In Ghostly Japan | Page 5

every Buddhist image on their path to repeat a brief
prayer and, when possible, to set a few rods smouldering at the feet of
the statue. But in rich temples, and during great religious ceremonies,
much more expensive incense is used. Altogether three classes of
perfumes are employed in Buddhist rites: ko, or incense-proper, in
many varieties--(the word literally means only "fragrant substance");

--dzuko, an odorous ointment; and makko, a fragrant powder. Ko is
burned; dzuko is rubbed upon the hands of the priest as an ointment of
purification; and makko is sprinkled about the sanctuary. This makko is
said to be identical with the sandalwood-powder so frequently
mentioned in Buddhist texts. But it is only the true incense which can
be said to bear an important relation to the religious service.
"Incense," declares the Soshi-Ryaku,(1) "is the Messenger of Earnest
Desire. When the rich Sudatta wished to invite the Buddha to a repast,
he made use of incense. He was wont to ascend to the roof of his house
on the eve of the day of the entertainment, and to remain standing there
all night, holding a censer of precious incense. And as often as he did
thus, the Buddha never failed to come on the following day at the exact
time desired."
This text plainly implies that incense, as a burnt-offering, symbolizes
the pious desires of the faithful. But it symbolizes other things also; and
it has furnished many remarkable similes to Buddhist literature. Some
of these, and not the least interesting, occur in prayers, of which the
following, from the book called Hoji-san (2) is a striking example:--
--"Let my body remain pure like a censer!--let my thought be ever as a
fire of wisdom, purely consuming the incense of sila and of dhyana, (3)
that so may I do homage to all the Buddhas in the Ten Directions of the
Past, the Present, and the Future!"
Sometimes in Buddhist sermons the destruction of Karma by virtuous
effort is likened to the burning of incense by a pure flame,--sometimes,
again, the life of man is compared to the smoke of incense. In his
"Hundred Writings "(Hyaku-tsu-kiri- kami), the Shinshu priest Myoden
says, quoting from the Buddhist work Kujikkajo, or "Ninety Articles
":--
"In the burning of incense we see that so long as any incense remains,
so long does the burning continue, and the smoke mount skyward. Now
the breath of this body of ours,--this impermanent combination of Earth,
Water, Air, and Fire,--is like that smoke. And the changing of the
incense into cold ashes when the flame expires is an emblem of the
changing of our bodies into ashes when our funeral pyres have burnt
themselves out."
He also tells us about that Incense-Paradise of which every believer
ought to be reminded by the perfume of earthly incense: --"In the

Thirty- Second Vow for the Attainment of the Paradise of Wondrous
Incense," he says, "it is written: 'That Paradise is formed of hundreds of
thousands of different kinds of incense, and of substances incalculably
precious;--the beauty of it incomparably exceeds anything in the
heavens or in the sphere of man;--the fragrance of it perfumes all the
worlds of the Ten Directions of Space; and all who perceive that odor
practise Buddha-deeds.' In ancient times there were men of superior
wisdom and virtue who, by reason of their vow, obtained perception of
the odor; but we, who are born with inferior wisdom and virtue in these
later days, cannot obtain such perception. Nevertheless it will be well
for us, when we smell the incense kindled before the image of Amida,
to imagine that its odor is the wonderful fragrance of Paradise, and to
repeat the Nembutsu in gratitude for the mercy of the Buddha."
1 "Short [or Epitomized] History of Priests." 2 "The Praise of Pious
Observances." 3 By sila is meant the observance of the rules of purity
in act and thought. Dhyana (called by Japanese Buddhists Zenjo) is one
of the higher forms of meditation.
IV
But the use of incense in Japan is not confined to religious rites and
ceremonies: indeed the costlier kinds of incense are manufactured
chiefly for social entertainments. Incense-burning has been an
amusement of the aristocracy ever since the thirteenth century.
Probably you have heard of the Japanese tea- ceremonies, and their
curious Buddhist history; and I suppose that every foreign collector of
Japanese bric-a'-brac knows something about the luxury to which these
ceremonies at one period attained,--a luxury well attested by the quality
of the beautiful utensils formerly employed in them. But there were,
and still are, incense-ceremonies much more elaborate and costly than
the tea-ceremonies,--and also much more interesting. Besides music,
embroidery, poetical composition and other branches of the
old-fashioned female education, the young lady of pre-Meiji days was
expected