Smellscapes of Japan - Part THREE

Continuing to design the smellscape of Japan, today we are going to explore Japan's natural sources. if you missed the previous articles click on the link for JAPAN I, JAPAN II

BAMBOO - TAKE

Bamboo is deeply rooted in the Japanese culture due to its structure, roots and abandance and it has several meanings to the Japanese people such as flexibility, strengh, properity, purity and innocence.

FINE BAMBOO HANDCRAFT - JAPAN

It is a perennial evergreen in the grass plant family and it can literally be found everywhere in Japan, and because it is strong, fast-growing and a readily available source it not only became a symbol in Japan, but also vastily used for handicraft, construction, Japanese cuisine, religious rituals and many other modern applications. As you will find everywhere, the scent released from bamboo will also be capture by your nose all the time. It is one of the most natural smellscapes of Japan for sure!

SAGANO BAMBOO FOREST - ARASHIYAMA, KYOTO

Photo credit: +Q Perfume Blog

The most magestic and peaceful way to appreciate bamboo in Japan is visiting the Sagano Bamboo Forest in Arashiyama, Kyoto.

Walking through one of the lagest bamboo groves of the world can be really an unique experience. You will be very lucky if you get there during a windy day like I did. You will hear and watch very long green swaying in the wind and creaking and its leafs rustling.

Just out of curiosity, remember the 100 Sites of Good Fragrance of the Ministry of Environment of Japan that I mention in my first article about Japan? Well, the same Ministry has also catalogued the 100 Soundscapes of Japan - where local population can appreciate "the wonders of the ear", and Sagano Bamboo Forest is one of them. Not listed in the 100 Kaori Landscape list thou...

BRIDE TO BE IN SAGANO

Photo credit: +Q Perfume Blog

Sagano Bamboo Forest is also the darling location of the brides-to-be.
You will see many couples having their pre-wedding photo shoot there, as bamboo is the symbol of purity and flexibility :-)))

Walking through the long path you will also capture the greeny, fresh, grassy, straw-like scent spread by the wind. I take it it smells differently each season of the year. I came in the end of winter and beginning of spring, so it was cold and humid (it had rained earlier that day, but when we got there the sun was coming out). We capture a very heavy smell of wet straw, wet soil and a hint of leaf-y green scent.

BAMBOO SCENSE PACKAGE - JAPAN

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There is also a bamboo handcraft souvenir shop close to the entrance where you will not only find beautiful objects made of bamboo, but also a woody, incens-y smell that is really very relaxing! They sell bamboo-scented incence, which I purchased and I love it very much.

PIERIS JAPONICA - SUZURAN - SPRING SNOW

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"Suzu" means bell and "Ran" means orchid in Japanese. So, Suzuran are little orchid bells. They are also the symbol for hapiness, unconscious beauty and purity and they smell DIVINE.

These waxy, milky-translucid, almost transparent, little bells are heavenly scented!!!
It is like finding French luxurious perfume in clusters hanging on a bush. As French muguet is greener, jasmine-like and sorta indolic scented, the Japanese Spring snow has less green quality, more flowery-honeyd accent. 

You will find them everywhere in Japan blooming during spring. I think gueishas wore them in their hair once. They are unique to Japan, so it is most likely to be marked as a smellscape just as Sakura.

SAKURA - CHERRY BLOSSOM

SAKURA - CHERRY BLOOM - TOKYO

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Cherry bloom season change every year and it depends mostly on the weather. The first bloom - kaika - starts in Japan usually at the end of March, but most blooms lasts till the end of April.

SAKURA - CHERRY BLOOM - OSAKA

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It is not a secret that my trip to Japan was all about the cherry bloom experience - hanami - or "flower viewing". I travelled all over Japan in the hunt for the most beautiful cherry tree blooms and frankly, it is really hard to choose which location I loved the most. I was mesmerized by the Himeji Castle site. The Castle is surrounded by 100s of cherry trees and the combination of the 1000s delicate flowers and the white splendor of the castle construction was really amazing.

SAKURA - CHERRY BLOOM - HiMEJI - HIMEJI CASTLE

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One single tree in Kyoto really touched me for its beauty. Unfortunately it touched also the heart of 1000s of other Japanese that were almost killing each other to take the better shot.

