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Incense
***** Location: India, worldwide
***** Season: Non-seasonal Topic
***** Category: Humanity
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Explanation
Part of the smell of India is due to incense, frequently used everywhere to overpower other smells, especially during the monsoon season. Patschouli and sandalwood and many more scents come to mind.
Incense is used in many religious rituals too. We have to distinguish between this use (incense, francincense, Weihrauch) and the use of incense sticks, joss sticks (Räucherstäbchen) for every-day fragrance purposes.
Gabi Greve
Other expressions:
incense stick, joss stick, incense coil, aroma coil
senkoo 線香 Senko incense stick
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Incense sticks or Agarbatti as it is called in India is as old as the Vedas themselves…
My childhood days were so entwined with my parent’s devoutness and piety . . . their daily prayers in the prayer room – called the Pooja room – the agarbatti filling the silences in the songs my mother sang praising mother goodness – a scene still vivid and clear in my mind . . .
Agarbatti is a small scale industry in India, each state having its many varieties of aroma sticks. Many use exotic blends of the evergreen forest – thus bringing nature into our homes!
trek . . .
through the forest stumble
upon smells i know
Kala Ramesh
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In India warmth and elegance is not only in the hearts of its people, it is in the air too. Floral Incense offers wide range of Incense, Incense Sticks, Dhoop, Agarbattis, Japanese Incense Sticks, Aroma, Cones and Coils that aromatize your surroundings.
All about Indian Incence:
http://www.floralincense-india.com/
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Worldwide use
Germany
Räucherstäbchen, Weihrauch.
Weihrauch is usually only used in Catholic Churches. It is the sap from Boswellia sacra (Boswellia carteri). Frankincense Tree.
Wild Boswellias grow in Somalia and in the Arabic Peninsula. Their resin, the frankincense, is collected during dry periods. The trees are tapped by making a 3 inch incision in the bark, or by scrapping some of it.
More information in English
http://www.desert-tropicals.com/Plants/Burseraceae/Boswellia_sacra.html
This is a very useful link in German von Michael Pfeifer
http://www.michael-pfeifer.de/incens/index.html
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Japan
Sometimes I feel the private use of incense in a home is the origin of all modern aromatherapy. To light an incense stick and a candle after a hectic day of work, listen to some soft music and taste some nice ricewine is a treat for all of your senses. It lifts your spirit on a higer level in no time and lets you enjoy the moment as a human BE-ING, not DO-ING for a while.
Incense in Japan has been introduced together with Buddhism in the 5th century and been used during religious ceremonies for a long time. It seems to purify the holy space of a temple and pacify the mind of the worshippers to enable them to get a glimpse (should I say: a whiff) of the Beyond.
But maybe only in Japan has the use of incense been elevated to the "Way of the Incense" (koodoo 香道), next to the Way of Tea, the Way of the Flowers, the Way of the Bow and so many other Japanes WAYs of enriching life with a sence of the true, good and beautiful (shinzenbi 真善美).
During the Heian period the use of incense turned into an elaborate "Fragrance Hobby" (gankoo 翫香) which brings us to the novel of Genji (Genji Monogatari 源氏物語) by Murasaki Shikibu 紫式部.
Genji-Koo 源氏香 Genji Ko Incence patterns
香の図 "Scheme of incenses of Genji". Fonts of patterns of Genjiko
. . . CLICK here for Photos !
quote
Genji kô
There is a form of incense ceremony still practiced today known as Genji-kô (Genji incense). It is essentially a highly refined parlor game, based on one's ability to hold the olfactory memory of several different scents and tell them apart. The scoring system uses a set of symbols coded to 52 of the 54 chapters of The Tale of Genji. Despite the Heian-era overtones of its name, Genji-kô has nothing to do with the way incense was used during Murasaki's day. It comes, rather, from a tradition of incense guessing that was developed in the fourteenth century.
...
These symbols, which have long since entered the realm of design motifs, are combinations of five vertical bars joined at the top by horizontal bars in different combinations. If the bars are connected, that means those scents are deemed the same.
For example, five single vertical bars with no horizontals, would indicate that all five scents were different. This corresponds to Chapter Two of The Tale of Genji, "The Broom Tree.source : www.lizadalby.com
. Reference : Patterns of Genji-Ko . PDF .
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senkoo 線香 Senko incense stick
makkoo 抹香（まっこう）Makko incense powder
makkoo shokunin 抹香職人 craftsman making Makko
source : edoichiba.jp. makkou...
. Edo no shokunin 江戸の職人 Edo craftsmen .
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- quote
Japanese incense
The following are the main ingredients in Japanese incense:
Agarwood (沈香, jinkō, jinkoo) (also called Aloeswood)
Sandalwood (白檀, byakudan)
Borneo Camphor (竜脳, ryūnō, ryuunoo)
Benzoin (安息香, ansokukō, ansokukoo)
Frankincense (乳香, nyūkō, nyuukoo)
Clove (丁字, chōji, chooji)
Star Anise (唐樒, tōshikimitooshikimi)
Rhubarb (大黄, daiō, daioo, dai-oo)
Cinnamon (桂皮, keihi keihi)
Licorice (甘草, kanzō, kanzoo)
Patchouli (パチョリ, pachori)
Another important ingredient in Japanese incense is kyara (伽羅).
Kyara is one kind of agarwood (Japanese incense companies divide agarwood into six categories depending on the region obtained and properties of the agarwood). Kyara is currently worth more than its weight in gold.
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !
kyara 伽羅
More details:
. WKD : Different Kinds of Incense お香の種類 .
