will show up there as well.

I am also happy to speak with you on the phone and we have a toll free number for your convenience.

1-877-552-1328

Thanks

David Oller

Neriko Part Two

2011-07-30T04:42:00.000-07:00

This is one of the more popular recipes for neriko coming from ancient times.

Plum Blossom Blend. (Baika)

Used in the spring.

According to old literature
Aloeswood 4 ryo(60grams) ryo 15grams (old unit to weigh for pecious goods)
Cloves 2 ryo (30grams) bu 0.4grams
Seashell 2 bu (0.8grams) shu 0.07grams
Spikenard 2 shu (0.14grams)
Musk 3 shu (0.21grams)

This would have been packed in an earthen jar and buried under the eaves of the house to maintain the correct moisture. Maturation could be 1 to 5 years.

When I make neriko today, I use a different recipe, with a more modern method.

The ingredients I use are:

Aloeswood powder

Sandalwood powder

Benzoin powder

Charcoal Powder

Tupelo honey

Clove

Cassia

Borneol

Charcoal helps control the heat in burning

Tupelo honey doesn't crystalize

I also pack them in a ceramic jar and leave them at least six months.

*Recipe is one of three for this incense
**Provided by Kyosaburo Nakata of Baieido corporation

Neriko Part One

2011-07-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

Now, about Neriko: I'm not going to have time to research so what I'll say is just what is stored in my aging gray matter. Neriko, of course, is "Kneaded" incense and has a very close connection to the Japanese aristocracy and Imperial court in ancient times. You will find mention of it both in the "Tale of the Genji" and Lafcadio Hearns Seminal work "In Ghostly Japan." where it is mentioned in reference to "Incense Contests" Now these are not the incense contests we know today as "Kodo." These are contest on Making incense. A primary use for this kind of incense was in scenting the sleeves of the Kimono's.

Neriko or Awaseko came to be developed as "Seasonal Incenses" and different formulas were developed for Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall, with others that were all seasons. In time, Neriko's came to be used in the "Tea Ceremony" where they have their closest association in modern times, usually used in Winter and Fall and replaced by sandalwood in Spring and Summer.

Next article will be on the ingredients of kneaded incense.

Preparing an Incense Cup for Koudou–Part Three

2011-01-24T13:46:00.001-08:00

Arranging the ash for a formal incense ceremony is not difficult if we remove many of the elements of “incense manners.” That is to say the more technical details of procedure and method, of which there are many. Things like arranging the utensils in the proper ceremonial manner and order. Other items like handling the tamper in the prescribed method and positions, or where the listening line begins and ends for each step. These are things that take years to learn and perfect. most of which are more for the elegance of the presentation than practical. The following video will illustrate the intricacies of presenting an incense cup to the group at an incense ceremony.

Yoshiko Nakata instructing David Oller

In the next presentaion we will present a practical presentation for westerners who don’t have access to formal incense traing in Japan.

Preparing an Incense Cup for Koudou–Part Two

2011-01-14T09:00:00.001-08:00

First we are going to fill this cup with rice chaff ash. The ash need to be pure, new, free of fillers or fiberglass strands. Of course we recommend the ash sold by the Baieido dealers because we selected this ash for it’s purity and it is the same ash used my many of the Incense Teachers in Japan. Not all ash is equal and we have found several stores selling inferior ash to save a few penny’s.

Next you want to fluff the ash with the metal chopsticks that come with most koudou utensil kits. Chopsticks are on the right next to the box.

Next we are going to create a hole in the center to place the charcoal. Note: The charcoal should be glowing with a white covering before placing in the ash. Next, place the charcoal level to the ash and begin to lightly cover with ash. Keep the ash fluffy and create a small mound over the charcoal bu pulling the ash from the edge of the cup to the center.

Later we will learn how to arrange and tamp the ash but for now I want you to place a mica plate at the top of the un-tamped mound and place a piece of sandalwood or aloeswood on the mica.

Preparing an Incense Cup for Koudou–Part One

2011-01-08T09:33:00.001-08:00

To begin I want to say something about the Japanese language and why you may find it difficult to search for information on what we most commonly call the Japanese Incense Ceremony or Kodo. First, Kodo itself is slightly incorrect and calling Kodo the Japanese Incense Ceremony is entirely incorrect.