SAKURA - CHERRY BLOOM - KYOTO

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More blooms...

SAKURA - CHERRY BLOOM - TOKYO KAIKA

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SAKURA - CHERRY BLOOM - OSAKA

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To tell the truth not all cherry trees are fragrant. Some have a almost unperceptible smell. The ones that do have a scent it smells more or less like freesias or crushed almonds.

You will find cherry scent extract in many other places thou.

At cherry blossom season many Japanese treats are made with cherry flowers, such as Sakuramochi - a cherry blossom rice cake; Sakura manju - a cherry blossom bean dough; Sakura yokan - cherry blossom jelly cake; Cherry Higashi- a dried cherry sweet among many others.

Frankly I didn't find Japanese desserts that good, but they are beautiful to look and to smell.

SAKURA - CHERRY FLOWER SWEETS - SAKURA-AN - KYOTO

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SAKURA - CHERRY CHEESE CAKE - HIROSHIMA

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Although you will find cherry blooms only once a year in Japan, the scent of cherry trees and cherry treats must be marked in Japan's smellscape.

Smellscapes of Japan - Part ONE

In 2014 I published an essay of articles on urban smells dedicated to Victoria Hensaw - the Queen of Smellscapes (or olfactive maps).That article evolved one entire theory that we are loosing the sense of the smell of our "home" due to globalization. Once you have the same shops, the same bakeries, the same chain of brands everywhere, you have also a globalization of smells, which are little by little substituting and sometimes even erasing the local ones: 

"In a world of globalization and virtual living we have developed a lack of emotional connection to what is local. We are less aware of our surroundings and we are not fully experiencing the "materiality" of things. Being less contemplative and less emotionally connected to a local environment although it may sound very modern and hip, it is also drifting us away from our origins. We are loosing our identities as urban citizens. Where we come from and who we are. We no longer recognize the smell of "home" because we became urban nomads, modern gypsies."

Really concerned about the lost of our scent heritage I did a journey in my own town São Paulo to try to collect some local smell identity.Truth is that I have been collecting smells from every city I visit. Some I have shared here in my blog over the years. 

Victoria Hensaw's life work played a crucial role in my smell walks and made me fully understand how important it is to identify and map these smells and also improve my knowledge of how to map and how to catalogue smells. Unfortunately she has passed away in 2004. When I found out about her she was already sick, so I never got to do her smell walks that I dreamed so much of joining one day. But the inspiration did not die with her and I continue to do my olfactive journeys...  

Jumping to the present...

NARITA AIRPORT

Photo credit: + Q Perfume Blog

I just came back from a trip to Japan and inspired by something that I also wrote in that article of 2014 about this country made me wish to write a piece on Japan:

"...Japan is an exception in a way. Although eager to have food chains like any other country according to the specialist, it is the country that has one of the most advanced attitudes towards the olfactory sense and its relationship to place, going as far as declaring “One Hundred Sites of Good Fragrance” across the country. From the sea mist of Kushiro to the Nanbu rice cracker of Morioka, not to mention the distinct smell of glue that hangs in the air around the doll craftsmen’s homes in Koriyama, all now have protected status..."

Curious about the concept of the 100 Sites of Good Fragrance? 

It is a project developed by the Ministry of Environment of Japan, and in their own words:

The Ministry of the Environment has introduced the olfactory measurement method to the odor control law to further solve the problem of odor caused by urban / life type pollution which is increasing in recent years, and is promoting the spread of it more In addition to that, we adopted a new way of thinking about the Kaori environment, "We will rediscover the good fragrance around us, conscious of the various smells around us through noticing Kaori, actively work on improving unpleasant smell Regional activities "that we would like to promote. Therefore, as part of supporting regional efforts to preserve and create good scent and its natural environment and culture - the Kaori environment - 100 points that are particularly excellent as a Kaori environment "100 Kaori Landscapes" We decided to implement the project. Regarding the candidate for 100 candidate sites, there were 600 entries from all over the country during the three months from May 25 th this year to the end of August, as candidates for "100 Kaori Landscapes." By entrant, there were 512 local governments and 88 individuals.(extracted from the Ministry's website)

I must admit that did not visit the 100 sites of Good Fragrance therefore I can't really write about them, but instead, I decided to share my own collected smell perceptions of Japan during this last Spring.

