JOURNAL

Minazuki — Gracefully Preparing for a Kyoto Summer

This summer, we're featuring a wide range of items that gently accompany seasonal shifts — including "beautiful things that harmonize skin and mind," selected by Chiaki Yoshikawa, a pioneer of holi...

Achieve Pore-Perfect Skin with Professional-Grade Gommage Care

June brings shifting temperatures and humidity, along with strong UV exposure, making this a season when skin's oil-moisture balance can easily fall out of sync. Excess oil production, along with l...

Savor the Season, Enjoy the New Tea

The seasonal peak of a food can be divided into three stages: the beginning, the height, and the tail end. In modern terms, it's easiest to think of this as roughly ten days each — early, mid, and ...

Is the Aroma of Tea the Scent of Roasting?

What comes to mind when you think of "the scent of tea"? For some, it might be the fresh, green aroma of shincha as it steeps — everyone's association is a little different. But regardless of seaso...

Did Wagashi (Japanese Sweets) Originate from Mandarin Oranges?

Do you know the origins of Japanese wagashi (traditional sweets)? The Japanese character for "kashi" (sweets) contains the character for "fruit," reflecting how, long ago, sweets referred simply to...

The Curious Relationship Between Tea and Cheese

Dairy products are believed to have first arrived in Japan around 1,400 years ago, during the Nara period. Around the same time Buddhism was introduced, so too was the practice of keeping dairy cat...

On Long Autumn Nights, Achieve Soft Skin with Milk Cleansing

This year brought record-breaking heat throughout the summer. By September, skin exposed to all that UV tends to feel sensitive, with accumulated damage leaving it stiff, tight, and prone to imbala...

Moisture Rescue for Summer-Damaged Skin

This summer brings unprecedented heat and intense sunlight, unlike anything before.As rising temperatures cause skin to sweat and lose moisture, it responds by overproducing oil, which disrupts the...

"Odor" and "Fragrance" — A Conversation with Genbei Yamaguchi, 10th-Generation Head of Konda-ya Genbei

"'Nioi' and 'kaori' — the two words for 'scent' in Japanese — were originally quite different things. I imagine the people of the Heian period used them with real distinction."We spoke with Genbe...

The Elegance of the Ancient Capital, Embodied in Every Item

KOTOSHINA has always been dedicated to crafting products rooted in the land of Kyoto, guided by our concept "the refinement of the old capital, turning meaningful ideas into meaningful objects," an...