Japanese Incense Chest - Kodogubako

Kodogubako

Here we go! This is a long post, hope you enjoy it!!    For those of you that followed my posts on that other site you will have seen this before, so save you time and look at something else........................  If not, then I have been hooked on Japanese boxes for a few years now. The diversity of their styles, unique uses and formats, with few dovetails, or wetsern style hinged lids have provide me with the inspiration to do something different.

So, this is my Incense chest a Kodogubako.      Kodogu is incense, and bako is box.  The appreciation of Incense Kodo has long been one of Japans classical art forms along with the Tea Ceremony, Caligraphy, Flower arranging, and Noah plays.
 
This chest, a 260mm cube, tied with a traditional Obi -  kimono cord, is full of small boxes and trays with unique contents. 

Its contents are all the utensils and equipment used in Japanese Incense Games - Komiko. The outside is decorated in a teak parquetry diamond pattern, with shell stringing, shell dots and contrasting edging and bandings of walnut. The walnut veneered inside is sprinkled with gold dust. The theme of teak parquetry, shell strings and dots, and the gold sprinkled interior is common to all the internal boxes.
The Incense box opens onto four layers of trays and smaller incense boxes kobako, which hold a full set of incense equipment - Jisshu - Kodogu.

1st layer
Remove the lid and the first layer of two boxes becomes accesible.

One is a Writing box, a suzuri-bako, which holds an inkstone, a water dropper, calligraphy brushes in their own trays, an black and vermillion ink sticks, in their own small boxes. It's lid can be used as a tray for collecting participants answer sheets at the end of the game.

 

The other box contains the Incense board, Honkouban. Two rows of shell flowers - Kikuza, are where the different incenses on their small mica plates are placed before and after each round of the main game.

 

Under the Incense board are ten small boxes each containing a set of twelve voting/answer tiles - ko-fuda.

These small boxes made of walnut will gold edging, contain a set of 12 voting/answer tiles in two piles of six. That's a total of 120 tiles!!!!!! They are made from ebony, highly polished and finished, then laser engraved. Gold paint is then rubbed into the engraving, and once dry they are sanded again with 600 grit leaving the gold behind in the engravings!
 
 

 
One side of each set has a motif unique to that set, so guests/participants using them are identified. The motifs for these sets are botanical:
 Pine,
 Plum,
 Bamboo,
 Chrysanthemum,
 Paulownia,
 Hagi,
 Iris,
 Peony,
 Willow,
 Cherry Blossom.
 
 On the other side of three of the tiles in every subset, is the Chinese ideograph for 'one' (一), signifying incense 1 or variety A. Three more bear 'two'   二    or variety B, and a further trio 'three'   三   or variety C. The last three, carry the katakana-character  客 which means 'visitor/guest'. This is the symbol for the variety supplied by one of the guest/participants or variety D. In addition, a 'star' and 'moon' symbol is included on some of the tiles.
 
 These sets are used by participants at the end of each round of the game to indicate the variety of incense that they think they have just sampled.
 
 2nd Layer
The next layer down is an incense tray Koban.

It holds a range of fabric accessories sew together for me by my ever patient wife - thank you!
A large patterned fabric sheet bordered with purple, a Uchijiki, is used like a tablecloth and is laid directly on the tatami mats.

On top of this goes a silver and gold folded card, a Jishiki. Gold side up is used in spring and summer, silver side up in autumn and winter, also gold in daytime, and silver in night. On top of the Jishiki are placed all the equipment of the incense games/ceremony.
 
 Also in this tray is a small brocade wallet, made by my wife, containing a set of Fire Tools hidogu. These are used to prepare the incense burners with a burning charcoal tablet that heats the various incense used in the game, making them release their unique fragrances. 

The set of Fire Tools comprises:
haioshi - a spatula like press for arranging the soft grey rice ash in the incense burner into a Mt Fuji style cone. A glowing charcoal tablet, a tandon is buried in this Mt Fuji cone.
 haboki - a feather brush to brush away stray ash on the sides or lip of the incense burners.
 haibashi - a pair of metal chopsticks for handling the burning charcoal tablet, and placing it in the Mt Fuji cone. They can be used to decorated the ash cone with particular patterns.
 kosaji - incense spoon to place a small piece of incense wood on a ginyo.
 ginyo - literally, 'silver leaves'. Framed squares of mica, on which the incense is heated. It is placed on the top of the Mt Fuji cone.
 ginyo-basami - tweezers for placing the ginyo on top on the Mt Fuji cone of ash.
 hiaji - poker for piercing a small hole in the summit of the Mount Fuji-shaped cone. It is then used for controlling the height of the burning charcoal by pressing it down deeper into the ash.
 haibashi - pair of wooden chopsticks.
 
