Honzo-gaku — the study of honzo — is an ancient body of Japanese knowledge: the observation of the nature and workings of all things in the natural world, such as plants, minerals, and animals, put to use in daily life and in the care of one's health.

After being introduced to Japan from China in the Nara period, it was nurtured within the activities of everyday life — incense, food, medicine, dyeing, and adornment.

At SHIYA, we hand this wisdom of honzo down to the present as a tool for bringing oneself into balance, together with flowers, fragrance, tea, and the bath. Layered with the Japanese culture of arranging flowers as if in prayer, we hope to gently offer a moment in which to recall the rhythm of nature amid days that pass in haste — a quiet ritual, that is, of loving oneself.