FEATURE

Work in Progress

The Scent Rituals of Ryoko Hori

For the third installment of our series of conversations on the creative processes of Slowness contributors, we spoke to Ryoko Hori, a Japanese “scent composer,” aromatherapist and masseuse and her partner Daniel Kula as they prepare a suite of sensorial rituals for the Reethaus at Flussbad.

Words Charly Wilder
Photography Jose Cuevas

For the third installment of our series of conversations on the creative processes of Slowness contributors, we spoke to Ryoko Hori, a Japanese “scent composer,” aromatherapist and masseuse and her partner Daniel Kula as they prepare a suite of sensorial rituals for the Reethaus at Flussbad.

Words Charly Wilder
Photography Jose Cuevas

In the eight years since Ryoko Hori and her partner Daniel Kula opened their Senses Salon in Berlin’s Kreuzkölln neighborhood, the space has developed a cult following for its exquisite selection of raw oud, Japanese incense, natural perfumes, handmade ceramics and countless other aromatic objects you’d be hard-pressed to find outside of Japan, let alone elsewhere in Berlin. The space also hosts workshops in everything from Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery, to pranayama meditation and miso making.

Born and raised in Osaka, Ryoko studied massage therapy in Japan, immersing herself in the ancient Shinto and Shiatsu traditions, and studied Ayurveda in India before relocating to Berlin where she eventually met Daniel. The Frankfurt-born son of Romanian Jews, Daniel worked for decades in the film industry but had a longstanding interest in the craft traditions of Japan and an aesthetic sense that aligned perfectly with that of Ryoko. Now, as they create a series of sensorial rituals for the Reethaus, Flussbad‘s subterranean performance space and spatial sound studio opening this year, Ryoko and Daniel spoke about their creative process and walked us through four scent rituals: the tea ceremony (Chanoyu 茶の湯 – The Way of Tea), a purification ritual with scent powder (Zuko 塗香), the “composition” of a natural perfume, and the incense ceremony (Kōdō 香道 – The Way of Incense).

Slowness Some might find it surprising that a performance space is collaborating with an aromatherapy practice, but I know you’ve always thought of scent in the context of sound.

Ryoko In Japan, we say we are “listening to scent.” In an incense ceremony, for instance, we listen to scent. You can understand “listen” in this context as respect—it’s coming from Buddhism. You listen to the Buddhas, you know, you listen to yourself.

Daniel There’s so much to say in terms of combining scent and sound. Let's say we burn frankincense or myrrh or copal for health reasons or for the environment. Then we hold the pot with the incense close to the ear and you hear resins cracking and stuff working on the fire. This is also listening to scent.

Ryoko Hori

“Listening to scent is many things. You listen to your condition, to your roots, to your memories. Even your identity, you can experience this in the scent.”

Daniel There’s a connection between healing and spirituality. In any tradition, Hindu or Buddhist, the plants they would burn as incense, which for them is sacred, were originally medical. Everything was first therapeutic. For example, frankincense, which everybody knows from churches, it's a natural cortisone. Different cultures work with the same plant, but they work with it in different ways. We want to educate people about these plants and take them on a journey, exploring indigenous wisdom and going deeper and deeper into the power of the plants.

Slowness Can you share an example of how the same plant is used in different ways by different cultures?

Daniel Mugwort, for example, has been used since ancient times for lucid dreaming and as a tobacco replacement, and it’s used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat many ailments. But here in Europe, mugwort is used to stuff goose. It’s used in food and drink. And different cultures use different parts of the plants, the stems or the leaves or the needles. It’s a huge field of therapeutic plant wisdom and we learn every day. Then there are the ceremonial uses, but we are not shamans.

Daniel Kula

“We work with the power of the plant and the rest comes automatically. Let’s say calming down or soothing or grounding or relaxing or being more focused, like with palo santo. It’s not hocus pocus. It’s just due to the mix of molecules that are inside the plant when you vaporize them. And that mix is defining how you feel.”

Slowness What is the science behind this phenomenon in the case of, say, palo santo?

Daniel If you break it down scientifically, there are 80 different compounds inside the wood. The biggest amount is limonene, which is analgesic and anti-inflammatory. That’s why it smells so citronic, so lemony, and that's why parasites don't like it. It's used in the origin countries as a repellent for mosquitos, but then it can be used for wound healing. We really work with the smoke. People are always scared of smoke, but with this smoke we wash the eyes. We want to take the smoke into our organism.

Ryoko With essential oils, it’s the same idea. We bring these plant essences through the skin into the bloodstream and the body system.

