Japan has three traditional arts of refinement: the way of tea, the way of flowers and the way of incense, kōdō. Of the three, the last is the least known in the West, yet it is perhaps the most subtle. In kōdō incense is not smelled: it is "listened to". The Japanese expression monkō, listening to incense, already says a great deal about the spirit of this discipline.
The arrival of incense in Japan
Incense reached Japan together with Buddhism in the sixth century, by way of Korea and China. The ancient chronicles contain a famous episode: the Nihon shoki relates that in the third year of the reign of Empress Suiko a large piece of wood washed up on the shores of Awaji Island. The local people, unaware of what it was, burned it with their firewood, but the fragrance it released was so extraordinary that the wood was taken to the court.
That wood was almost certainly agarwood, jinkō, the material that would become the heart of kōdō.
The Heian court and blended perfumes
In the Heian period, between the ninth and twelfth centuries, the court aristocracy developed an intense culture of perfume. Men and women prepared personal blends called takimono, combining aromatic woods, resins and other substances kneaded together and left to mature. Scenting clothes and rooms was a sign of elegance and taste, and a person's fragrance could reveal their identity.
The Tale of Genji, the great court novel by Murasaki Shikibu, contains a chapter in which the characters prepare incense blends and compare them in a kind of contest, judging their qualities as one might judge a poem.
The birth of kōdō
The way of incense as a codified discipline took shape in the Muromachi period, especially in the cultural circle around the shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimasa in the fifteenth century. In this context the two main schools, still active today, were formed:
| School | Traditional origin | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Oie-ryū | Linked to the court noble Sanjōnishi Sanetaka | Emphasis on the literary and aristocratic dimension |
| Shino-ryū | Linked to Shino Sōshin | Emphasis on discipline and ritual form |
Agarwood and its classifications
In kōdō the main material is not a blend but small fragments of agarwood, gently heated on a sheet of mica placed over embers covered with ash. In this way the wood does not burn but slowly releases its fragrance.
Tradition classifies the woods according to the system called rikkoku gomi, "six countries and five tastes". The "six countries" are six categories of wood, among them the highly prized kyara; the "five tastes" are sweet, sour, hot, salty and bitter, used to describe the nuances of the scent with the vocabulary of flavour.
Incense games
An important part of kōdō consists of kumikō, games in which participants must recognise and distinguish different incenses. The most famous is genji-kō. Five kinds of incense are prepared, each in five packets; five are drawn at random and passed round one after another. Participants must indicate which are the same and which are different.
There are fifty-two possible combinations, and each is represented by a small diagram of vertical and horizontal lines, associated with the title of a chapter of the Tale of Genji. These diagrams, called genji-mon, have become widespread decorative motifs on textiles, ceramics and lacquerware.
The Ranjatai
In the Shōsōin treasury at Nara a famous piece of agarwood called Ranjatai is preserved. Its name is written with characters that conceal those of the Tōdai-ji temple, to which the treasury belongs. According to tradition, some powerful figures had small fragments cut from it, among them the shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimasa and the warlord Oda Nobunaga: obtaining a piece of the Ranjatai was a sign of supreme prestige.
The spirit of kōdō
What does it mean to "listen" to a fragrance? It means receiving it with full attention, as one listens to music or poetry, without haste and without immediate judgement. In kōdō incense becomes an occasion for recollection, for refined sensitivity, for a relationship with literature and the seasons.
For students of the traditions of sacred perfume, kōdō offers a precious lesson: the value of an aroma lies not only in its ritual use but also in the quality of presence with which it is received.
In short
- Kōdō is the Japanese way of incense, one of the three traditional arts of refinement.
- The Nihon shoki tells of a fragrant piece of wood washing up on Awaji Island.
- The Heian court developed takimono blends, celebrated in the Tale of Genji.
- The Oie-ryū and Shino-ryū schools arose in the Muromachi period.
- Genji-kō and the Ranjatai wood are among the best-known elements of this tradition.