KAORI - 香り - SCENT

I know you can't wait for this journey to start, but before we step in this fragrant path there are some facts about Japan related to fragrance that I think it is worth mentioning here.

To those of you who followed me in Japan in Facebook you know I mentioned the fact that Japanese culture in general is contraditory and ambivalent. 

NON SMOKING SIGN

Side walk in Shinjuku, Tokyo near perfume store

Photo credit: + Q Perfume Blog

As an example, you will find non smoking signs on the streets. They have specific hidden corners where groups of smokers gather to share their vice, and yet people are allowed to smoke in restaurants while eating. SO, public open free space is not a place to produce smoke and bad smells, but blowing it on people's face while they eating it is not only allowed but almost a must. Actually they will find quite surprising that you don't mix Malboros with sushi. 

SMOKES AND SUSHI in HIROSHIMA

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The contradition and ambivalence are also applied to the perfume culture of Japan.

1. You will see 1000s of shops selling perfumes, but you will rarely find Japanese wearing them. 

Also ambivalent regarding perfumes: 

2. Japanese don't wear perfume but in Japan you find a perfume sommaliers. 

To understand what a Japanese perfume sommalier does, Kazutoshi Kato, one of the 14 perfume sommaliers of Japan certified by Bluebell Japan Ltd describes his job he explains:

“It is my job to select a scent that matches the customer. It is also my duty to teach the customer how to wear and preserve perfume, and how to observe proper manners when wearing it. He adds: "It is not just about knowing as many perfumes as possible, though that is necessary as well. You need to know the historical background of fragrance, how to describe each scent, how to display the perfume on the counter, and even the anatomy of the nose and how it works.” (Kato has been selling Bluebell’s perfume imports at the Isetan department store in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district since 2001).

In 2003 Bluebell Japan introduced a perfume sommelier degree, a certificate awarded to Bluebell employees who meet certain qualifications. One of them being to pass the fragrance sales test conducted by the Japan Fragrance Association, and in order to pass this test it is necessary to have a wide knowledge of the perfume industry and of fragrance in general.

Yes fragrant friends, they have experts in fragrance, but will Japanese people wear the fragrances they are advising to purchase? Not really.

HARAJUKU, TOKYO

Photo credit: + Q Perfume Blog

3. Japanese people has almost no body odors.

Regarding this subject I have always heard things like "you smell of what you eat". If that was 100% accurate Japanese people would smell like fish, soy, ginger... wouldn't they? Well, they don't.

Japanese people in the subway smell good after one long day of working. They don't have a pronounced body odor, nor does the subway stink. Ridding the subway you will notice the difference from a New York subway train right away!

Although Gwen Stefani has launched in 2005 a line of fragrances called Harajuku Lover, inspired by the Harajuku street fashionistas you can be in a crowd in the middle of the day in the fashion district of Harajuku, where you can't barely move, and all you will smell is delicate flowery shampoos, fresh washed clothes and crêpes (we will address to this aroma later on).

Experts explain that one reason why the Japanese fragrance market is still relatively small is simply due to what is claimed to be a racial characteristic of Japanese people: They have a lower tendency to develop body odor.

“In Western countries, people originally used perfume to conceal their body odor,” says Akiko Ryu, the deputy general manager of the perfume and cosmetics division of Bluebell Japan. “Most Japanese people, however, hardly have any body odor. Therefore, perfume is not a necessity.”

That explains why Japanese subways and crowds are not smelly. (they don't bring food and beverages to the subway like new Yorkers do...)

I confess that while traveling in the subway I wanted to come closer to the Japanese standing next to me and take better sniff, but since they have a cultural imposition of minding your own space - "don't touch me, don't even look at me if possible" rule, I did not dare to do so.

