What is Japanese incense made of?
Updated By Mio.KShare
Light a Japanese incense stick next to an Indian one and the difference shows before the smell does. The Japanese stick is thinner and even all the way through, with no wooden splint running down the middle. What is it, if not a stick with perfume on it?
A Japanese incense stick is a dried paste of powdered aromatic wood and plant materials, held together with the powdered bark of the tabu tree, known as makko. It is kneaded with water, pressed out through a die like noodles, cut and dried for days. There is no bamboo core. Traditional blends use natural aromatics such as sandalwood, agarwood, clove and cinnamon; many modern low-smoke sticks also contain charcoal, and some blends use perfume oils.
I sell three kinds of Japanese incense, and what follows is what the makers themselves say about what goes into them.
If you are wondering what all this smells like once lit, what Japanese incense smells like describes it.
The four kinds of ingredient
| Ingredient | Japanese name | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Tabu bark powder | Makko, tabu-ko | The binder that holds the stick together, and a burning agent that keeps the ember going |
| Aromatic woods | Byakudan (sandalwood), jinkō (agarwood), kyara (the finest agarwood) | The base scent. Sandalwood is dry and warm; agarwood is deeper and resinous |
| Herbs, spices and resins | Chōji (clove), keihi (cinnamon), daiuikyō (star anise), kakkō (patchouli), ryūnō (borneol), ansokukō (benzoin) | The layers on top. A classic Kyoto blend may use dozens |
| Charcoal (in many low-smoke sticks) | Sumi | Keeps the stick burning with less fragrant material, which means less smoke. It is why some sticks are black |
The tabu tree, Machilus thunbergii, grows in southern Japan and across East and Southeast Asia. Its ground bark turns sticky with water and burns evenly when dry, which is what lets a Japanese stick stand without a core. Kyukyodo, the Kyoto house founded in 1663, describes it simply as the glue that sets the stick.
How the sticks are made
The process has changed little in its shape, even where machines now do the pressing. Shoyeido in Kyoto describes it in five steps:
- Measure, mix and sift the powders to a fixed recipe.
- Knead the mixture with warm water, and color if the recipe calls for it, into a firm dough.
- Press the dough through a steel die, called a sugane, so that it comes out in long strands like spaghetti.
- Cut the strands by hand with a bamboo knife and lay them on boards.
- Dry them slowly. Baieido, another Kyoto maker, dries its sticks for several days in summer and more than ten in winter.
The drying is where the craft shows. A stick dried too fast warps or cracks; one dried in the wrong humidity burns unevenly. That is one reason the same recipe from two makers can burn differently.
Is Japanese incense natural?
It depends on the stick, and the makers are straightforward about it. Kyukyodo separates its incense into Japanese-style blends, made from natural aromatics of the kind also used in traditional medicine, and Western-style blends, scented mainly with perfume fragrances. Neither is a trick; they are different products.
Low-smoke sticks are a second distinction. Makers reduce smoke by using more charcoal and tabu in the base and less fragrant material, so a low-smoke stick is often black and its ingredient list starts with charcoal. That is not a flaw, and the scent is not necessarily weaker, but "coreless" does not mean "only wood".
The honest way to know is the ingredient list on the box. Japanese makers often print it in the order of quantity, for example charcoal, bark powder, sandalwood, sandalwood oil. If a seller calls a stick "all natural" and the box says otherwise, believe the box.
Where Japanese incense is made
Incense came to Japan with Buddhism in the sixth century. The oldest written record, in the Nihon Shoki, tells of a piece of agarwood washed ashore on Awaji Island in 595. Awaji is still the center of the trade: stick incense has been made there since the mid-nineteenth century, and it is the largest producing area in Japan, often cited at about seventy percent of national output. Kyoto is the other center, home to the old houses such as Shoyeido, Kyukyodo and Baieido, where blending is closer to perfumery.
Questions I get asked
What are Japanese incense sticks made of?
Powdered aromatic woods such as sandalwood and agarwood, herbs and spices such as clove and cinnamon, and tabu bark powder (makko) as the binder. Many low-smoke sticks also contain charcoal, and some blends use perfume oils.
Does Japanese incense have a bamboo core?
No. Japanese sticks are solid all the way through: the paste is pressed out and dried without a splint. Indian agarbatti are rolled onto a bamboo stick, which is why they smell of burning wood at the end.
What is makko?
The powdered bark of the tabu tree, Machilus thunbergii. It binds the powders when wet and helps the stick burn evenly when dry.
Why is some Japanese incense black?
Usually because it contains charcoal. Makers add charcoal to low-smoke sticks so they burn with less fragrant material and therefore less smoke.
Where is most Japanese incense made?
Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture, the largest producing area in Japan, often cited at about seventy percent of national output. Kyoto is home to many of the oldest incense houses.
Where this fits
The three incenses I stock are a sandalwood stick from Kunjudo, Shoyeido's Horikawa, a Kyoto blend of sandalwood with cinnamon and frankincense, and a discovery set from Kyukyodo. For how Japanese sticks compare with Indian ones, see Japanese vs Indian incense; for how long one stick lasts and how to put it out, how long incense burns.
Written by Mio.K, who chooses everything in this shop by hand in Japan.