Kousaido is a comparatively young house by the standards of Kyoto's incense trade, founded in 1994 around the idea of 'coloring daily life with fragrance.' Rather than positioning itself against the city's centuries-old temple-incense makers, it has built its catalogue at the intersection of traditional technique and modern perfumery, using sandalwood as the base across its lines.
Best for The HANGA series pairing ukiyo-e woodblock-print imagery with seasonal fragrance
Kousaido is a comparatively young house by the standards of Kyoto's incense trade, founded in 1994 around the idea of 'coloring daily life with fragrance.' Rather than positioning itself against the city's centuries-old temple-incense makers, it has built its catalogue at the intersection of traditional technique and modern perfumery, using sandalwood as the base across its lines.
Its clearest signature is the HANGA series, which pairs incense scents with imagery drawn from ukiyo-e woodblock prints to evoke Japan's four seasons — a direct pairing of a specific print-art tradition with fragrance design that sets it apart from houses whose branding stays purely olfactory. The approach has made Kousaido a name associated with gift-ready, design-forward incense rather than temple or ritual use specifically.
Based in Kyoto's Shimogyo ward near Shijo Station, Kousaido sells through its own webshop and a standing retail presence, and represents a different generation of the city's incense trade from its Edo-period neighbors: one built in the 1990s around packaging and cross-craft collaboration with visual art rather than a multi-century founding date.
Shoyeido has made incense in Kyoto since 1705, spanning twelve generations of the same family business. Its incense is still handcrafted there using traditional recipes and aged raw materials, including aged agarwood and sandalwood in the Xiang-do Master's line.
Best for Twelve generations since 1705 — aged agarwood, sandalwood, and the Xiang-do Master's line.
Yamadamatsu began as a wholesaler of medicinal ingredients in Kyoto during the Kyōhō era, then shifted its focus to aromatic woods in 1772 (Meiwa 9), the point the house marks as its transition into incense.
Best for Raw aromatic wood by weight, aloeswood, agarwood, sandalwood
Yamadamatsu began as a wholesaler of medicinal ingredients in Kyoto during the Kyōhō era, then shifted its focus to aromatic woods in 1772 (Meiwa 9), the point the house marks as its transition into incense. Its main store still stands west of the Kyoto Imperial Palace on Muromachi-dori, where an entire wall of wood chests holds raw aloeswood, agarwood, and sandalwood for sale by weight.
The shop is built around direct engagement with kōboku, aromatic wood itself, rather than finished sticks alone. It runs a 'monko' course where visitors learn to listen to incense wood the way the kōdō tradition prescribes, a nerikoh blending course for making compounded incense by hand, and wood-appraisal services for collectors — activities that treat incense as material and craft rather than a packaged product.
A second location operates near Hanzomon in Tokyo, extending a Kyoto-rooted business that has spent two and a half centuries specializing in raw fragrant wood into the country's other major incense market, while keeping the appraisal and blending expertise that distinguishes it from stick-incense manufacturers.
Tsujiya Honten has fitted geta, zori and setta sandals to customers' feet in Asakusa since 1912, with resident craftsmen hand-lacing the thong (hanao) to each sole in about ten to fifteen minutes. Displaced from its longtime Denboin-dori shop by a rebuild, it is currently operating a temporary storefront in nearby Hanakawado.
Best for Geta, zori, and setta sandals hand-laced to fit in about ten minutes
Spain’s sneaker of the people since 1915 — Gregorio named them for his wife in a Rioja village; vulcanized canvas that shod every Spanish summer since the seventies.
Best for Canvas inglesitas & espadrille-soled sneakers
Twelve generations of the same family have run this prayer-bead specialist on Koyasan since the Shotoku era of the early 1700s, stringing juzu from crystal, sandalwood, and semiprecious stone to the conventions of each Buddhist sect. The shop also repairs and restrings beads brought in by pilgrims completing the mountain's temple circuit.
Best for Sect-specific juzu prayer beads and bead repair
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