“RESONATE” is a design concept from Lisn, where scent and structure flow rhythmically and effortlessly within your daily life.
LISN’s official brand statement
LISN grew out of Kyoto incense house Shoyeido. Names, colours, numbers and images make selecting incense part of the experience, connecting the Japanese idea of listening to fragrance with contemporary life.
Brand facts
- Established: 1989
- Operator: Shoyeido
- Official website: https://www.lisn.co.jp/
How the brand began
An incense brand from Shoyeido
Established by Shoyeido in 1989, LISN draws on Kyoto’s incense-making tradition while offering fragrance for everyday use.
Four places in the 2019 anniversary collection
For its thirtieth anniversary in 2019, the “30th” project developed fragrances around Kitayama, Kyoto, Aoyama and the online store. The stories reflected encounters accumulated over three decades.
What distinguishes LISN
Selecting sticks through colour and number
LISN offers a wide range of short, slender incense sticks, each with a name, number, colour and fragrance image. Its English catalogue, identified by the filename 202306, lists floral, citrus, green, classical, oriental, fruit, musk and spice assortments.
Examples include NATTY, associated with sandalwood; ETERNAL, with aromatic wood; and ALICE, with apple tea. Traditional incense themes appear alongside familiar foods and imagined settings. These examples describe the catalogue at publication, not a guarantee of present availability.
The shape of the tools
RESONATE also concerns the tools and spaces around fragrance. The same catalogue presents POINT, a simple aluminium holder, and TWEEZERS, a colourful, leather-containing design that grips a stick like tweezers. Its description explains that the grip position determines where burning stops.
The holder becomes part of the visible act of using incense, rather than an unnoticed accessory. Shape, material and the gesture of placing a stick all contribute to the experience.
Translating touch and sound into scent
SENSATION in 2020 and SENSATION′ the following year took touch as their subject. THE CHORD OF SCENTS, introduced in 2018, explored relationships between scent and musical notes. These series approach fragrance through another sense rather than naming it only after flowers or woods.
Working with ceramics
The 2016 SMOKE TONE project paired seasonal fragrances with vessels by ceramic artist Osamu Mitoma. Fragrance is invisible, but looking at a vessel, choosing where it sits and lighting incense are physical actions. The collaboration extends the experience beyond smell alone.