The Japanese have several alphabets and the one used to express a Japanese word to English speaking people is called Romanji. Romanji is simply a phonetic alphabet with no fixed method. For example Ko Do and Koh Doh are two exact ways of expressing the same spoken word. Romaji approximates the spoken word and not the written word, so there are no fixed rules. That is how we got the word Kodo. Why is Kodo wrong? Simply because if you listen closely to the word as spoken by the Japanese people you would notice the short “u” sound at the end. So, if you are using Japanese IME to try and convert Kodo to Hiragana or Kanji you will have better luck using Koudou and it will look like this 香道. This may not help you in searching the English webpages but it should help you use IME to search Japanese pages.

Next we have the error in translation of Koudou as the Japanese Incense Ceremony Kou mean “Incense” and Dou means “Way” and so the proper translation would be “The Art of Incense” The term for the actual gathering to play incense games is Kou Seki. I’m not even sure I like the term Incense Ceremony at all because it conjures images of priests swinging brass balls emitting copious amounts of smoke.

Kou Seki on the other hand is a refined gathering of like minded people called the Renshu which means connected group. Kou Seki literally translate to Incense Seat but I believe it is used in the sense of incense meeting, or maybe better incense sharing.

At this point I’m sure you are wondering what all this has to do with preparing the incense cup. Very little, I’m afraid, but I think you will find as we continue I have my reasons to present Koudou in the manner that I do. Think about this: There has been an increasing interest in Koudou for the last fifteen years, yet no teacher has come from Japan to teach in the United States. We have sold hundreds of Koudou cups and Incense Utensils yet we hear people are having trouble using them.

In Japan, you can very easily attend incense meeting throughout the media and cultural centers virtually anywhere in the country. You don’t need to know how to prepare the cup which is actually known as preparing the ash. In these meeting there will be someone with years of training to explain everything to you. Other helpers will bring you tea treats and tea. Yet another person with years of training will prepare the cup for you, another will bring the cup to you, and another will keep track of your records.

If you go to Japan and experience this you will see that in order to transmit incense to the west another approach would be required. The key to this transmission begins with teaching the people attending these ceremonies how to prepare incense censers themselves.

To be continued . . .

Questions

2011-01-03T06:51:00.001-08:00

I was doing some browsing this past weekend on the subject or Aloeswood/Agarwood/Oud/Kinam Koh etc. I noticed a lot of questions being asked on the perfume blogs and discussion groups. A good deal of what was presented came from our research at Esoterics LLC/Baieido USA. It was also properly cited which I am most grateful for. Frankly I’m not so protective of my own research and writing but a great deal of what I have offered was co-authored by Kyozaburo Nakata and others at Baieido, and some with various professors in Japan. I do feel responsible to protect those dear friends who have offered so much of their time to educate us on this subject.

Of course we welcome and thoroughly enjoy the discussions on these other forums and want to thank those of you who strive to learn and educate others.

I would also love to see some of these discussions take place on our Facebook fan page. You can find a reference to it on this page or search Facebook under Baieido. The group is now up to over 700 members from all over the world and growing.

Love to have you join us!

David Oller

The Baieido Family

2010-10-05T19:48:00.001-07:00

I thought this might be a good time to introduce you to the people behind Baieido.

The gentleman on the left, sitting on the sofa is Maisachiro Nakata, Chairman and the Master Blender of Baieido. Virtually all the incense blends sold today were created by him. He’s not only extremely knowledgeable and polite, but has a way of making you feel like family very quickly and loves to tease you. The last part reminded me of my own Grandfather. One day I walked in his office and he told me in Japanese that I looked like Columbo. I was wearing suspenders that day.

The man behind him is Kyozaburo Nakata, his nephew and General Manager of Baieido. I consider Kyozaburo one of my best friends and there is no favor he couldn’t ask of me. We have a great time when we meet, he’s stayed at my home in Albuquerque and I have been to his home in Sakai City where his wife prepared Takoyaki (fried Octopus balls) for us. I don’t believe I have ever met someone more honest or less egocentric in my life. He loves Flamenco music and dancing so I took him to a restaurant when we were in San Francisco that features Flamenco one night a week. He also speaks Spanish and English.

