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There are various of colorful enjoyments in our daily life, I can tell you how to enjoy them as a proficient.
Written by Miki TANAKA Photo offered by Shoei Do/Shoju Bunko
Miki TANAKA
Acts as aromatherapist・perfumer since 1998 in Kyoto.
With the special way to express the “languages” of fragrance.
Main work in the Kabuki area (Kabuki/歌舞伎 is a classical Japanese dance-drama.) and entertainment circles, serve the original fragrance.
By the reason of the fragrance is common exist in daily life, there’s almost no expression like “interest in fragrance”. Now we can smell about 2000 kinds of fragrance in one week. From the past, Japanese were sensitive to the changing of seasons, and love the seasonal food and the fragrances from different plants of different seasons. Although Japan is said a nation that loves fragrance, by the facts of history, Japanese always avoid the strong fragrance from abroad, more like using the fresh fragrance. It’s not a hobby for people to use fragrances with rich flavor, more for erase odors of daily life.
It was said there has been lived about one hundred thousand people in the ancient capital of Heian Period, and about 1000 of them belonged to the nobility rank. For cutting the hundred thousand of kinds of odors out of noble’s lives, the fragrances played a very important role. The Heian nobles used the fragrances in their living space and clothes to cut the odors from outside and erase the body odor, then, a noble and fragrant world was established. As same as us in nowadays, using the aromatic and deodorant spray in daily life, but only one thing was so different from now. It was the “fragrance” is a symbol of wealth, educational and good taste. When the daytime gone, the inside of castle became dark, but you could recognize a noble by his special fragrance. The nobles enjoyed making special fragrances for them own. By the background, the knowledge of how to synthesize fragrance was important for them, and the excellent skills have been handed down to present day. The fragrances have born from the luxury world of upper class as an elegant rival game and became a noble and grateful hobby at last.
It’s not bad for inherit the lifestyle through the times from the nobles who are still living in the history. How about play the luxury game to customize your own free and easy fragrance in your own special space?
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