Box and assorted implements for the incense game, 17th-18th century
Unknown Japaneseexpand_more
Lacquered wood, sprinkled gold; raised silver and gold designsexpand_more
Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundationexpand_more 2015.79.398.7a-d
Not on Viewexpand_more
Incense played a prominent role in aristocratic culture of ancient Japan. Aristocrats were expected to know how to mix aromatic imported woods with other plant products and compound them into burnable, fragrant incense. Popular ingredients included aloe, sandalwood, frankincense, pine, lily, cinnamon, and patchouli, among others. In the 1400s, this artful appreciation of incense developed further into the so-called Way of Fragrance, or kōdō, along with the Way of Tea (sadō or chadō) and the Way of Flowers (kadō, better known in the West as ikebana). In incense-based games, played with the set displayed here, participants take turns smelling, appreciating, and guessing the ingredients of a certain type of incense. In one variation of the game called “Genji Incense” or Genjikō, types of incense or combinations thereof hint at chapters of The Tale of Genji.
Details
- Title
- Box and assorted implements for the incense game
- Role
- Artist
- Accession Number
- 2015.79.398.7a-d
- Catalogue Raisonne
- Murase, Art through a Lifetime, no. 766
- Curator Approved
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