The American in the middle is me, and there’s not much of a story there.

Behind me is Yoshiko Nakata, she is married to Maisachiro and she has studied Kodo for many years and teaches students in Kodo at the Baieido Kodo room. She doesn’t speak much English but has an ability to make you understand what she expects from you and how you should accomplish even the finest details of the Kodo ceremony. She has a great sense of humor and will make you laugh at times and serious at others.

On my left is the President of the company, Nobuhiro Nakata. I found him to have a delightful sense of humor like everyone in this family, they also convey a sense of being relaxed, always polite, and serious when required, obviously extremely intelligent and confident, but never arrogant or condescending. Nobuhiro is the Son of Maisachiro and Yoshiko Nakata.

There is one more very important person that is not in this photo, Shinya Nakata, Nobuhiro’s brother. Shinya is the most difficult to write about, he’s one of those people you like the minute you meet them but can’t seem to figure out what it is that makes them so easy to be comfortable with. He could become a Millionaire panhandling in Berkely, I can’t imagine everyone not emptying their wallets and purses if he asked only for a dollar.

Well, that should give you a pretty good idea of the family that has become so dear to me, and who have given me absolute confidence they will always take the pride and integrity into their company that makes them the best incense company in the world, they would never claim that, but I will!

David Oller

Aloeswood

2010-08-02T13:20:00.001-07:00

Aloeswood - Agarwood

Japanese: Jinko

Young aloeswood trees in South Kalimantan -- photo by Kyozaburo Nakata

Aquilara ssp.

Aquilaria is an evergreen tree growing up to 40 meters high and 60 centimeters in diameter. Aquilaria is native to Northern India, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. These trees frequently become infected with a fungus and begin to produce an aromatic resin commonly called Aloeswood, Agarwood, and Oud. This resin is used by Traditional Chinese, Unanai, Ayuravedic, and Tibetan physicians. The resin is created in response to an attack from Phialophora parasitica, which is a parasite fungus or mold.

The fungal attack creates an immune response in the tree. This is commonly known as agar #1. An inferior resin is created by the wounding of aquilaria trees. this is commonly called agar #2.

The fungus and decomposition process continue to generate a very rich and dark resin to form within its heartwood. This is the preferred resin used in making fine Japanese incense. The resin created as an immune response makes the most sacred oil on the planet . As you can see the wood is extremely rare and often very difficult to obtain, as well as being quite expensive. The best quality is Kyara. Kyara comes in four types: Green, Iron, Purple, and Black.

There are many stories about aloeswood being buried under the ground for hundreds of years. This legend comes from an old Chinese book on incense, but today most aloeswood comes from infected trees that, although in the process of decaying and dying, are indeed still standing. However, sometimes the roots become infected with the fungus and these can be found underground.

Kyozaburo Nakata inspecting Kyara & Aloes Wood in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

It is believed, the famous piece of aloeswood called Ranjatai was presented by Komyo Emperor for Todaiji Temple in Nara, Japan, in the year 756(1244 years ago). Ranjatai was kept in the Shosoin warehouse of Todaiji Temple. Today, Ranjatai belongs to the Royal family of Japan. Every autumn, many treasures of Shosoin are exhibited in National Museum in Nara, titled Shosoin Ten (Exhibition). Ranjatai can be seen there every 10 or 15 years. Because there are many treasures in Shosoin, every year, they change the object of exhibition. The last exhibition of Ranjatai was four years ago, it may be ten years before we see Ranjatai again. Ranjatai has been now been identified as coming from Laos or Vietnam by Japan's leading expert on Aloeswood, Dr. Yoneda from Osaka University.

Aloeswood is a very popular ingredient in Japanese incense, and is often used in some Tibetan medicinal incense formulas.

Jinkoya Sakubei – Anniversary Series

2010-04-12T13:35:00.001-07:00

First I’d like to thank the contributors to our Baieido Facebook page for jogging my writers block and for all their great contributions.

This series of incense was designed by Masaichiro Nakata to come as close to the original recipes of Jinkoya Sakubei, the founder of Baieido, in 2007 at the 350th anniversary. The original recipes were discontinued when musk and ambergris became endangered sometime prior to 1979. Both of these items were used more as fixatives than aromas, but having strong aromas were in ancient times blended as to work as the very necessary contrasting aroma you find in all great aromatic creations.

