For the 8th TOKYO CRAFT ROOM project, we welcomed artist Kan Izumi to create a “scent.”Since COVID-19 pandemic, when everyday life around the world has been transformed and reevaluated, we may have realized that smelling is an act that has a significant effect on us humans, sometimes as a barometer of our health and sometimes as a tool to heal our emotions.What kind of fragrance should we create for this room now? The research began with Izumi, who explores works that create changes in the physical senses based on the concept of “sensory revitalization”.
Smell the scent in this room
“When I stayed at the TOKYO CRAFT ROOM for the first time, I really felt like I was “spending time alone” in the silence, isolated from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo. I forgot about everything and became nothing, and it was a very luxurious and wonderful time. Perhaps it was the overwhelming purity of this room, the only one of its kind in the Hamacho Hotel, that blocked out the noise. It was interesting to have this kind of time in Tokyo. So I thought that if I were going to create a fragrance, it should be something that could confront that,” recalls Izumi when he visited the room to formulate the concept of the fragrance for this project.”
Currently, Izumi is involved in a wide range of activities centering on fragrance. Based in his atelier “Hai” on Awaji Island, he collects, researches, and produces fragrance-related materials as an artist. He also directs the production of incense, perfume, and other products for companies and brands, and runs a label that designs fragrances for spaces. Izumi has been involved in the creation of scents for numerous hotels, but this project is a unique piece of work: a scent for one room, the TOKYO CRAFT ROOM, rather than for the entire hotel. He took a new approach to the project by sharpening his senses as an artist, which he felt when he visited this room.
It was also an opportunity for Izumi to reevaluate what he values in his daily fragrance production.
“ I wanted to give meaning to the act of “going to smell.” I think “sniffing” is actually very important. For example, for animals, the act of “smelling” is necessary for survival, but we humans often judge food based on quantified information such as expiration dates, without having to go through the act ourselves. The sense of smell is transmitted to the brain in less than 0.2 seconds.
It is the fastest and most primitive of the five human senses, and is said to be the only sense that communicates to the right brain = emotional brain. However, as we become accustomed to living in today’s quantified world, and furthermore, as we only smell what we like, I believe that our senses such as intuition and instinct will degenerate. Therefore, I wanted to place importance on the fact that the act of going out to smell can be a trigger to sharpen one’s various senses, just as I was able to face myself here. I also wanted to create a fragrance that would naturally blend in with the various layers of the TOKYO CRAFT ROOM, such as its location in Tokyo, the fact that it is a hotel room, and the fact that it is a place where numerous creators’ designs are lined up.”
This is how Izumi’s initial inspiration for creating scent was born. Rather than simply letting the scent waft in the air like incense or candles, he wanted to be aware of the presence of the scent and value what he could sense from the act of going out to smell it himself, which led him to research scent itself.
A Scent like a memory device, capturing the Tokyo’s plants
As I confronted myself in the TOKYO CRAFT ROOM, I went back to the past. At the same time, I began to imagine different ways of looking at the city of Tokyo. The landscape of Tokyo that you see in front of you now is nothing but asphalt. But it used to be soil, and there must still be soil where it used to be. There were forests, plants, and the paths between the houses. In this way, we should be aware of what we take for granted now, and try to question it. I felt it was interesting to think about Tokyo within Tokyo. That is how I came up with the keyword “Tokyo’s plants” for the fragrance.”
To create a fragrance based on Tokyo’s plants. To contain the fragrance, Izumi chose the form of incenses. “Inko” is incense made by kneading powdered fragrance, placing it in a mold, hardening it, and drying it after the mold is removed. The fragrance lasts for many years.
“I had created “Inko” for another project once before, and it was quite a challenge, but now I was interested in this way of expression again. I had the image of a “memory device” that holds the fragrance, because it still smells even after 10 years. So this time, I wanted to make an incense kneaded with plants that have memories of the land of Tokyo, such as soil and roots.
TOKYO CRAFT ROOM is a place where designers and makers have been experimenting with new challenges. That is why I decided to try my hand at it this time.”
One day in autumn, we went to the upper reaches of a river in Tokyo to research the plants that live in the area and the stones that form the original shape of the incense. As soon as they arrived, Izumi touched and smelled the plants one after another. He quickly but carefully inputs the shape and fragrance of each plant.
The mold was made by metalwork artist Mayumi Utsunomiya. One of her works is a stone vessel called “ishiki,” which is formed by covering stone with metal. Using the same technique as ishiki, a copper mold was made from a stone. He chose stones found near plants, not to create any special design, but rather to take a mold from a natural object. He went upstream to the riverbank, aiming for a form closer to the original than the clean, angular ones seen downstream.
“Stones have memories of the place.By touching them, our consciousness expands, and we remember our true nature, as if our unconscious awareness is awakened. I think that vessels made of stone and metal are like amplifiers for this. I am producing ishiki, vessels that capture the appearance of stone, in a half-dream. “ said Utsunomiya, whose concept for ishiki resonated with Izumi. She then shared her thoughts on the selection of stones, overlapping them with her own activities.
“I was asked to go there to use ishiki as a mold for creating incense that would awaken memories of Tokyo.I imagined the scent created from ishiki as if recreating stone.
I imagined the scent created from ishiki as if recreating stone. The memories of the place are evoked through the resonance of the stone and the scent.
For the first time, I chose a stone that was not round, but rather rugged and mountainous in appearance. I chose this stone because I saw a mountain in the grand landscape of my imagined memory. As if on a trip down memory lane, I once again pondered the relationship between the Japanese people and mountains.”
“Not just the flowers and leaves, but also seeds and roots. I think the closer to the roots, the more powerful they are and the more they carry on the memory of Tokyo. I will continue my research based on plants that have existed in Tokyo for a long time, as they are not unique to this location,” says Izumi.
Because scent is something that can’t be seen and touched, we want to convey the context and story of the scent in a way that is important.Under the concept of “Thinking of Tokyo in Tokyo,” the project was launched to evoke forgotten events and sensations through the act of smelling. To capture the keywords that emerged to one scent.
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Kan Izumi
和泉 侃
He is an artist working on the theme of reviving the physical senses through scent. He studies plant production and distillation, as well as raw materials, and works on his creative endeavors based on inspiration he absorbs through his five senses. In parallel with his work as an artist, he has launched a scent design studio, “Olfactive Studio Ne”. Working with his team, he is expanding the possibilities of the world expressed through scent, with direction that goes beyond the realm of perfumery.