If you guys want to go deeper on this subject I found an interesting/fun video in youtube made by Rachel from the Rachel & June channel that actually explains in a fun and easy to understand the chemistry and genetics of Japanese people:

So by now you are wondering... How come there are successful fragrances like L'Eau d'Issey by Issey Miyake, Flower by Kenzo or houses like Shiseido and Hanae Mori if Japanese don't wear fragrances? It is indeed a mystery to me. There are Japanese perfume brands, there are perfume shops in Japan...but I am yet to find a Japanese person wearing perfume. Maybe perfume wearers gather in hidden corners to share their passion like the smokers do. 

I read an article in a blog about living in Japan as a foreigner that Japanese people consider perfume an accessory only for very important people or for women that "work at night", but I had no confirmation on the matter. 

SHINTO SYMBOLS - OMIKUJI, EMA and KOMAINU 

TEMPLES OF TOKYO KYOTO AND NARA - JAPAN

Photo credit:  + Q Perfume Blog

4. You notice in Japan the absence of perfume in the air (personal scent), but the fragrances of household cleaning products, hygiene and laundry products are definitely there, almost like an entity.  

Truth is while in Japan you notice that they have a near obsession to cleaning and hygiene. This cultural emphasis on cleanliness is thought to be originated from the influence Japanese religion Shinto. By the way, 80% of the Japanese population is devoted to Shinto religion which is translated to the Traditional Religion of Japan with 81,000 temples. Shinto suggests that there are more than 8 million deities (Kami or Shin) in the daily objects and as they hate impurities the followers of the religion and the world around them must be purified and cleaned constantly thought ritual of purification (Harai) with water baths.

PURIFICATION FOUNTAIN

TOKYO SHRINE

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According to one of the laws of Buddhism, another popular religion of Japan, it is forbidden to wear ornaments and perfumes. So one can assume that Japanese use very little or no fragrances at all due to some sort of religious belief.

And to finish this chapter: 

More smelly facts about Japanese culture extracted from the paper - "Japanese Fragrance Descriptives and Gender Constructions: Preliminary Steps to a Cross-Cultural Study" by Brian Moeran, Copenhagen Business School:

1. The Japanese make conscious use of smell in their everyday lives. 
2. Japanese have been concerned to get rid of smell, rather than add it in the way that Westerners do… There was a period earlier when Japanese added things to stop smells – as in lavatories, for example – but nowadays the idea is to produce things that do not smell in the first place.
3. Compact living styles in close quarters encourage either milder forms of smell.
4. If Japan is marked by a smell culture that is based more on ‘odourlessness’ than ‘odour’, we may wonder how fragrance companies advertise their products in Japan and how Japanese themselves react to modern – primarily Western – perfumes and the use thereof. In the early 1990s, it was remarked that the Japanese fragrance market constituted a mere 3 per cent of the total cosmetics market, as compared with 30 per cent in Europe (Wilk 1993: 52).
5. The Japanese vocabulary of smell appears, initially at least, to be as undeveloped as smell vocabularies in other languages, although it would seem to prefer to use ‘pure’ Japanese rather than foreign loanwords in its main classifications. There appears to be some continuity between contemporary Japanese and Heian Court aesthetics in terms of elegance, gorgeousness, sensuality and attraction (cf. Gatten 1977:44-46). The use of ‘sexiness’ is the exception here and suggests a strong Western influence, although the exact definition of ‘sexiness’ remains vague and imprecise. It may be possible to pursue the analysis of fragrance descriptives with reference to Adrienne Lehrer’s (1983) study of the vocabulary of wine appreciation.  

Stay put because in the next chapter we will start our fragrant Journey!!

LE PETIT GARÇON EDP - MY VERY OWN BLEND

LE PETIT GARÇON EDP

Launch: 2015 – Customized Edition

Perfumer: Ane Walsh

Olfactive Director: Simone Shitrit

THE COMPOSITION

Olfactive Notes of: Cedrat, white grapefruit, mimosa, genet, tagetes, osmanthus, roman chamomile, calendula, fabriana imbricata (pichi), adesnemia boroinoide (paramela), honey & pollen tincture, ambergris, musk algazal.