Also in this tray is a small magenta coloured cloth. This is used for ceremonially wiping the incense burners and the fire tools before they are put into use.

The tray nagabon, holding the above can be used for distributing answer/record sheets to the guests.

3rd Layer
The next layer has a smaller incense tray, Koban, with four small boxes. 

 

 

The smallest square box contains ten numbered folded origami paper packets - torinokogami.

These packets are used to store participants answer tiles - ko-funda after each round of the game. The packets may also be used as a lottery, by putting a numbered wooden tag inside, which decides the seating order of the participants.
The other rectangular lidded box contains the paper packages, Sozutsumi, which hold the smaller wrappers holding individual chips of both the main incense, and the trial incense used in the game. These smaller wrappers are called shinoori or Kotsutsumi.

The third box has a small Incense Tasting Board - Kokoromi Koban on top.

 

It is similar to the main Honkouban, with six shell flowers Kikuza lined up in two rows. If the game involves an initial tasting/sampling of incense, then these sample incenses, on their 'silver leaves', are displayed on this board prior to the game.
 

Inside this box and below the Tasting Board, are a set of skewers known as uguisu, or nightingales, or warblers. The master of ceremonies, the Komoto, threads the used incense wrappers onto it after they have been used in the game, so keeping them in the order that they were presented. The uguisu is traditionally stuck into the tatami mat to hold the wrappers in place.
 
If the game does not use guest tiles, ko-fuda, for registering their answers at the end of each round, then guest have their own individual answer sheets. These answer sheets are kept closed by another uguisu, which are also traditionally stuck into the tatami mat.

The fourth box contains eight small ceramic jars kōgō , used to store different incense wood chips for use in different Komiko games.
 

 

The tray holding these four boxes can be used as the 'Answer/Record tray' - Tegirokubon. Used for collecting and distributing the participants answer/record sheets.

In traditional samurai style incense games, these answer/record sheets were distributed in a larger Kigamisashi, the 2nd layer tray, and collected with the lid of the suzuri-bako.

Bottom of the chest
Finally in the base of the main box are a range of ceramic containers in velvet bags, plus two more small wooden boxes.

One is a three-tiered box, a jukogo, used for storing charcoal blocks - tandon, new mica plates, and burned out incense with its used mica plate.

 

The other small box (on the right) is a voting box, a fudazutsu. It has a small slot in the top where participants deposit their answer/voting tiles, ko-funda, at the end of each round of the game.

The other velvet bags in the bottom of the chest hold two cylindrical incense-burners - koro, also known as te-kōro, hand-held censer. Two more hold square section ceramic ash containers, takigara-ire, where fresh ash for the incense burners is kept.

 

Two more hold round ceramic containers for used ash. Another holds a golden container, a kyojitate, used specifically to display the Fire Tools. There is also a larger brass Hidori-koro Incense burner, used to hold and carry the ignited charcoal before it is placed and used in the koro.

This is a layout of the tools ready for the start of a game.

 Finally …........... and very well done if you've got this far. The full contents of the chest.
 

I made the chest during COVID.  It was one of my most enjoyable projects due to the amount of research I had to do, and the planning to get evrything to fit.    I entered it in the Australian Wood Review magazines ‘Maker of the Year’ competition in 2021, where it won the box category. 

I also made a matching document box, a writing table for use in the ceremony, and a smaller chest just for incense in the same style to go with it. 

   

In November last year, Tad, my Japanese friend, who helped me so much with translations of Japanese texts, took the top three layers of the chest to ‘The Japan Incenses Association’ which is based at the Yakushhiji Temple in Nara City, Japan.  He had been in contact with them about my work, and they had arranged for him to take part in an Incense Ceremony, and for him to show them 'a westerner’s interpretation of their traditional items'.  We managed a video link of most of the ceremony, and the presentation of my work to associations President, and main officers - what a privilege, for both of us.  Tad had never heard of Kodo, until I talked to him about making my Incense chest.  It was a road of discovery for both of us!   

 

Following feedback from the association I am currently working on a tray to hold just the 7 main items of equipment used in the ceremony, and a set of traditional Japanese shelves to put all my the incense ‘furniture’ on.  Watch this space………… 

As ever thanks for looking. I hope you enjoyed the project and finding out some of the aspects of this fascinating subject!