Incense listening in Japan: as intricate as a tea ceremony - how you can take part in a session
- Incense listening dates back centuries and involves trying to identify incense by smell alone
- The process is as involved as a Japanese tea ceremony, but with an element of competition, and can still be enjoyed in Kyoto
Incense smoke is a fabric of Japanese traditional ceremonies, so ubiquitous it’s often overlooked. Incense listening is an exercise that focuses on the sensory ambience incense’s delicate aromas create.
The ancient practice is known in Japanese as kodo; the compound ‘do’ in the word means ‘the way of’ appreciating, and is similar to shodo, which is calligraphy, sado (the tea ceremony), and to kado (or ikebana) – the Japanese art of flower arrangement.
Kodo is meditative like the tea ceremony, appreciative like ikebana, and artful like calligraphy, but imbued with an element of competition.
The term “listening” is not a mistranslation; it is a careful description of the practice, which is less a physical act than a metaphorical one – listening to the stories told by the delicate notes of the burning incense.
The process is as involved as the tea ceremony, and as much part of the country’s national identity. But outside Japan, little is known about the practice.
Unlike other experiences targeted at visitors to Japan, it has remained relatively unmodified and uninfluenced by outside cultures and the country’s tourism boom.
Where to experience incense listening in Japan
There exists a small community of incense listening schools in Kyoto, and one of the key sites for exploring the art is Yamada Matsu Incense Wood. In the centre of the city, this incense shop and school was established during the Edo Period (1603 to 1868).
When the business opened around 200 years ago, it was initially a pharmacy. It evolved into an incense manufacturing house, where fragrant raw wood and materials were cultivated and crafted into incense wood and sticks.
The Yamada Matsu family began experimenting with creating fragrances and recipes. Their background worked to the company’s advantage, and it was soon considered one of the country’s biggest names in incense.
The best way to understand the deep reverence and passion Yamada Matsu has for incense is to sign up for a class. Step inside and you see and smell the varieties of incense. Boxes of small, aromatic cones sit alongside brightly coloured elongated sticks and coils.
Head a little deeper into the spacious store, and you’ll find one of the workshop tables, lined with small, scientific glass jars filled with miscellaneous incense components. Small drawers that run all the way to the ceiling form the back wall of the store, creating a scene that looks like something between a consultation space and a classroom in a J. K. Rowling novel.
Dressed in crisp black-and-white suits, the staff of Yamada Matsu Incense Wood keep a watchful eye on the happenings in the main store, poised and ready to field any requests or answer any questions you may have.
Group incense-listening sessions are held in a detached room accessed via the back door of the store. This room holds a large, U-shaped table and is lined with glass-panelled illuminated displays that contain some of the most expensive and highly sought after incense woods in the country.
How to play the game
Kodo or incense listening is a meditative incarnation of a simple guessing game. It became popular “around the 13th and 14th centuries”, according to Nae Anri, 41, an incense listening expert who runs ceremonies at Yamada Matsu Incense Wood.
While kodo is the practice, the name for the game is kumiko. “It was played by feudal lords, shoguns and imperial court people,” says Anri. It was a way for the wealthy classes to wager on how good their sense of smell was.
Incense listening is performed in a koseki, a room dedicated to the practice. It is a silent, meditative place. The incense typically used in the process at Yamada Matsu is a wood which gets its natural fragrance from its sap.
“Today the wood for the tree is sourced from Vietnam,” says Anri. “But you cannot just find it anywhere in Vietnam, which is why it’s so expensive.” The wood is worth far more than its weight in gold. By her calculation, a single gram of this wood is worth several hundred US dollars. The raw materials for the ceremony are incredibly expensive, which is probably why kodo isn’t widely practised in Japan.
Much like any other traditional Japanese ceremony, the master takes control of the room; centred and poised, every slight movement is a carefully considered element of the intricate choreography. Every action has a purpose and is rehearsed to the nth degree.
For beginner classes, the master typically selects three incense blocks. They are chosen at random from among nine fragrant woods, including the familiar, almost powdery scent of sandalwood, and agar wood – which is highly desired for its soft, fruity floral notes. The aromas of each piece are so protected that even the incense listening master is kept in the dark about what’s inside until the after the final round.
From the three chosen, guests must work out which of five potential combinations of aromas are correct: whether they are all the same wood, whether they’re all different, or whether two of the three are the same. It sounds straightforward enough, but Anri confesses that, even now, she still does not always get it right.
The process begins when the ceremony master prepares the ash-filled kodo cup. Within the ash is a smouldering piece of charcoal, above which a hole is made to allow heat to rise through a whip-thin plate. On top of this is where the incense will sit.
When ready, the first guest picks up the cup with their right hand, places it in their left palm and, using their right thumb and index finger, creates a passageway at the open top of the kodo cup. Then it’s a matter of inhaling the aroma and making mental notes of what you can smell.
“The trick is to try to match the smell to a taste,” says Anri. By associating with the flavour, you can better identify the aromatic notes and textures of the incense. “Maybe you will find a sweetness,” she adds, “or catch hints of sourness or bitterness, or even something reminiscent of miso.”
The process is repeated for the other aromas. Guests write down their answers using a geometric code system outlined on a pre-prepared answer sheet. The papers are handed over to the ceremony master, who checks the answers and announces the winner.
While it is a game, kodo is ultimately more about appreciating the subtleties of the incense and letting the crafted fragrances capture your imagination. The process of kodo is a meditative act of appreciation, similar to that of enjoying a fine wine or experiencing the pleasure of losing yourself in a piece of music.
If you go
Yamada Matsu Incense Wood in Kyoto runs English-friendly classes for guests of all levels. The store is near the Imperial Palace gardens.
An incense listening class runs for around an hour and costs 1,500 yen (US$14) per person. You can post a letter to secure booking, but it’s best to visit the store to book a time.
Getting there
The nearest international airport is Osaka International Airport, 50 minutes from Kyoto by airport limousine bus. By subway the Yamada Matsu Incense Wood store is 17 minutes from Kyoto Station on the Karasuma Line.
