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Incense came in a number of different forms, as it still does today, including sticks (''senkô'') and flat round "cakes." It was traditionally made from a variety of materials, including precious aromatic woods imported from China or Southeast Asia, such as [[aloeswood]]. One particularly famous piece of incense wood, known as the Ranjatai, has been kept in the [[Shosoin|Shôsôin]] imperial treasure house since the 8th century, and only on very rare occasions have pieces been permitted to be broken off and taken away as particularly prestigious gifts.<ref>Morgan Pitelka, ''Spectacular Accumulation'', University of Hawaii Press (2016), 45-46, 183n14.</ref>

Incense came in a number of different forms, as it still does today, including sticks (''senkô'') and flat round "cakes." It was traditionally made from a variety of materials, including precious aromatic woods imported from China or Southeast Asia, such as [[aloeswood]]. One particularly famous piece of incense wood, known as the Ranjatai, has been kept in the [[Shosoin|Shôsôin]] imperial treasure house since the 8th century, and only on very rare occasions have pieces been permitted to be broken off and taken away as particularly prestigious gifts.<ref>Morgan Pitelka, ''Spectacular Accumulation'', University of Hawaii Press (2016), 45-46, 183n14.</ref>

Incense is traditionally burned for one's ancestors, both in [[Confucianism|Confucian]]/Chinese folk traditions, and in [[Buddhism]]. It was also traditionally burned in a variety of court ceremonies, and in personal private contexts, as part of ritual practices for spiritual merit.<ref>Lee Butler, "Washing Off the Dust: Baths and Bathing in Late Medieval Japan," ''Monumenta Nipponica'' 60:1 (2005). pp1-41.</ref> Incense was also burned in the pleasure quarters, and in certain other contexts, as a means of measuring time; in the [[Yoshiwara]], [[courtesans]] often charged a customer by the "hour," by how many incense sticks had burned down during their time together.

Incense is traditionally burned for one's ancestors, both in [[Confucianism|Confucian]]/Chinese folk traditions, and in [[Buddhism]]. It was also traditionally burned in a variety of court ceremonies, and in personal private contexts, as part of ritual practices for spiritual merit.<ref>Lee Butler, "Washing Off the Dust: Baths and Bathing in Late Medieval Japan," ''Monumenta Nipponica'' 60:1 (2005). pp1-41.</ref> The burning of incense is symbolically or metaphorically evocative of connection with the realms of spirits or deities, as it transforms visual, tangible, matter into "smoke that ascends into the invisible world."<ref>Catherine Bell, "Performance," ''Critical Terms for Religious Studies''.</ref>

 

Incense was also burned in the pleasure quarters, and in certain other contexts, as a means of measuring time; in the [[Yoshiwara]], [[courtesans]] often charged a customer by the "hour," by how many incense sticks had burned down during their time together.

Incense games or competitions, in which people would compete to identify or match smells, were a popular entertainment in the Imperial Court and other elite contexts. Though perhaps most strongly associated with the [[Heian period]], as a result of works like the ''[[Tale of Genji]]'' which focus on the Court, incense games continued to be enjoyed amongst women of the [[kuge|court aristocracy]] well into the [[Edo period]],<ref>Cecilia Segawa Seigle, "Shinanomiya Tsuneko: Portrait of a Court Lady," in Anne Walthall (ed.), ''The Human Tradition in Modern Japan'', Scholarly Resources, Inc. (2002), 3-24.</ref> and were played by women in ''daimyô'' mansions in [[Edo]] as well, as late as the 1840s or 1850s.<ref>Anne Walthall, "Nishimiya Hide: Turning Palace Arts into Marketable Skills," in Walthall (ed.), ''The Human Tradition in Modern Japan'', Scholarly Resources, Inc. (2002), 45-60.</ref>

Incense games or competitions, in which people would compete to identify or match smells, were a popular entertainment in the Imperial Court and other elite contexts. Though perhaps most strongly associated with the [[Heian period]], as a result of works like the ''[[Tale of Genji]]'' which focus on the Court, incense games continued to be enjoyed amongst women of the [[kuge|court aristocracy]] well into the [[Edo period]],<ref>Cecilia Segawa Seigle, "Shinanomiya Tsuneko: Portrait of a Court Lady," in Anne Walthall (ed.), ''The Human Tradition in Modern Japan'', Scholarly Resources, Inc. (2002), 3-24.</ref> and were played by women in ''daimyô'' mansions in [[Edo]] as well, as late as the 1840s or 1850s.<ref>Anne Walthall, "Nishimiya Hide: Turning Palace Arts into Marketable Skills," in Walthall (ed.), ''The Human Tradition in Modern Japan'', Scholarly Resources, Inc. (2002), 45-60.</ref>