What do you give for an anniversary? If you are looking for an answer in Fukuoka or Hakata, here is one suggestion: an hour spent making a fragrance together, ten minutes on foot from Hakata Station.
Not an object, but an hour made together
Gifts are difficult. You think carefully about what the other person likes, and end up somewhere safe. The person receiving it is glad, and also not quite surprised. This happens more and more as the years pass.
Something made together works differently. What stays with you is not the finished object but the conversation while making it — the hesitation, the changing of minds. "I think I like this one." "Isn't that too strong?" Those exchanges become the memory.
Three ways to approach it
At TSUTSUMU you choose one of two bases — sandalwood or frankincense — and layer on any of five mix fragrances: lemongrass, benzoin, osmanthus, honeysuckle and cinnamon. When two people come together, it usually goes one of three ways.
1. The same blend, one each
The simplest approach, and the most popular. You decide the blend together and take home two identical pieces. The same scent then exists in two homes.
2. Blend one for the other
Instead of following your own taste, you make what you think suits the other person. This is where the room gets loud. "So this is how you see me" comes up more often than you would expect. Some couples keep it hidden until it is finished.
3. Share the base, differ above it
Agree on sandalwood, or on frankincense, and then build freely from there. Smelled side by side, the two clearly belong to the same family — and are clearly not the same. It resembles the relationship itself, which is why it suits an anniversary.
What happens during the hour
You start by smelling all seven natural materials, one by one. The differences show up immediately. One of you falls for something the other feels nothing about. That is completely normal.
You grind what you have chosen in a mortar and add it in small amounts. Fragrance can be added but never taken back, so you work slowly. That irreversibility makes people more serious than they expect to be.
And at the end, it goes into the wooden box.
Engraving the box
We offer engraving on the wooden box you take home. Two names, a date, a short phrase — the character of the piece changes completely depending on what goes there.
Many guests choose ichigo ichie, a phrase from the tea ceremony meaning that this meeting will never occur again. For a day that seems to return every year but in truth happens only once, it feels like the right words.
The same day never comes twice. So we keep it in a scent.
The same fragrance, in two places
The best part of this comes later, after you have taken it home.
Scent is said to connect directly to memory. A smell arrives and the scene appears before any reasoning does — everyone has had that happen at least once.
Holding two of the same fragrance means being able to call up the same memory from different places. We mention this especially to couples living apart, and to those who know they soon will be. Each time it burns, you are back in Hakata on the day you made it.
Visiting us
TSUTSUMU is about a ten-minute walk from Hakata Station, at Motojima Building 401, 3-5-20 Hakata Ekimae, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka. The experience is ¥3,500 per person and takes about sixty minutes. We are open 10:00–18:00, with last entry at 17:00.
Please note that in August we are also open on Mondays and Tuesdays. Current availability is on the booking calendar on our website.
There are two courses — incense sticks and scented sachets — and the two of you are welcome to choose differently. If you would like the box engraved, letting us know when you book makes the day run more smoothly.
Anniversaries often end up as a photograph and a meal. This year, consider adding sixty minutes of working with your hands. What you carry home is a fragrance, but what stays is probably the hour itself.
