The Japanese incense company Baieido was founded in 1657 by Jinkoya (meaning “aloeswood trader”) Sakubei in the city of Sakai, a trading port where incense was a hot commodity. Baieido’s Hinoki Incense is made with the essential oil of a venerable and treasured tree — the hinoki cypress. During feudal times in Japan, the hinoki cypress was one of the Five Sacred Trees of the Kiso forest; death sentences were handed down to those who felled a hinoki cypress without permission from the authorities.
Hinoki means “fire tree” in Japanese; in certain Shinto rites, pieces of dry hinoki wood are rubbed together to produce a flame. The wood of the hinoki was used to build imperial palaces, temples, Nō theatres, and Shinto shrines. Traditionally, the Ise Shrine was dismantled and rebuilt every 20 years using hinoki cypress lumber from Kiso. The wood itself is strong and durable — resistant to insects and rot. The lemon-scented hinoki wood is used to build not only things mighty but things mundane — bath houses and bath tubs…
