Lot Essay
The period of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1615-1868) brought peace to Japan for more than 250 years. The skill of playing intellectual games became a mark of distinction within the old warrior class. Between painting and poetry contests, Shijo (Japanese chess), Kodo (the incense game) was known to be the most ingenious one as a testing ground of cultural and literary erudition.
The incense used in the game was highly valuable, coming from a fragrant wood found only in South East Asia (Jinhoh). Superbly crafted lacquered utensils were considered indispensable for a ceremonial performance. Since the Heian period (794-1185), the Japanese had elevated the art of producing lacquer to an excellence never equalled anywhere. Patronised by a daimyo [feudal lord], lacquer artists used their craftsmanship to create true masterpieces.
It was painstaking work which involved aging, joining, priming and reinforcing the wood, the lacquer coating, sanding, drying and polishing of the surface, and finally the decorating of the pieces. It was an aesthetic delight to view as well as to use these beautiful utensils. They were the pride of their owners and were used to dazzle and impress guests with their splendour.
In the simplest form of the game, three types of incense were supplied by the host. Each one was divided and wrapped into four separate paperbacks. They were either numbered or made recognisable to the host by the way they were folded. The most prominent guest provided a thirteenth envelope, marked with a character denoting it. The incense burner was filled with charcoal, topped with soft ash shaped in the form of Mt Fuji, then a hole was made in the centre of the mount to allow just enough heat to get through to allow the incense to release its fragrance without setting it on fire.
The incense was then placed on a silver edged piece of mica directly over the hole. When the smoke started to rise, the host raised the censer, checked the aroma and passed it to each of the guest announcing the number of the incense. The procedure was repeated for the second and third incense. This round was designed to enable the players to recognise and remember the fragrances of the different incenses.
Ten samples remained and then the real game began. Each guest was given a set of ivory tablets with a floral or zodiac design on one side and the numeral 1, 2 or 3 or the guest ideogram on the reverse. Meanwhile, the host shuffled the ten remaining samples behind a screen. Starting with the top sample, he removed the contents from the wrapper, put them on a mica lid on the mount of ashes and passed the censer around the guests, repeating this until all of the players had had a chance to inhale the fragrance of all ten incenses. As the censer passed from player to player, each tried to link each fragrance with one experienced in the trial run. They then had to indicate their choice by depositing in a tablet box one or more of their tablets bearing the number they believed matched the incense just testified or the tablet with the guest ideogram for the nonconforming aroma.
After all the tablets had been collected, a record was made of the results. However, the most accurate identification meant only a partial victory as each incense had to also be given a name suggested by classical literature or poetry.
The winners were judged to be those who had been the most successful in matching the aroma of the incense with the sentiment expressed by poets and writers were judged to be the winners of the game.
The incense game became popular in the 17th and 18th century only among the elite of Japanese society, the daimyo and Shogunal court, and very few sets have survived intact. Both the equipment and the incense itself, which was imported from South East Asia, were extremely expensive precluding all but the very wealthy from taking up the pastime.
Similar sets are to be found in the catalogue of the Red Cross Exhibition of 1916, pl. LXXV, no. 79, the Charles A Greenfield Collection catalogue and in the book of the Elaine Ehenkranz Collection. Another set from the trousseau of Chiyohime, the eldest daughter of the third Tokugawa Shogun, Iyemitsu, who married in 1639, is in the collection of the Tokugawa Art Museum in Nagoya. A similar example sold in Christie's New York, 19 March 1997, lot 145.
The incense used in the game was highly valuable, coming from a fragrant wood found only in South East Asia (Jinhoh). Superbly crafted lacquered utensils were considered indispensable for a ceremonial performance. Since the Heian period (794-1185), the Japanese had elevated the art of producing lacquer to an excellence never equalled anywhere. Patronised by a daimyo [feudal lord], lacquer artists used their craftsmanship to create true masterpieces.
It was painstaking work which involved aging, joining, priming and reinforcing the wood, the lacquer coating, sanding, drying and polishing of the surface, and finally the decorating of the pieces. It was an aesthetic delight to view as well as to use these beautiful utensils. They were the pride of their owners and were used to dazzle and impress guests with their splendour.
In the simplest form of the game, three types of incense were supplied by the host. Each one was divided and wrapped into four separate paperbacks. They were either numbered or made recognisable to the host by the way they were folded. The most prominent guest provided a thirteenth envelope, marked with a character denoting it. The incense burner was filled with charcoal, topped with soft ash shaped in the form of Mt Fuji, then a hole was made in the centre of the mount to allow just enough heat to get through to allow the incense to release its fragrance without setting it on fire.
The incense was then placed on a silver edged piece of mica directly over the hole. When the smoke started to rise, the host raised the censer, checked the aroma and passed it to each of the guest announcing the number of the incense. The procedure was repeated for the second and third incense. This round was designed to enable the players to recognise and remember the fragrances of the different incenses.
Ten samples remained and then the real game began. Each guest was given a set of ivory tablets with a floral or zodiac design on one side and the numeral 1, 2 or 3 or the guest ideogram on the reverse. Meanwhile, the host shuffled the ten remaining samples behind a screen. Starting with the top sample, he removed the contents from the wrapper, put them on a mica lid on the mount of ashes and passed the censer around the guests, repeating this until all of the players had had a chance to inhale the fragrance of all ten incenses. As the censer passed from player to player, each tried to link each fragrance with one experienced in the trial run. They then had to indicate their choice by depositing in a tablet box one or more of their tablets bearing the number they believed matched the incense just testified or the tablet with the guest ideogram for the nonconforming aroma.
After all the tablets had been collected, a record was made of the results. However, the most accurate identification meant only a partial victory as each incense had to also be given a name suggested by classical literature or poetry.
The winners were judged to be those who had been the most successful in matching the aroma of the incense with the sentiment expressed by poets and writers were judged to be the winners of the game.
The incense game became popular in the 17th and 18th century only among the elite of Japanese society, the daimyo and Shogunal court, and very few sets have survived intact. Both the equipment and the incense itself, which was imported from South East Asia, were extremely expensive precluding all but the very wealthy from taking up the pastime.
Similar sets are to be found in the catalogue of the Red Cross Exhibition of 1916, pl. LXXV, no. 79, the Charles A Greenfield Collection catalogue and in the book of the Elaine Ehenkranz Collection. Another set from the trousseau of Chiyohime, the eldest daughter of the third Tokugawa Shogun, Iyemitsu, who married in 1639, is in the collection of the Tokugawa Art Museum in Nagoya. A similar example sold in Christie's New York, 19 March 1997, lot 145.