Olfactive description: Yellow-ish radiant, sweet, waxy-honeyed, slightly fruity, hay-ish and herbaceous, with a balsamic, warm leathery, animalic - mineral undertone. Unique, sensual and slightly inebriating.

INSPIRATIONS

Continuing to work on discrepancies in perfumery, this time I wanted to work the concept of incongruity, in such a way that we would not have either contrast nor opposition.

“To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys... But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world...” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944)

The Little Prince character represents the open-mindedness of children, as the prince is an explorer who restlessly asks questions and is willing to engage the invisible secret mysteries of the universe. The beauty of Saint-Exupéry's poetic writing goes into such details that in the original French version of the book he has never used the word adult. Instead, he calls adults "les grandes personnes" (the big people). What he meant with that was to say that what matters is the attitude of a person and not his actual age. In that sense children can act like "grandes personnes" and adults can also see the word as little children. Which brought me to an intriguing question that has been challenging me for a while: Do we all have a little prince (child) inside of us?

Continuing to explore psyche as inspiration the brief that I shared with perfumer Ane Walsh was the thought of creating a fragrance that would evoke this child that we have inside of us and what it means to have one when you have already grown. 

Having an inner child means that you are constantly questioning and opened minded without limiting your perspectives. You are aware of and sensitive to the mysteries and beauty of the world. 

But what happens when you let your inner child run your life?

“…The inner child comprises and potentiates these positive qualities. But it also holds our accumulated childhood hurts, traumas, fears and angers. "Grown-ups" are convinced they have successfully outgrown, jettisoned, and left this child and its emotional baggage long behind. But this is far from the truth. In fact, these so-called grown-ups or adults are unwittingly being constantly influenced or covertly controlled by this unconscious inner child. For many, it is not an adult self-directing their lives, but rather an emotionally wounded inner child inhabiting an adult body - A five-year-old running around in a fifty-year-old frame. It is a hurt, angry, fearful little boy or girl calling the shots, making adult decisions. A boy or girl being sent out into the world to do a man's or woman's job… And then we wonder why our relationships fall apart. Why we feel so anxious. Afraid. Insecure. Inferior. Small. Lost. Lonely. But think about it: How else would any child feel having to fend for themselves in an apparently adult world?" (Stephen Diamond, PH. D., edited)

In a nutshell: if the little child does not have an adult making the rules of the game there will be a lot of suffering. I asked the perfumer to stay away of tantrums! Suffering was not the aspect I wanted to explore because I wanted to come up with something that I would like to wear; that brings out beauty, not pain. For that matter I had to detail the brief in a more personal level and explain to her that it all came from the fact that a friend of mine once called me little prince and that I also have a little friend that needs my constant attention and that the fragrance had to be about him...and me:

MY IMAGINARY FRIEND

Garçon is a little boy born in the northwest part of France called La Bretagne (French Brittany), part of the six Celtic nations. In the Celtic language his name means warrior.

To bring the aura of Britanny I asked Ane Walsh to compose a bouquet with mimosas and genet. Mimosas brought a soft, delicate, sweet, powdery floral note with a suave green honeyed undertone, while genet added a hay-honey-like scent with a tenacious herbal tone. To add a marine sensation of a coast line ambergris was added. 

MIMOSAS

Photo credit: + Q Perfume Blog

Following the thoughts of the little prince's friend the fox, in the excerpt of the book cited above, Hervé is not just like a hundred thousand other little boys. He is a unique little warrior who has tamed me. He is my inner child, my imaginary friend. 

The inner child embodies innocence and openness; love and joy; creativity and curiosity; wonder and awe; appreciation and devotion; beauty and playfulness; forgiveness and unity; determination and strength; gentleness and enthusiasm.

Hervé has all that. He inspires me to create; he challenges my curiosity; he is the fine-tuning of my appreciation and determination; he brings unity to my thoughts. Garçon is the little child in me and he is responsible for what wonders and awes me and this is exactly what I wanted the be the core of this perfume.

In that line of thought the fragrance had to be about The Little Prince’s idea of grandes personnes and what Hervé represents to me. The name LE PETIT GARÇON EDP was my idea of a merger of both.

