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Celebrating the change of winter to spring, the festival of Setsubun (節分) is held on the last day of winter in the traditional Japanese calendar (typical around February 3rd). One of the centuries old customs of Setsubun is the bean-throwing ritual of mamemaki (豆まき). To drive away bad luck and encouraging good fortune, with shouts of "Demons out! Good fortune in!" fukumame (福豆, fortune beans) are thrown at people dressed as oni (鬼, demons) wearing terrifying red masks with horns and fangs. Incense is often used to celebrate the end of winter and welcome spring. For Setsubun, kōgō in the shape of oni, with their deep red color and sharp horns and fangs, are used to hold incense for Kōdō and Chadō ceremonies. Plum blossom fragrances and auspicious incense is favored, especially aloeswood or sandalwood blends intended to attract good fortune. Seikado Shōun is just such an auspicious incense perfect for welcoming spring while keeping oni at bay.
Seikado Shōun Aloeswood is a combination of premium submerged aloeswood tempered with "Old Mountain" Indian sandalwood and a small amount of aromatic spices to highlight its traditional woody base. Formerly named "Auspicious Cloud," the same fragrance was renamed "Soaring Cloud" in 2024, changing a single kanji rather than the Shōun name. Part of Seikado's Luxury Incense series, made using traditional techniques intended to pass on to future generations the fragrance of rare woods that have fascinated people for over a millennium, Shōun is the type of aloeswood/sandalwood blend intended to encourage good fortune with its luxurious fragrance.
Shōun's unlit stick is a mottled warm tan that mixes light flecks within a warm curry brown. Spicy with sweet overtones, the stick at times presents almost acidic fruity overtones like plum blossoms over its spicier base. Shōun's unlit stick is clean, crisp, and warm, with a delightful balance of savory and sweet. An inch longer than the normal Japanese stick, Shōun's stick is six and a half inches long promising 35 minutes or more of oni deterrence and fragrant enjoyment.
Alight Shōun begins with a rich earthy aloeswood note like the matted leaves of autumn peeking through the melting snow at winter's end. Spicy notes of cinnamon mixed with a savory aloeswood blend to provide a delightfully enticing fragrance. Filled with warmth and comfort, Shōun quickly provides a fragrant atmosphere that is light, reassuring, and relaxing, banishing fear and worry from one's mind, whatever form the fearsome red fanged demons of our modern world take.
In time the sharp sweetness of Old Mountain sandalwood rises, blending with the savory "mud" aloeswood, giving a unique creamy mellowness to the mix of earthy submerged aloeswood varieties of Shōun's base. The two together are enhanced by the rich aromatics used to highlight this woody nature, adding a hint of a refreshing spicy green note to Shōun's creamy chai sweetness. The result is a beautiful rich warmth tempered with hints of spicy sweet cream in a earthy wood base.
Shōun's extended stick accentuates it's beautiful fragrance, as the longer it burns, the deeper and richer its fragrant qualities become. Notes of cream, spicy, and wood blend to create a fragrance that is enchanting, softening its sharpness and enhancing its sweet creamy side. Yet the sharpness persists, softened by time to more of a counterbalance, tempering its sweetness with lively buoyancy tinged with hints of savory richness. The extra minutes that the longer stick provides transforms Shōun's overall fragrances, allowing its various fragrant elements to blend and elevate the experience, pleasantly altering the space it occupies. The result is a deeply relaxing fragrance that provides a sense of calm and reassurance that good fortune is on the way that no oni can shake.
After the stick has been consumed Shōun shifts from warm and creamy to a softer, lighter, cooler perfume. Yet even softened the sharp savory sweetness of its aloeswood base remains, and is especially striking when returning to the space as a savory warmth is waiting like a dog's enthusiastic greeting for its master returning home. The beauty of the burn lingers on in the space like the soaring clouds Shōun is named for, maintaining the sense of well being and reassurance as a reminder to look to a brighter future sure to arrive even several hours after the burn is completed.
In an uncertain world filled with modern day oni, Shōun is a peaceful respite of fragrant ease. Combining a soothing sweet and spicy aloeswood tempered with the rich creamy sweetness of Indian Sandalwood, Shōun Aloeswood is a wonderfully comforting way to welcome spring and bring good fortune in.
Snow piled high on the deck,
bare trees dancing in the breeze.
Could spring really be so near?
Seikado Shōun Aloeswood is available in the following size:
70-Stick Box
Learn more about how Japanese culture and incense are intertwined 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.