Below is an interesting writing by Rabbi Avraham Sutton about the eleventh spice in the Qetoret

“We have seen how the Qetoret consisted of eleven spices or perfumes. The other
ingredients mentioned (Karshina lye, Cyprus wine, Sodom salt, smoke-producing
herb, and Jordan amber) were used to treat the eleven spices; they were not part of
the Qetoret per se. After treating and grinding each separately, they were blended
together into a special mixture to be used in the Temple. As Rabbi Kaplan noted
above, the Talmud goes on to explain that ten of these spices had good fragrances,
while an eleventh spice, chelbenah-galbanum, had an unpleasant odor. The question
is, naturally, why include the latter?

XVI. Qetoret and Prayer
The answer lies in the intimate connection that exists between prayer and the
Qetoret. First, King David equates the two: "May my prayer rise up as Qetoret before
You, and when I lift my hands to You [may it be considered as if I had brought] a
minchah offering of my whole being" (Psalms 141:2). Second, community prayer
requires a minyan (quorum of ten adult men). This is also similar to the Qetoret that
contains ten good smelling spices and one evil spice. Thus, by including the
chelbenah along with the other ten spices, the Torah alludes to the fact that the
prayers of a minyan cannot rise up "like qetoret" until an eleventh man, a sinner,
joins them.” – Avraham Sutton

The Anniversary Series

Of course, Masaichiro Nakata would be the best person to remember and recreate the original aroma, and using modern herbs and spices without the use of any chemicals he made this new formula. There are, of course, three in the series, but really only one basic formula Kokonoe-Koh, Horyu Koh is the same formula using a type of Vietnamese Aloeswood, and Kunsho-Koh uses a different type of Vietnamese Aloeswood. Kokonoe – Koh is the basic formula and they all contain Sandalwood.

Incense Discussion Groups

2010-03-31T12:25:00.001-07:00

Response to post on Olfactory Rescue Service

Steve & Smokingjoe

Hi, Alices at Yahoo is no longer active. With Blogs and Social Networks it became outdated. Officially, Alices's Restaurant was replaced by Alices Incense list on Facebook. It is still active but doesn't see much activity. There is also the Baieido Incense Page on Facebook which is more active. It's easy to find either by typing either Baieido or Alices in the search box at Facebook. There is also a link to the Baieido page on this blog.

David Oller

Tobiume Has Arrived

2010-02-17T22:04:00.001-08:00

Came in yesterday and will start going out to the stores this week, sorry for the delays but we had to see how it would be received before making a large order.

Looks like it will be one of our most popular aromas, so we ordered a large amount this time around.

David

Kodo Utensils – Ko Dou Gu

2009-11-16T07:25:00.001-08:00

香道具

Shino-Ryu (Shino School)

Kodo equipment in itself is a huge subject. Different schools use different equipment and use this equipment in somewhat different arrangement and display. My knowledge may be slightly skewed to particular branching of these schools. I will try to cover as much as possible, but I do not expect it to be anything like a complete presentation of the subject. More or less I want to convey a general idea of the equipment that is used.

柱空入 Taki gara ire - Silver Bowl - Shino Style
火道具建 Hi dogu tate - Silver Vase - Shino Style

灰押 Haiosae - Ash press
羽(羽箒） Habouki – Feather
木香箸 Kikoubashi - Incense chopsticks (wood)
銀葉挟 Ginyou basami - Mica Tongs
香匙 Kou saji - Incense spoon
香筋 Kyouji - metal chopsticks (Shino)

乱箱 Midare bako - Random box
帛紗 Fukusa - Silk Cloth (underneath koro)
地敷 Jishiki - Ground cover (under box)

火取火箸 Hitori hibashi - Incense Censer Chopsticks
火取香炉 Hitori-gouro - Incense Censer

香炭団 Kou Tadon - Kodo charcoal
聞香炉 Kiki-gouro

These are a few of the basic items, there are many more and like I said varying with the school and teacher. This should give you a good idea of the general equipment.

