Kyoto Gojyou-an

The family bath at Kyoto’s Gojyou-an is booked privately, one party at a time. Projection mapping paints the four seasons of Kyoto across the walls, and the scent rises with the picture. The season you see and the season you smell are the same one.

Can a scent device live in a bathroom?

A bathroom is about the hardest place a scent device can be asked to work. Steam fills it, water splashes it, and the humidity never drops. An ordinary diffuser does not belong there.

So we built one that does: a waterproofed Aroma Shooter 3, made specifically for this room.

When the picture changes, so does the scent

Cherry blossom to new leaves, autumn colour to snow: as the projection moves on, the scent moves with it. If the picture changed and the scent stayed, the season would feel out of step.

Nothing is sprayed, so no fragrance settles into the bathwater or the air, and none clings to skin or towels. Step out of the bath and the scent does not follow.

A scent that hangs around would blur the season that comes next. Because it clears quickly, all four seasons can be shown in the course of a single bath.