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June in the traditional Japanese calendar is referred to as Minazuki 水無月, the month “overflowing with water.” Typically beginning in June, Tsuyu 梅雨, Japan’s rainy season, brings cloudy wet weather for six to eight weeks during summer's rising temperatures. Incense made for this time seeks to mask the heat and humidity of Japan's rainy season with fragrances that evoke the feeling of water from either cool mountain streams or refreshing ocean breezes using traditional aromatics to fragrantly cool the rainy humid days of June. In Nami no Sho, Gyokushodo uses traditional ingredients to evoke the element of an ocean wave and the coolness of coastal breezes.
Part of Gyokushodo's Kaori no Sho series made from the highest quality aromatic materials masterfully blended to fragrantly draw out elemental forms, Nami no Sho combines Indonesian aloeswood and Indian sandalwood with cool traditional aromatics such as reiyokoh, camphor, and sweet pine to create the elemental embodiment of the form of a wave. Described as "a strongly traditional aloeswood fragrance with overtones of the seashore," Nami no Sho is perfect for the hot humid summer days of June.
Nami no Sho's muted charcoal brown stick is as delicious as summer treat enjoyed on holiday. Notes of rich caramel mix with refreshing fruity overtones and the soft sweetness of summer pines in the ocean breeze. Rich roasted nutty tones of dark chocolate hint around the edges, adding depth and enticement. The primary tone from the unlit stick, however, remains one of beautiful fruity rich caramel sweetness.
Once lit, Nami no Sho begins with an almost lemony pine sweetness, like the fragrance of a stand of pines in the breeze. The rich fruity caramel of the unlit stick slowly returns to fill in the pine sweetness with a more complete presentation, reinforcing the pine sweetness with a fruity green note like fresh pear green growth after a rain. Nami no Sho's initial presentation is light, airy, and soft like a gentle breeze through pine trees overlooking the ocean shore.
As the burn continues, notes of aloeswood add to this mix a tangy blend of sour and bitter. The sour green note presents as light and fruity, adding another dimension to Nami no Sho's bright overtones. In contrast, its bitter note oscillates between rich tea leaves and hints of dark chocolate blended together, grounding the fragrance in the earth. With every new fragrant layer Nami no Sho adds, the picture of gnarled ancient pines, flush with fresh green candles swaying gently in the shore breeze, continues to fill in, like watching a fragrant painting come to life.
With time the boldness of the Indonesian aloeswood and Indian sandalwood begins to assert themselves, and Nami no Sho's fragrance becomes more woody, earthy, and rich. The blend of both aloeswood and sandalwood becomes more apparent, with the rich bitterness of Nami no Sho's aloeswood mixing masterfully with a dry resinous sweetness of its Indian sandalwood. Together the two create a quintessential ocean side note, yielding a damp aged wood tinged with a savoriness like drift wood on the beach. The fruity sweetness continues, but now less dominant; the gnarled tree trunks, moist with dew and buffeted by the sea shore, take center stage filled with the rich savory earthiness of the soil they cling to.
Like a lazy June day, Nami no Sho is relaxing, soft, and filled with the gentle sweetness of early summer nostalgia. Easy to lose oneself within, its fragrance is light, cool, and calming like a gentle ocean breeze. The mix of woody tones highlighted with light green fruity sweet overtones is addictive as well as beautiful. Although not overtly salty, Nami no Sho brings to mind not just pines, but the feeling of experiencing a sweeping vista of an ocean cove often seen here on the rocky coast of Maine. This is not an inland fragrance of wood and forest, but one of the coast filled with pines and granite outcroppings, waves rhythmically breaking upon the rocky shore.
Nami no Sho's after note continues where it had left off alight, with notes seen in the burn slowing fading to make way for others to shine. First to fade is the sour fruitiness, leaving the resinous sandalwood and aged aloeswood notes to rise to the fore. As these die off in time, the bitterness of Nami no Sho's aloeswood takes on a sweeter and richer savoriness with notes of coffee and dark chocolate. In time, the sweeter tones give way to a wetter salty quality like damp driftwood thrown on the fire. Finally, returning full circle, the sour note returns, now muted and mature, leaving a light tangy softness in Nami no Sho's wake.
An aloeswood blend ideal for a summer burn, Nami no Sho is a wonderfully enchanting combination of pine and soft ocean breezes coming off the rolling waves. It presents a fragrant picture of a sun dappled summer morning relaxing along the cool coast of Maine in a way that will make anyone who has visited Acadia nostalgic for a return trip.
The sound of ocean waves rolling,
amid the towering pines,
summer breezes greet the trail.
Gyokushodo Nami no Sho is available in the following size:
80-stick box
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Learn more about the influence of the seasons on the Japanese art of incense in the book: The Fragrant Path: A Guide to the Japanese Art of Incense. Filled with practical suggestions, useful tips, and an exploration of the history, selection, use, and appreciation of this uniquely Japanese art form, The Fragrant Path offers a rare, comprehensive look into the Japanese art of incense in the first in-depth English-language book on the subject in nearly three decades.
