In Ghostly Japan | Page 4

of such material may be worth four or
five pounds- sterling. But the commercial and industrial questions
relating to Japanese incense represent the least interesting part of a
remarkably curious subject.
II
Curious indeed, but enormous by reason of it infinity of tradition and
detail. I am afraid even to think of the size of the volume that would be
needed to cover it.... Such a work would properly begin with some brief
account of the earliest knowledge and use of aromatics in Japan. I
would next treat of the records and legends of the first introduction of

Buddhist incense fron Korea,--when King Shomyo of Kudara, in 551 A.
D., sent to the island-empire a collection of sutras, an image of the
Buddha, and one complete set of furniture for a temple. Then
something would have to be said about those classifications of incense
which were made during the tenth century, in the periods of Engi and
of Tenryaku,--and about the report of the ancient state-councillor,
Kimitaka-Sangi, who visited China in the latter part of the thirteenth
century, and transmitted to the Emperor Yomei the wisdom of the
Chinese concerning incense. Then mention should be made of the
ancient incenses still preserved in various Japanese temples, and of the
famous fragments of ranjatai (publicly exhibited at Nara in the tenth
year of Meiji) which furnished supplies to the three great captains,
Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Iyeyasu. After this should fol-low an outline
of the history of mixed incenses made in Japan,--with notes on the
classifications devised by the luxurious Takauji, and on the
nomenclature established later by Ashikaga Yoshimasa, who collected
one hundred and thirty varieties of incense, and invented for the more
precious of them names recognized even to this day,--such as
"Blossom-Showering," "Smoke-of-Fuji," and "Flower-of-the-Pure-
Law." Examples ought to be given likewise of traditions attaching to
historical incenses preserved in several princely families, together with
specimens of those hereditary recipes for incense- making which have
been transmitted from generation to generation through hundreds of
years, and are still called after their august inventors,--as "the Method
of Hina-Dainagon," "the Method of Sento-In," etc. Recipes also should
be given of those strange incenses made "to imitate the perfume of the
lotos, the smell of the summer breeze, and the odor of the autumn
wind." Some legends of the great period of incense-luxury should be
cited,--such as the story of Sue Owari-no-Kami, who built for himself a
palace of incense-woods, and set fire to it on the night of his revolt,
when the smoke of its burning perfumed the land to a distance of
twelve miles.... Of course the mere compilation of materials for a
history of mixed-incenses would entail the study of a host of
documents, treatises, and books,--particularly of such strange works as
the Kun-Shu-Rui-Sho, or "Incense-Collector's
Classifying-Manual";--containing the teachings of the Ten Schools of
the Art of Mixing Incense; directions as to the best seasons for

incense-making; and instructions about the "different kinds of fire" to
be used for burning incense--(one kind is called "literary fire," and
another "military fire"); together with rules for pressing the ashes of a
censer into various artistic designs corresponding to season and
occasion.... A special chapter should certainly be given to the
incense-bags (kusadama) hung up in houses to drive away
goblins,--and to the smaller incense-bags formerly carried about the
person as a protection against evil spirits. Then a very large part of the
work would have to be devoted to the religious uses and legends of
incense, --a huge subject in itself. There would also have to be
considered the curious history of the old "incense-assemblies," whose
elaborate ceremonial could be explained only by help of numerous
diagrams. One chapter at least would be required for the subject of the
ancient importation of incense-materials from India, China, Annam,
Siam, Cambodia, Ceylon, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and various islands
of the Malay archipelago,--places all named in rare books about incense.
And a final chapter should treat of the romantic literature of
incense,--the poems, stories, and dramas in which incense-rites are
mentioned; and especially those love-songs comparing the body to
incense, and passion to the eating flame:--
Even as burns the perfume lending thy robe its fragance, Smoulders my
life away, consumed by the pain of longing!
....The merest outline of the subject is terrifying! I shall attempt nothing
more than a few notes about the religious, the luxurious, and the
ghostly uses of incense.
III
The common incense everywhere burned by poor people before
Buddhist icons is called an-soku-ko. This is very cheap. Great
quantities of it are burned by pilgrims in the bronze censers set before
the entrances of famous temples; and in front of roadside images you
may often see bundles of it. These are for the use of pious wayfarers,
who pause before