Marukanou Murata

Yorozuya/general shop was started in Okegawa-juku near the Nakasendo trail. Okegawa-juku was a very prosperous post town. because it was only about 40 km from Nihonbashi in Edo, a distance that could be travelled by an adult in a day. Marukanou was established in the inn town and began selling agricultural implements, hardware, kimono and local merchandises to local residents and travellers. Later, a hardware shop and a drapery shop were established as independent businesses under the name of Murata Yasugoro, until the 8th generation, who devoted themselves to the development of the area and participated in the establishment of Okegawa’s mayor and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The company is now run by the 10th generation and sells his own and other manufacturers’ incense and candle products to Buddhist altar and incense shops throughout Japan.

Incense sticks are an essential part of Japanese culture. We develop incense sticks using traditional methods and distribute them throughout Japan. We have developed incense sticks with various fragrances, such as incense sticks with no smoke, incense sticks with no fragrance, incense sticks with multiple fragrance, such as traditional fragrance, flower fragrance. Food related fragrances were also developed, like green tea, coffee, chocolate, matcha, hojicha and black tea fragrance. We also put a lot of effort into the development of packaging as well as fragrances, and try to create designs that evoke our fragrance.