Koyasan Rei-Koh 10g

A beautifully crafted herbal stick, on its unburnt state you smell spice, particularly that of  cinnamon and star anise, beneath which you find a hints of reiryokoh, benzoin, patchouli, borneol, and the fragrant woods in an immaculate balance. In this incense, you do not find grassy sharp herbal fibrous burning notes that is common in many chinese incenses. Instead you find a mid low tone sweet incensy thin resinous note that is very comfortable, and decorated with sparkles of different herbs. The intensity of this stick is medium, which means it can be comfortably burnt in a confined space without being overbearing.

The scent is reminiscent of the powdered "zu-koh" incense powder that is used to cleanse one's hands before prayer or handling important religious items, and the smoke, does smell like granulated shokoh being burnt on charcoal in the tang dynasty traditional way, except more refined and more rounded, unlike sho-koh burning which gives sharper penetrating intensities. A perfect choice to add a meditative air of religiosity to any environment, and a great incense to start your day with.

An important experience will be to attend the morning prayers on Koyasan if you stay in a temple shu-kobo, especially in winter. During the prayer session, guests will be invited to sprinkle shokoh/traditional granulated incense onto a piece of buried hot coal in a censer, to which puffs of aromatic smoke will be evolved, penetrating the cold dry winter air and travelling large distances without losing focus. As the melodic shingon chants punctuate the stillness, and this aroma hits your senses, the sudden stillness in one's soul becomes an instant memory.

Once this association is created, this incense stick will easily bring you back to the same state of stillness, which is why I absolutely love this incense stick. Even if you have not had the fortune of this experience in person, the scent of this incense is still able to invoke a comforting and still mental state that momentarily clears one's lethargy and tiredness, as the spices and herbs used are known to clear afflictions. One important question though, is whether this stick is purely natural, as the scent from it is very natural in vibes. But based on careful and close scrutiny, there are marks of synthetic muscone but very lighty and mildly dosed that it just adds a fine texture without being uncomfortable.

Comes in a 10 grams tube.