Asayu – Traditional Incense – Premium Aloeswood

Asayu is a brand of the company Wazakura Japan Inc., which has the incense sticks made by manufacturing partners on Awaji Island.

I picked up this pack by chance in 2025, when I bought a small lot of second-hand Japanese incense sticks on Kleinanzeigen.

A box like this contains 40g, which corresponds to about 70–80 sticks of 13.5cm length. The burn time is given as 25-30 minutes. In Asayu‘s internationally shipping shop, it costs €32.99. I also see it at that price on the German Amazon site. I couldn’t find any other source for it here in Germany.

A few moments after lighting, a woody-warm, slightly sweet smell starts spreading through the room, a bit restrained but well perceptible.
Its character gets woodier, powderier, and drier as it gets stronger. Unfortunately, this continues to intensify, until the smell starts to feel dull.
It’s as though a little cloud of hard-to-grasp aroma were floating far above a dominant, but not actually strong wood base, without ever really taking hold in it. The scent is there, but also isn’t.

The scent of these sticks reminds me more of sandalwood than of agarwood (aka aloeswood). But even as a sandalwood scent, I’d find Asayu – Premium Aloeswood rather disappointing.
The smell isn’t unpleasant, but I don’t find it particularly typical for agarwood, nor would I call it ‘premium’.

Asayu doesn’t get mentioned much. I found a review on ORS from 2023, where Mike tries it as part of the Temple Incense Set (and is also unimpressed by it).