Yamadamatsu – Karaku – Byakudan (Sandalwood)

This opened box of sandalwood incense sticks was a gift from my friend Povilas. He thinned out his collection a while ago and gave me a few packs in the process. He didn’t dislike them, but basically never used them because he has so many others which he likes better.

I have only been able to find one shop for Yamadamatsu in Germany: Yoshi En. There, you can find Byakudan in a different packaging with shorter sticks (7cm) for €15.90. There is a very favourable shipping option of €2.90 within Germany.
The UK-based shop LotusZenIncense stocks the version shown here. The box with around 200 sticks or 75g currently costs €16 (€0.08 per stick). The sticks are 14cm long and burn for approx. 25 minutes.
In Japan, at the Yamadamatsu shop, you can buy the box for 880 yen, which is about 5.63€.
There is a second shop for international sales. It offers the 75g pack for only 800 yen and a 150g box for 1350 yen (8.64€).

Byakudan means sandalwood. Karaku is a lyrical name for Kyoto, where Yamadamatsu is based. Literally translated, it means ‘flourishing capital’. It is the name of their line for daily use.
Yamadamatsu state to use ‘rozan sandalwood’ for Karaku – Byakudan. Rōzan (老山) is the Japanese term for Mysore sandalwood, which is considered to be of the highest quality. Sometimes, you can find the translation ‘old mountain’ used instead.

When you sniff the box, you can smell a pleasantly deep, earthy sandalwood aroma.
The lit sticks show a little more of the creamy, milky sweetness that Indian sandalwood (especially that from Mysore) is famous for. I would prefer a little more sandalwood sweetness, but the scent of Byakudan is good and balanced. The natural smokiness is not in the foreground, and it is a clear, pleasant sandalwood scent profile.
I’d like to say more about it because I really like these sticks, however they are just simple but decent sandalwood sticks.

Of all the lower priced Japanese sandalwood sticks, I like Yamadamatsu – Byakudan the best so far. The only exception might be Minorien – Fu In – Sandalwood, of which we unfortunately only find wildly overpriced offers here in Germany. Moreover, they have probably undergone a reformulation since I was able to try them. (If you are in the UK, you can find them at LotusZenIncense as well.)

The price-performance ratio of Byakudan is excellent (even if knowing the prices in Japan can bring tears to your eyes.) To give you an idea: In terms of price per gram, Byakudan costs only about half as much as Sandalwood out of the Koh Do line from Nippon Kodo or those from the Overtones line by Shoyeido.