Slowness Where are you sourcing these plants?

Daniel We have a very strong network of people so that we know where it's coming from, that it’s sustainably harvested from the trees. Our frankincense, for example, is from Oman, where the highest quality frankincense comes from. Our palo santo comes from a reservation in Peru where they don't chop the tree. They just get it from the fallen branches. We have all the resins—myrrh, copal—but one thing that is really important to us that you won’t find an equivalent to anywhere else in Europe is our collection of oud. Oud is a defense mechanism from a tree. It's also called liquid gold, because it's so rare. But it‘s super important where you get it from. It‘s something between aphrodisiac fetish and a resin for medical use. It’s been mentioned since antiquity, when it would be given as a gift to the kings, but we love it as a scent.

Slowness Does oud come from one particular tree?

Daniel Yes, the tree is called oud or agarwood. It has many names. This tree becomes infected with a certain fungus, but only 2 percent of trees that become infected will develop this resin in its heartwood to combat the fungus.

Ryoko But with all these plants, we don’t tell people how they have to use it. We show them how they can use it and tell them where we get it from and how to respect it. But we are just happy if people use them however they use them. Because these plants are beneficial. They make things nicer. They improve the world.

Ritual One
The Tea Ceremony (Chanoyu 茶の湯 – The Way of Tea)

Ryoko This is an oolong tea from Huanan, where many of the teas come from in China. Lately I’m very much into Chinese teas, and I have a friend from Huanan who helps me source them. Oolong is half oxidated. The fruitiness is coming from this oxidation process. Black tea is fully oxidated and green tea is not oxidated at all, so oolong is in between.

Slowness What are the steps of the tea ceremony?

Ryoko First I take the boiling water and I pour it into the empty teapot and then pour it out again. It opens the senses. And then I put the leaves inside the pot that’s been warmed by the water. Then I add the water and let it seep. With this tea, it will seep for about one minute.

Ryoko Hori

“There was this Zen master, Sen no Rikyū, and he developed wabi-cha, a tea ceremony that would take place in a tiny tearoom. And the samurai were always at war, so they wore this heavy armor, but because it’s a tiny room with a tiny door, they had to take it all off to enter the tearoom. So in this tearoom, there’s no status. It’s just you, yourself.”

Slowness Can you tell me about the origins of the tea ceremony?

Ryoko Tea comes from China. And in the beginning, it was medicine. They used to drink it as medicine, and then it came from China to Japan. I’m very interested in the samurai era. At that time there was this Zen master, Sen no Rikyū, and he developed wabi-cha, a tea ceremony that would take place in a tiny tearoom. And the samurai were always at war, so they wore this heavy armor, but because it’s a tiny room with a tiny door, they had to take it all off to enter the tearoom. So in this tearoom, there’s no status. It’s just you, yourself.

Slowness You are not your job or your rank or your role in society...

Ryoko Right, so that is the idea with the tea ceremony. It’s the idea to go back to yourself. Wabi is a kind of simplicity, a simple sadness, so Sen no Rikyū brought this to the tea ceremony. In Kyoto, we took tea ceremony in the middle of the city, on a huge street with so much sound and noise, but then once you are in the ceremony, once you sit down, you don’t hear anything.

Ritual Two
Purification Ritual with Scent Powder (Zuko 塗香)

Ryoko This is a classic ritual In Japan. Before going to the temple, to prepare yourself, to protect yourself, we do this ritual with scent powder.

Slowness Can you describe the powder ritual?

Ryoko You take a small amount of powder into your palms, rub your hands together, open your hands in front of your face and take a deep breath. Then rub the powder over your neck and décolleté.

Slowness What is it made of?

Ryoko The powder is made of rice and corn in the traditional way, but we made a new scent from 19 different ingredients. It has palo santo, seaweed, Japanese Hiba cypress, frankincense, juniper berry, basil and sandalwood. First you add a sea mineral to the powder. Then you add the essential oils.

Slowness Where do you get the essential oils?

Ryoko I have many suppliers, but recently I went to Kannauj in India. It’s known as the capital of perfume and used to be very, very well-known. You can’t go without a car. There’s no train. They are still distilling the essential oils in the traditional way without machines, as they have been for thousands of years. The plants are mixed with water and sealed into copper pots with clay and cotton. Then the pot is heated over fire until it distills, and that process is repeated. Oils are added at the very end. This tradition is dying because it’s so expensive and time-consuming.

Ritual Three
Composing a Natural Perfume

Ryoko When I make a scent, sometimes it’s like cooking, where I want to use a certain ingredient. Sometimes it comes from inside of me. It’s just creation.

