THE ROOT 595 Incense | Izumi Kan

Introducing √595 by Izumi Kan and Kunjudo

√595, read as THE ROOT 595, is an incense project founded in 2021 by Tokyo-born scent artist Izumi Kan in collaboration with Kunjudo, an incense maker established in 1893 on Awaji Island in western Japan.

The name refers to a story recorded in the Nihon Shoki, one of Japan’s earliest historical chronicles: in 595 CE, a piece of fragrant agarwood drifted ashore on Awaji Island. Izumi takes this history as a starting point, combining research into plants, climate, memory, literature, and natural materials with Kunjudo’s more than a century of incense-making knowledge.

The collection comprises four studies of scent and its origins. JINKOH revisits agarwood, the material at the heart of the project’s origin story. HUMIDITY captures Japan’s moisture-laden air, from rain-soaked forests to the edges of seas and rivers. 2500 BC draws on ancient Egyptian incense traditions associated with prayer, healing, and sleep, while SOOTHE takes inspiration from traditional East Asian herbal formulations, blending hops, tonka bean, and clary sage into a soft green floral.

Together, the four scents reflect THE ROOT 595’s way of working: beginning with a place, material, or historical record, then giving it new form through incense.

THE ROOT 595 incense collection is now available at ARJ Los Angeles online and in store.