Listening to Okuno Seimeido Byakudan Omokage

Considered an auspicious day in the traditional calendar, the third day of the third month holds specific significance as the day of Hina Matsuri, the festival celebrating Japan's daughters. Held each year on March 3rd, the origins of Hina Matsuri can be found over 1,000 years ago during Japan's Heian Period (749 - 1185 CE). Traditionally, families display hina dolls shortly before the festival while offering prayers for the health and happiness for their beloved daughters. The tradition of displaying hina dolls has its roots in the ancient practice of protecting daughters from harm by using the dolls to symbolically absorb potential misfortune and illness ensuring the child's health and happiness. During Hina Matsuri springtime incenses featuring sandalwood and traditional aromatics are used for both purification of the dolls and their display as well as an offering for good fortune for one's daughters. In Okuno Seimeido Byakudan Omokage, just such a traditional sandalwood incense has been created hearkening back to this ancient wisdom and rich history.

Described as being filled with the mellow creamy sweetness of sandalwood, Byakudan Omokage (Ancient Memories) is a soft woody sandalwood with light floral overtones. Part of Okuno Seimeido's Kunsui line of fragrances, Byakudan Omokage blends a mellow sandalwood with carefully selected traditional aromatics to create an lightly sweet sandalwood fragrance idea for both purification and devotion.

Omokage's sepia stick is soft, warm, and filled with a light clean soapstone fragrance. Although subtle, spicy notes of cinnamon and clove peek out, adding a gentle sweetness to the fresh soapstone that dominates the unlit stick. However, like a bashful cultured young girl displaying the results of her best etiquette lessons, Omokage's unlit stick is quite subtle in sharing its more fragrant characteristics.

Once lit, Omokage begins with a burst of sweet cream, notes of chai, and rich chocolate bursting to life. These quickly dissipate as Omokage's sandalwood fills in the creamy notes, producing a smooth silky softness. The light soapstone note of the unlit stick then returns, giving Omokage's creamy sweetness a refreshing bright quality, like the hopes of parents for their daughters.

With time, Omokage continues to soften, creating a soothing relaxing sandalwood note that hits the "goldilocks" zone of being not too sweet, not too sharp, but just right in its moderation. The aromatics seen with the unlit stick provide a lovely smoothness to Omokage's sandalwood sweet creaminess, yet without the fragrance taking on a cloying tone that overpowers its wood base. The sharpness of Omokage's wood base at times displays hints of resin, but this sharpness is always restrained and refined in its nature. The combination of sweet, creamy, with hints of resin gives the effect of a light sandalwood with an almost soft floral sweetness like the soft perfume of a fine silk kimono.

Omokage's affect on the space of its burning is pronounced. With poise and gentle grace, it fills the space with a calm, soothing, and relaxing sweet warmth. Smooth and creamy with hints of spice, yet soft and elegant, Omokage transforms its environment into an oasis of calm, purified from the stress of the outside world. Up close, it is sweet and creamy. Further from the burning ember it is more resinous with a sharper spicier quality. Taken together, it is as if Omokage encircles the listener in a soft protective bubble with its sharper elbows facing outward. It is easy to see why such a traditional sandalwood would be used to purify a space, ensuring a safe environment where those at the center are protected from the evils of the outside world like the protective loving embrace of a parents' hug.

Omokage's after-note is rich and long lived. After the stick has been consumed, its fragrance continues to occupy the space for hours, like a faithful servant guarding the area it once filled with its light sweetness. However, this sweetness now takes on a more pronounced spiciness, with a sharp woody sandalwood resin alerting anyone returning that they are entering  a space that has been purified of negativity. Hours after the burn, memories of Omokage remain, its soothing warm protection fading slowly over time.

Perfect for relaxation or mindfulness work, Byakudan Omokage is a beautifully soothing mellow sandalwood fragrance as pure as a parents' love for their daughters.

Lost in memories of my daughter;
pride swells in my heart.
I miss her so.

Okuno Seimeido Byakudan Omokage is available in the following size:
140-Stick (50g) Box

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