Songshan Cultural and Creative Park is a creative hub in Taipei, Taiwan. It organizes art events, displays creative goods, and sells design items.

An incense attracted my attention. Although I like candles and incenses (e.g., red rose scents of Jo Malone and burning sound of Wood Wick), lighting them is a headache. I found a creative solution at the park. A Japanese incense called Hibi is a match itself and produces fragrance for about 10 minutes. According to the website, this 10 minutes aroma has an interesting behind story.

It all started with the encounter of two traditional industries: incense of Awaji Island and matches of Harima. These two traditional industries of Hyogo Prefecture first encountered each other in 2011. The collaboration started with the idea of an incense that could be lit like striking a match and was followed by 3 years of trial and error, an aromatic product with properties of strength and fragrance was developed, which did not break even when struck like a match… The name of products and packaging were developed to convey the sensibility of today’s Japan. All those things were ‘designed’ to create a new way of enjoying fragrance.