On my way back from a walk in the Kyoto Imperial Garden, I stopped by Kunjukan, which is run by Shoeido, a long-established incense company located near Marutamachi along Karasuma Street in Kyoto. It is a “museum of incense” and I found it quite enjoyable.
The official website is here.
Objectively and immediately, it seems that Shoeido renovated an old building adjacent to its main store in Kyoto and turned the first floor into a museum-type PR facility with free admission. The posted “tour route” eventually leads not to the museum store but to the main store next door.
Here is a view of the exhibition area.
I wrote this in a slightly mischievous way, but I really liked this small but quite enjoyable and certainly educational museum. You can smell the ingredients of rare incense, touch a huge sandalwood, put your body under a hanging box to experience the fragrance of the incense….
The fact that visitors have not stopped coming since the opening of the store shows that it is a place that is well known among people who are interested in the field. They want to go out of their way to visit it, something that I, a tactless and uneducated person, had never known before. When I later told an acquaintance that many of the visitors were women, she suggested that incense is associated with tea and flowers lessons. I see.
And everyone seemed to be absorbed into the main store, happily shopping…. The fine strategy of a long-established store, I must say. I couldn’t pick out anything thoughtful, but I thought I would at least get something, so I pulled this “incense gacha” one time as a souvenir for my family.
So, if you have even the slightest interest in incense, the Kunjukan may be the place for you.
The last photo is of the impressive Japanese umbrella-shaped chandelier that is lowered from the ceiling at the entrance of the museum.
The side decoration looks like a Kumiko pattern, but it looks a little different from the vertical five-line Genji incense that I know, so I looked it up and found it. I found out that it is called “Genealogy Incense” with four lines. I heard that there is also a design with three lines, so it seems that the art of incense is also very deep.