Daniel When Ryoko's working, she's like an alchemist. She‘s going into the plants and she's making charts, pyramids, about the plants and what she learned, how they work together. You know, trying, trying, trying, trying with the different plants.

Ryoko Sometimes it comes from connection. For example, we recently did a collaboration with the Japanese sound artist Meitei, who lives on a small island in Hiroshima. After long conversations with the artist, we formulated a scent with 13 different plants that was released with his album. The project is called “Hydration,” and in aromatherapy, you take juniper to help the lymphatic system, which is water in our body, so I used juniper in the creation. I also used coriander seed, because the seed is the core of the reproductive system, so this is to give new life, to bring the hydration to the seed to create life.

Ryoko Hori

“Each plant has a character, has a history, has stories and tones and energies. There are so many ways to make a scent. Sometimes it’s very personal, my own personal voice.”

Slowness Can you describe the process?

Ryoko I asked him about his life, what he’s doing, where he has been. I believe in the impact of surroundings. I researched where he lived, what plants were there. He sent me some pictures of his daily walk. He lives in the islands, in the forest. He got inspired by a big tree. He didn’t even know the name of it, but it was a camphor tree. Now camphor is not really appreciated today in Japan, but before the seventh century, in Buddhism, the camphor tree was very sacred, so that’s why you see so many camphor trees in ancient temples in Japan.

Slowness So you included camphor in the scent?

Ryoko Exactly. Each plant has a character, has a history, has stories and tones and energies. There are so many ways to make a scent. Sometimes it’s very personal, my own personal voice.

Ritual Four
The Incense Ceremony (Kōdō 香道, The Way of Incense)

Daniel Making a fire is already a ritual inside all of us. Rooted in us is the desire to come together and make a fire. In an incense ceremony, the first thing you do is make fire. You’re lighting up coal, and immediately you’re falling into a different mode. It’s calming you down automatically. It’s also a bit kinesiologic: you feel what you need on certain days to light up or to burn.

Slowness Can you describe for us an incense ceremony?

Ryoko We can talk about Monko, which brings us back to the concept of “listening to scent,” which is the literal translation of Monko. The Monko method is utilized in the Japanese Kōdō incense ceremony, so that the subtle fragrance of woods such as oud, which is precious and sensitive to heat, can be fully appreciated. Rather than "burning," the Monko technique induces more a "warming" of the incense, that allows its delicate fragrances to be released gently and slowly. With this method it is possible to enjoy the same piece of wood incense multiple times.

Daniel You don’t burn it directly on the coal. You burn it indirectly. So they're just vaporizing. The scent is more fine.

Ryoko

“in Kōdō, you burn only this tiny amount of oud every day to understand your condition, how you feel, to connect to your roots. I’m also creating my life. The ritual—the tradition—is like a base, but then you create your own way. It’s a meditation.”

Slowness What are the steps of the ceremony?

Ryoko First you place the ashes in an incense burner, then light the candle. Over the flame, you heat the charcoal while holding it with the tweezers. It will take 3-5 minutes until the charcoal is hot and glowing. Then you stir the ash with the metal stick to aerate it and place the hot charcoal in the center of the ash. Next, you mold the ash, using the ash press and turning the burner in a clockwise direction, forming a mound of ash over the warm charcoal. Then you pierce a hole through the ash with the metal stick from the highest point down to the charcoal. This hole will transport the heat. You place the mica plate over the hole, and put a small amount of natural incense in the center of the mica plate. As it warms, it will release the subtle fragrance.

Slowness Why is it important to you to perform traditional rituals like Kōdō and Monko?

Ryoko I think it's about connecting, connecting to nature, but to yourself also, to your ancestors, to your roots. And by doing these very specific movements, you understand yourself. You feel your condition. For example, in Kōdō, you burn only this tiny amount of oud every day to understand your condition, how you feel, to connect to your roots. I’m also creating my life. The ritual—the tradition—is like a base, but then you create your own way. It’s a meditation.

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The Scent Rituals of Ryoko Hori

For the third installment of our series of conversations on the creative processes of Slowness contributors, we spoke to Ryoko Hori, a Japanese “scent composer,” aromatherapist and masseuse and her partner Daniel Kula as they prepare a suite of sensorial rituals for the Reethaus at Flussbad.

For the third installment of our series of conversations on the creative processes of Slowness contributors, we spoke to Ryoko Hori, a Japanese “scent composer,” aromatherapist and masseuse and her partner Daniel Kula as they prepare a suite of sensorial rituals for the Reethaus at Flussbad.

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