Story

From the founder

Hello. I am Masako Nii, founder of the fragrance brand KYO.
Thank you for finding your way to the brand, and for taking the time to visit this site.

Why, now, would anyone want to deliver something as old and as analogue as incense?
I would like to tell you why.
If you have a moment, I would be glad if you read on.

In recent years, a digital world that never quite disconnects has become our everyday.
There are no edges to it, and no clear end.
Where does yesterday stop, and tomorrow begin?
Before we notice, days, months and years have gone by.
Have I really been steering my own life?
I suspect I am not the only one who mostly asks that question in hindsight.

Enjoyable things arrive almost automatically, every day.
It is entirely possible to live a pleasant life that way.

But does it lead to the kind of richness a person really needs, in mind and in body?
The small doubt would surface, and the busyness of the days would carry me off again.
That felt like a loss, and as I grew older I began to ask whether there was a way to hold our limited time more carefully.

It was around then, at thirty-four, that I lost my second child.

I wanted to lose my memory itself.
I spent that long in grief and pain, and everything felt as though it had turned to nothing.
The only things I could do each day were to care for my older child with everything I had, and to burn incense for the child I had lost, morning and night.

My own life had hung in the balance, and it took three or four months after the birth before I could move properly again.
That was the first time I could stand in a shop and choose incense for myself.

“There are this many scents — and this many textures and colours of packaging!”
Until then I had only ever met the imported incense sold in variety stores, and it was a revelation.

And through it I came to understand, from the bottom of my heart, the care and the feeling that go into remembering someone who has died. For the first time I thought:
“I will live alongside this sorrow.”
Something changed in me, all at once.

Writing it this way may make it sound like a purely religious practice, but that is not quite it.
What I learned first-hand is that, for a grieving or exhausted heart, scent carries an extraordinary power — it gives back the will to live, and the quiet joy of choosing something for yourself.

That experience left me deeply curious about Japan’s incense culture — even though I have a strong sensitivity to smell and cannot bear fabric softeners or perfume.
The more I studied, the stranger and more fascinating the history of scent in Japan became, and the more clearly I saw how closely it is tied to the mind and the body.
And yet scent has its fashions too. “Traditional, therefore good” did not feel right either.
“Then I will make it myself.”
That is how I came to start this brand.

The name KYO — today — carries one meaning:
to live each day by your own will.

In a world that carries you along unless you pay attention, take the helm of your own life.
Then accept the view it gives you, and enjoy it.
I am sure each of you has your own turning points, in scent and in everything else.
I would be glad if the scents and objects of KYO became a small turning point, or a switch, for someone.

Thank you for reading to the end.
May you accept yourself today, and spend it with a calm heart.
You are always welcome here, and on Instagram and Threads.

— Masako Nii