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I have written extensively about the use and the culture of incense in Japan.
Please read my three articles quoted below.
The smell of incense can be very subtle and faint, so the act of concentrated smelling it is called "listening to incense" (monkoo, bunkoo 聞香, koo o kiku 香を聞く) in Japanese.
Here the verb "KIKU (LISTENING)" in Japanese means to use all senses to appreciate one thing in its full potential and with all your attention. KIKU is maybe the change of the verb 利く, as in "tasting ricewine, kikizake 利き酒", meaning "appreciating" something.
Here is one explanation for this expression with incense:
In the Buddha's world everything is fragrant like incense, including the words of Buddha. Fragrance and incense are synonymous, and Buddha's words of teaching are incense. Therefore Bodhisattvas listen to Buddha's words in the form of incense, instead of smelling them.
Incense Container, Japanese Incense Culture
Incense stick holder
Incense Burner
Gabi Greve
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. hangonkoo, hankonkoo 反魂香
soul-returning incense
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In Japan , where almost all are Buddhists, we use incense on every morning to pray to the ancestors . Of course I do it every morning.
with smell of incense
will remember you
tomorrow morning
senkoo ya anata o omou asu no asa
Nakamura Sakuo
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New York
Here in New York, incense has no season, or apparently, any limitations:
Greenwich Village -
in the midst of eight days of rain
the smell of incense
Greenwich Village
Autumn rains persist -
the smell of incense
Kami (Judy Kamilhor)
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Sacramental Christian Churches
incense is a seasonal kigo in the sacramental christian churches.
incense is used on special feast days during the year to enhance the worship service.
on these days incense it used during the opening procession, at the time of the scripture readings, and sometimes the altar and the congregation are blessed with incense.
here is one haiku/senryu i 'got' during a six week stay at a benedictine monastery:
the young monk
reads the gospel
incensed
susan delphine delaney, plano, texas
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Things found on the way
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HAIKU
"All in One
One in All"
Daruma smiles
incense silences ~
Narayanan Raghunathan
More of his Daruma haiku are here:
... group/happyhaiku/message/1597
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MORE - hokku about fragrance by
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .
蘭の香や蝶の翅に薫物す
ran no ka ya choo no tsubasa ni takimono su
Lady butterfly
perfumes wings by floating
over the orchid.
Tr. Beilenson
The butterfly is perfuming
It's wings in the scent
Of the orchid.
Tr. R.H. Blyth
The orchid's perfume
clings to the butterfly's wings
like temple incense
Tr. Sam Hamill
orchid breathing
incense into
butterfly wings
Tr. Lucien Stryck
fragrant orchid—
into a butterfly’s wings
it breathes the incense
Tr. Ueda
ran no ka ya choo no tsubasa ni takimono su
transformed in normal Japanese
ran no ka ga choo no tsubasa ni takimono suru yoo desu
fragrance of orchids -
it clings to the wings of a butterfly
like incense
Tr. Gabi Greve
There is the cut marker YA at the end of line 1.
Basho was at a tea shop on the way to Ise shrine.
A lady at the tea shop had asked him to write a hokku including her name, Cho 蝶Butterfly.
茶店の女主人「てふ」
. Basho at Ise Shrine 伊勢神宮 Ise Jingu .
. Smell, fragrance, haiku and kigo
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伽羅くさき人の仮寝や朧月
kyarakusaki hito no karine ya oborozuki
fragrance of kyara incense
while he takes a nap -
hazy spring moon
MORE of his haiku about frangrance
. Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 in Edo .
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aki-kaze ya senko no kemuri yurete ori
autumn breeze,
incense smoke coils and twists
signifying nothing
Susumu Takiguchi
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/happyhaiku/message/1384
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incense smoulders
on the bamboo cupboard
rarefied shadows
Geert Verbeke
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/happyhaiku/message/1283
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Beethoven
and some incense smoke -
the longest night
Beethoven
und Incenserauch <>
die laengste Nacht
long night, yo-naga, nagaki yo is a kigo for autumn.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/happyhaiku/message/977
... ... ...
two curly smokelines
from one incense
wonderous waves
Gabi Greve 2004
... ... ...
burning incense
the smell of another life
behind closed eyes
Carole
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/happyhaiku/message/69
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Ein Mönch vor der Wand.
Regen prasselt ans Fenster.
Ein Räucherstäbchen.
A monk before the wall.
Rain thunders at the window.
An incense stick.
(Tr. Gabi Greve)
Arndt Büssing (2000)
http://www.geocities.com/ArBuess/Haiku.html
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incense
drifting at the shrine
loneliness
Dr. Vidur Jyoti
India, April 2008
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incense smoke
waves of chants wash
over the idol
Johannes Manjrekar
India, February 2011
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incense smoke
curls around his bald head
zazen
Chen-ou Liu
Canada, February 2011
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Related words
***** Incense coils agains mosquitoes, mosquitoe coils
katori senkoo 香取線香
kigo for all summer
They are used everywhere to keep the mosquitoes away.
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***** . hoshi no takimono 星の薫物 incense for the stars .
hoshi no kaori 星の薫（ほしのかおり）
fragrance for the stars
hitorikoo 火取香（ひとりこう）Tanabata incense
Offering incense at the Imperial Palace in the Tanabata night.
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Koo お香 Incense - Introduction
Senkotate 線香立 Incense Stick Holder
Koogoo - Incense Container 香合とだるま
Kooro - Incense Burner 香炉とだるま
. Incense in India ... HAIKU
Agarbatti
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