Photos of incense making in Japan

Yame, Fukuoka

Collecting cedar boughs

tabu (Japanese bay tree) leaves

Leaves are dried

The water mill

pounding the dried needles and leaves into incense powder

incense powder covers everything

The old waterwheel needs to be fixed

Just down the road is the workshop where Tsutsumi-san makes the incense sticks

Extruding the incense using an old machine once used for larger-scale operations

A very squeaky old conveyor belt cuts the incense to the right length

Chris helping out

Excess from the ends is put back into the extruder

incense is stacked and dried

 

Simple Incense for Zen product page is here