Canadian Retailers

2009-10-21T16:02:00.001-07:00

For those of you living in Canada, especially Montreal and Toronto we have two retailers available for you at this time, one is Snow Lion in Toronto and the other is Association Zen de Montreal. You can find their information on our retailer page at http://www.oller.net/retail.htm

Theodore at Snow Lion says he will ship anywhere in Canada but there is no incense on his webpage so you will have to call or email him to make an order I don’t believe Zen de Montreal ships, so it may just be for those of you living in Montreal.

We are working to add more Canadian retailers so hopefully you will see the list grow.

Tobiume on the Way

2009-10-16T09:48:00.001-07:00

For those who have been waiting it shouldn’t be long.
It will take some time to show up on the retailers webpage's,
but I expect less than 30 days from now.

The planned packaging is 18 gram boxes at a retail price of $10.00

A large 150 gram box should retail around $70.00

We expect most of the retailers will carry Tobiume. At this time the following stores have made orders:

Koshi (Japan Town) San Francisco http://www.japanincense.com/
Incense Warehouse http://www.incensewarehouse.com/
Essence of the Ages http://www.essenceoftheages.com/
Sensia http://www.sensia.com/

I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

David Oller

Product & Freshness Guarantee

2009-10-06T11:32:00.001-07:00

It’s important to remember that Authentic Baieido products distributed through authorized retailers carry a freshness guarantee from Esoterics LLC. Look for this certificate on their website.

If you find the retailer on our “Retailer Page” http://www.oller.net/retail.htm they are “Quality Assured” retailers, whether or not they have the certificate on their website.

Price Increases

2009-10-06T07:17:00.001-07:00

Well, we have been hoping the dollar would gain some strength for the last three months. We have seen our prices increase around 30-35% without raising our prices at the retail level. At the same time shipping costs have been increasing despite the fact the shippers costs are down.

I realize this is a terrible time, but it now seems unavoidable, we are simply going to have to raise prices. The only thing I can suggest for all of us is to consider taking advantage of the larger quantity packaging which should be more than enough to offset the price increases.

I will promise you that should we see the dollar improve we will again lower prices.

David Oller
Esoterics LLC
Baieido USA

Green Tea Incense

2009-09-15T08:51:00.001-07:00

We got some great feedback on Green Tea Incense at the New York Gift Fair. If you haven’t tried Green Tea Incense you should give it a try.

Green Tea Incense is a smokeless incense which uses real Itoen green tea. It is the only GTI using real green tea, but Baieido has a very functional idea about this product. Using a chemical fragrance may have produced a nice smell but the functionality of Green Tea is it’s ability to absorb other odors.

Many years ago Japanese Restaurants & Japanese people cooking in their homes discovered that burning green tea after cooking would eliminate the cooking odors. For this they used old green tea that was no longer fresh enough to drink.

I tried this at home after the Nakata’s told me about this at our first Gift Show, and both Rosie & I were impressed how well it worked. Important for us because our home is small. Since that time I’ve been telling our wholesalers about it. Usually it was met by some skepticism. So I started sending free samples to the wholesalers, and I remember who was the first to call me back about it, it was Joan of Healing Waters & Sacred Spaces in Portland. “David! I was having some people over and cooked Salmon, then the house smelled like. . . you know. . . Salmon! So I tried the Tea Incense you sent, and David, Oh My God, it worked!

Now I think, we have become so used to sales pitches that we scarcely believe anything a salesman tells us, well all I ask is you think back and try to remember anytime we told you something that wasn’t absolutely true or what we claimed.

David

Incense Burning at Nara

2009-08-27T10:43:00.001-07:00

Back in ABQ

2009-08-24T15:55:00.000-07:00

Coming out of the airport the first face I see is Max. He's so excited I can't get him back so I can open the door. Once inside he sits on my lap the whole way home.

It got a little busy so I missed some notes but Sal with Santosha.com came by and we had a nice talk. We might try and do a Kodo demonstration in the future at his shop in Long Island.

The last day we visted the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx and had lunch with my buddy Roseanne from Sunrose. She took us to a little Italian spot in a residential area of North Bronx. The food was fantastic!

It's good to be home and I spent today catching up the books and shipping orders.

Dinner with Sensia

2009-08-19T06:42:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to dinner with Cindy, Kate, and their friend Gary at the Topaz Thai Restaurant. Of course we had a great time!

David Oller
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