Nippon Kodo 日本香堂

Who is Nippon Kodo?

Nippon Kodo is a Tokyo incense company, and it's the biggest incense house we carry: 45 items, more than any other maker on our shelf. The Nippon Kodo Group was formally set up in August 1965, but the incense-making behind it goes back much further. The company traces its craft to Juemon Takai, known as Koju, who supplied incense to the Japanese Emperor more than 400 years ago. Nippon Kodo now has offices in Tokyo, Paris, Los Angeles and elsewhere, still running on that old tradition updated with modern perfumery. Alongside sticks, cones and coils, they also make the ash you burn incense in; we carry their natural incense-burner ash on its own.

What kinds of incense do they make?

Nippon Kodo makes incense in three shapes, and each one behaves differently. Sticks burn evenly with a mild, steady scent, good for a room you're sitting in yourself. Cones burn hotter and faster, giving off a stronger scent in a short time, so they suit a bigger room or when company's over. Coils burn the longest, roughly two hours, which makes them the pick for a room people wander in and out of.

A few of their lines show up in our catalogue by name. Kayuragi is the one you'll see most: floral and fruity scents like cherry blossom, jasmine, wisteria and mikan orange, plus the classic aloeswood and sandalwood, most boxes holding 40 sticks. Oedo-koh is a boxed set with a different character, named after motifs like Peony Tree, Water Drop and Sakura. Cho Cho San is their cone incense, sold as an assorted box rather than single scents. Kohden is a floral gift-box line, split between flower scents and tree scents. We also carry their plainer everyday and mini sandalwood sticks, for anyone who wants something simple to burn without picking through a long scent list first.

How do you burn incense safely?

Light the tip, let it catch, then blow the flame out. You're burning the ember, not holding a flame. Stand stick incense upright in ash or sand in a proper holder; set a cone or coil down on top of the ash instead. Keep the holder on a heat-resistant plate, well away from curtains, paper and anything else that can catch, and don't leave it burning in a room with nobody in it. Nippon Kodo's own advice is to place incense in the middle or corner of a room rather than right beside you; you get more out of watching the smoke drift across a room than sitting right on top of it. For more detail, see our incense safety guide .

What do the scents smell like?

The Kayuragi aloeswood leans deep and a little smoky, not sweet at all, closer to a quiet library than a flower shop. The sandalwood is soft and warm, an easy one to burn daily if you only want to keep one on the shelf. The green tea and mikan orange sticks read closer to the real thing than most incense manages, more like standing near the actual leaf or fruit than like perfume. The florals, rose, wisteria, osmanthus, are stronger and carry further, so they suit a bigger room better than a desk right in front of you.

Browse the collection to see what we currently have in stock.

Quick answers

These are the questions people ask us most often about Nippon Kodo, answered briefly.

Where is Nippon Kodo based? Tokyo, Japan. The company has offices in several countries but its head offices are in Tokyo.

How old is Nippon Kodo? The group was formally established in August 1965, though its incense-making tradition goes back more than 400 years to an incense maker named Koju.

How many sticks come in a Kayuragi box? Most Kayuragi scents come 40 sticks to a box.

What's the real difference between stick, cone and coil incense? Sticks burn mild and even, cones burn hot and fast, coils burn the longest at around two hours.

Does Nippon Kodo test its incense for safety? Yes. Nippon Kodo runs its own chemical-emission testing on its incense and checks the results against a 2004 Danish Environmental Protection Agency incense survey.