The funny thing is that this composition not only had to have a scented composition of La Bretagne, but it also had to have the golden locks of the little prince and myself (I also have them!). Garçon, my imaginary friend, has red hair and freckles. 

TAGETES, CAMOMILE, PARAMELAS, CALENDULAS 

Calendulas were added to compose an orange yellow-ish bouquet, adding a warm creamy texture (like redheads' skin) with an herbal undertone. Tagetes (marigolds) and a bright crisp, sweet-herbal balsamic chamomile with its apple notes brought the essence of little children and a fruity sprinkle. Honey and pollen tincture were not only the final golden touch but they added a spring-y solar aura to the fragrance.

“WONDER IS THE FIRST OF ALL PASSIONS”

René Decartes (1596–1650)

“Passion may be a friendly or eager interest in or admiration for a proposal, cause, discovery, or activity or love – to a feeling of unusual excitement, enthusiasm or compelling emotion, a positive affinity or love, towards a subject. 

The origin of the word passion is found in the Latin word "passio" which means suffering. On the surface, the word “passion” can stir emotions in us inspiring, motivating and elevating us to live life at a more exciting fulfilling level. But just as the core of an apple cannot be separate from the apple itself, “suffering” is always at the core of passion. We cannot have one without the other. In that sense could Hervé inspire passion without making me suffer? 

Both Garçon and myself are solar souls. So I wanted this aura for the very first whiff. I also wanted the notion of freshness because both children and passions have in its core the freshness of a new adventure, the excitement for life. Cedrat and white grapefruit were added to give this freshness that only citrusy notes can give, but also to balance the sweetness of the fragrance with a zesty varnish. Paramela notes were also added to bring a sensation of well being and fluidity.

LA BRETAGNE

So far the idea was a solar fresh orange yellow-ish Breton composition which brought me back to the question of incongruity (the proposal mentioned at the beginning of this post) and other questions that came along: is it possible to create a fragrance that is slightly carnal and yet, take you to a spring/summer trip to the blooming coasts and still make sense? And if we can't have passion without suffering how can I leave pain out of the brief?

The term passion is particularly used in the context of romance or sexual desire though it generally implies a deeper or more encompassing emotion. For that matter the perfume had to contain both wonder and awe, but in a different tone  - the tone of passion. Ane Walsh surprised me by adding Fabriana Imbricata, a note that is said to have inebriating effects when inhaled. By the way, I learned that Paramela smell is also very attractive. Both notes combined with ambergris and musk algazal ended up developing a rather disturbing stimuli. Something that it is kinda difficult to explain. Provocative and instigating.  Sensuality with a fleshy-warm-sweet kinky touch was added, bringing the sensation of touching skin, of instinctive sex, of something rather chemical (chemistry of attraction). Osmanthus came to compose the flowery bouquet with a sweet, warm, rich, honeyed leathery note and an elegant animalic undertone. Fact is that smelling this perfume on my skin makes me blush.

So, answering my very own question, as incongruent as it seemed, passion, desire, wonder, awe, the coast of La Bretagne and my imaginary friend were brought altogether to compose one fragrance. LE PETIT GARÇON EDP ended up being artistically conceived and unpredictable exuberant as passions are. 

***

Cole Porter was an all-time talented composer and song writer. In 1936 he composed a song about the incongruity of passions and in 1946 Frank Sinatra brought a beautiful romantic tone to the lyrics. 

Wearing LE PETIT GARÇON EDP puts a huge smile on my face and it feels as silky as Sinatra's version of I've got you under my skin.   It makes me travel to La Bretagne.  It fells like lying on the warm sand. It brings me closer to my inner imaginary friend Hervé.



I've got you under my skin
I've got you deep in the heart of me
So deep in my heart that you're really a part of me
I've got you under my skin

I've tried so not to give in
I've said to myself this affair never will go so well
But why should I try to resist, when baby I know so well
I've got you under my skin

I'd sacrifice anything come what might
For the sake of having you near
In spite of a warning voice that comes in the night
And repeats, repeats in my ear

Don't you know little fool, you never can win
Use your mentality, wake up to reality
But each time I do, just the thought of you
Makes me stop before I begin
'Cause I've got you under my skin