The Rikkoku Gomi set was first assembled around the 15th Century with the establishment of a formalized “way/art” of the Incense by founder Sanjonishi Sanetaka (1455-1537 AD), a noble under the Muromachi Shogunate of Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa. Without the benefits of modern logistics, and being more isolated from the rest of the world, agarwood import… [Read More…]
Kyara and Aloeswood
Comparing Jinkoh and Kyara
A summary of the comparisons between normal aloeswood and kyara/kynam in a table. Enjoy!
How to store Kyara and fragrant woods
Kyara, being an extremely refined and rare fragrant wood material, should be protected from extremes and fluctuations in both humidity and temperature, dampness, light, and all other contaminating smells, including incense, perfumes, sandalwoods etc. It must be kept in an extremely clean and pure environment to preserve all its qualities and prevent damage or loss… [Read More…]
GCMS of Kynam
In one of the first few posts of the website, a video was shown where Chinese scientists, had performed a GCMS analysis of Kynam. Prior to this analysis, the scientists were skeptical about the existence of Kynam, they had done comprehensive analysis of most aloeswoods, and all the kynam that had gone to their lab… [Read More…]
Is there any difference between Kyara and Kinam?
Traditionally, the word 玉 or Jade refers to two types of beautiful stone materials, either the Chinese historical Nephrite (calcium magnesium sillicates), known for its creamy, smooth and elegant texture, or the Burmese Jadeite (sodium aluminum silicates), reknown for its lovely green hues and icy translucencies. However today, the word玉/Jade is now applied to… [Read More…]
Enjoying Kyara through Mon-Koh
Mon-Koh is loosely translated as “listening to incense” from the Japanese language. Kyara is best enjoyed using Japanese “mon-koh” methods, where a red hot coal is buried under ash in a ceramic cup, with a small ventilation hole prodded to provide air to the coal, and a slice of clean mica place on top before… [Read More…]
The Ancient Chinese Classifications of Aloeswood
Dating back to the Western Jin dynasty, and re-published in Song Dynasty and Ming dynasty records before it faded away, the ancient Chinese appeared to classify aloeswood by the following terms 蜜香, 沉香, 鸡骨香, 黄熟香, 栈香, 青桂香, 马蹄香, 鸡舌香. There are serious flaws in this ancient Chinese classification despite it being very commonly used… [Read More…]
What is Kyara or Kynam?
Kyara/Kynam/Kinam is a tiny subset within aloeswoods in a very very small percentage. In a historical context, it refers to a special type/grade of aloeswood with unique and excellent fragrance properties. The Chinese have a saying that one needs an accumulation of 3 lifetimes of virtues before one would have the chance of encountering real… [Read More…]
Ranjatai – The Most Famous piece of Aloeswood
A large piece of fragrant wood drifting ashore onto Awaji Island in the 6th Century, and presented to the Empress Suiko was recorded in the Nihon Shoji. The ability of Prince Shotuku to identify this fragrant wood as aloeswood or Jin-Koh, suggests that this material had already been known by the royalty in Japan much… [Read More…]
History of Kyara
Kynam, qinan (奇楠), kyara. The esteemed names of a very precious fragrant material on earth that almost no one seem to truly know in the modern world today. Historically, the Vietnamese called it calambac, in Sanskrit, it was recorded as kala-nam. The chinese words for kynam can be found with two variations of the word qi (奇), of which the former refers to unique, amazing, special. Nan (楠) refers to a certain wood type with three categorical species, where xiang nan or fragrant nan is one of them.