Kunjudo, a company marking its 133rd year in business this year, is launching a new incense series called "Japanese Gardens" on August 3, interpreting the atmosphere of Japan's traditional gardens through scent. A Japanese garden is often described as an "awai," an in-between space connecting people and nature, offering a comforting reminder in everyday life that people, too, are part of nature. In recent years, the term "Japanese Garden" has drawn attention around the world as an embodiment of Japan's aesthetic appreciation for nature. This series lets people experience, through fragrance, the sense of ease that a Japanese garden brings to the mind. While the incense burns, it offers a moment to picture a Japanese garden and enjoy a peaceful, indulgent pause.
"Japanese Gardens" Online Shop: https://kunjudo.shop-pro.jp/
About "Japanese Gardens"
A Japanese garden embodies the heart that cherishes and admires nature, along with the imagination behind that beauty. Today, Japanese gardens have spread across the world as a form of art. This series interprets the distinct atmosphere and aesthetic of five garden styles — pond, rock, moss, tea, and bonsai gardens — through scent.
The Scents of "Japanese Gardens"
Pond Garden — POND
A representative style of Japanese garden built around a central pond, with paths, rock arrangements, and plantings placed around it. Ponds and islands or mounds symbolizing seas, lakes, islands, and mountains recreate miniature natural landscapes. Because the passage of time is depicted both symbolically and realistically, visitors can enjoy the changing seasons on foot while strolling through the garden. This scent captures the freshness of water in a pond where water plants float, the complex fragrance released by the creatures living there, and the atmosphere of the lush plants growing nearby.
Price: ¥1,430 (excl. tax)
Rock Garden — STONE
A karesansui (dry landscape) style that expresses a scene of mountains and water using only white sand, small stones, and rocks, representing the most abstract form of Japanese garden. Through skillfully placed stones and raked sand patterns that condense the grandeur of nature, it symbolizes the Zen view of the universe and nature, and has long served as a place for quiet contemplation and zazen meditation. It carries the spirit of wabi and a discipline that trains the mind. This scent adds a hint of earthy and mossy notes to the dry impression of white karesansui stones, creating a subtle, understated fragrance.
Price: ¥1,430 (excl. tax)
Moss Garden — MOSS
A moss garden is a cool, tranquil garden where moss covers the ground. Moss is said to be one of the oldest plants, having emerged around 450 million years ago. The quiet light and fresh air reminiscent of a primeval forest create a mysterious sense of time and space. The varied shades of age soothe the mind and body, and the sense that everything here is alive brings a quiet, clarifying calm. This scent captures the moisture held by various types of moss and the smell of damp earth, offering a tranquil fragrance that settles the mind.
Price: ¥1,430 (excl. tax)
Tea Garden — TEAROOM
A tea garden (chaniwa) consists of the path leading to a tea room, lined with simple garden trees that express a mountain retreat within the city, based on the spirit of wabi-sabi. Beyond the inner gate, stone lanterns and a tsukubai (stone water basin) are arranged, and stepping stones lead the mind toward the tea room. Considered a path "outside the mundane world" that separates the tea room from everyday life, it offers a brief moment to purify oneself, straighten one's posture, and settle the mind. This scent blends the aroma of matcha with the fresh scent of trees, interwoven with the sandalwood incense burned to welcome guests, evoking the atmosphere of the tea ceremony space.
Price: ¥1,430 (excl. tax)
Bonsai Garden — BONSAI
Bonsai is a traditional art that holds a grand view of nature and life within a tree grown in a pot. Through daily observation and care, both the shape of the tree and the mind of its keeper are refined as one faces the plant. Its greatest appeal lies in the way a completely unique scenery emerges from the fusion of human aesthetic sense and the plant's vitality, and part of its charm is that this beauty can be passed down across generations. This scent is built on the fragrance of pine, blended with a hint of moss, evoking a grand sense of forest within a small bonsai.
Price: ¥1,430 (excl. tax)
Development Story
This product is the second release in Kunjudo's garden series, following "Reminiscent Flowers," which expressed the scent of garden flowers viewed from an engawa veranda together with the scent of sumi ink. Kunjudo once had a long-selling product called 「五つの庭」. While considering how to renew it, the company repeatedly experimented with ways to capture the universal value of a garden through scent while keeping it familiar to modern life, and the result was reborn as an entirely new lineup. A scent can instantly expand an image and bring a breath of fresh air to the mind, and for Japanese people, a "garden" is also a special place that brings ease to the heart. By layering a pleasant fragrance while picturing a garden's scenery, the aim is to create an even greater sense of healing. Looking ahead, the lineup is expected to expand further, including incense inspired by renowned Japanese gardens found across the country.
The series was created with art direction by 林俊美 and fragrance composition by 積田正浩.
