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Exploring the Ancient City of Lukang by Ubike: Gourmet Food and Heritage
Shih Chin Yu San Fang: Witnessing the Art of Traditional Incense Making
▲ After being dipped in water, the bamboo sticks require the strength of the "tiger's mouth" (the area between the thumb and index finger) to ensure the incense powder adheres evenly.
It was a colleague’s words—"A-Chih, this century-old shop is your responsibility and mission"—that led Shih Yeh-chih to resolutely resign from his job at a community university and return home to learn incense making from scratch. "Seeing my parents getting older, I realized this is a family enterprise. I held onto the belief that if I work hard, the legacy becomes truly mine," Shih said. Watching him skillfully scatter powder over damp bamboo sticks to create the "incense meat," he explained: "Water acts as the medium for the powder to stick. While it makes coating easier, the sticks tend to clump together, so you need significant strength to fan them out. My hand actually split at the 'tiger's mouth' when I was first learning."
A-Chih remarked, "As the saying goes, 'man struggles for a breath of air, while Buddha competes for a stick of incense.' Every stick is a way to form a connection with the Buddha, so one must maintain kind thoughts." Following the techniques of his ancestors, A-Chih emphasizes that the most critical skill lies in the blending of ingredients, which he does personally without outside help, using Chinese herbs as the primary base. "The characteristics of truly good incense are that it doesn't sting the eyes or irritate the nose," he noted. "More importantly, because it is made from natural herbs, it only releases its subtle fragrance once lit." Every step, from the base layer and internal coating to the final surface layer and sun-drying, must be executed with absolute precision.
▲ When drying incense, the sticks must be placed in an interlocking pattern to ensure the 'incense meat' dries thoroughly.
In addition to traditional sandalwood, agarwood, and herbal scents, Shih Chin Yu San Fang offers coil incense and "lying incense" (joss sticks), which are convenient for creating a comfortable atmosphere at home. He has even developed an osmanthus-scented incense. When asked where his inspiration comes from, he shared: "Actually, most of this comes from the Compendium of Materia Medica. Osmanthus was once a luxury incense used exclusively by nobility during the Song Dynasty." By insisting on handcrafted production and studying herbal knowledge from ancient texts, Shih Yeh-chih aims to bring incense closer to everyone’s daily life.
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