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I took my sister to a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant here in Austin not too long ago called Triumph Cafe. After happily slurping away at my noodle soup, I ended up buying a small book on incense. I love scents. Call it my Taurean nature or my mother’s near obsession with perfumes while I was growing up, but I love experiencing and learning about perfumes, candles, incense and the smell of food even. Anyway, this book, The Book of Incense, reveals the history of incense in Japan. I had no idea there were ceremonies surrounding the appreciation of incense – just like tea ceremonies. It is called Koh-do or The Way of Appreciating High-quality Incense.  There are even games that you can play to take your guests on a mental journey while they try to guess the correct ingredients of different types of incense.

Kyara incense

I don’t plan on performing an incense ceremony anytime soon. I simply enjoy the way they smell and the way they make my place feel like home, but I did come away from this book with a new appreciation, if you will, for incense. I would really love to know what good quality incense like this $600 packet of Kyara incense smells like, but I think I’d be too afraid to burn it at that price! Maybe if I ever go to Japan I’ll see about purchasing a small sample instead. Oh and touring the incense factory… Apparently the place where they make Shoyeido incense still resides on the exact same property where it began 300 years ago.