Incense Week; Buddhism
At last we arrive at the origin of incense's presence in Japan: Buddhism. I mentioned before that much of incense's introduction within Japanese culture owed to it being sent over by Buddhist monks, and likewise, it is used in many aspects of Buddhism. Japan does have a unique relationship with it, however, which I will briefly go into today. While my own research and translation is in no way as skillful and effective as Hearn's, I do have pictures.
The origins of incense in Buddhism can be traced to many various, nebulous sources, but the general consensus is that incense is good and purifying. Many Buddhist texts and prayers relate that Buddha or Buddha-nature will come to those who light incense, seeing it as a kind of marker which purifies the area and lights the way. Incense itself is also used as a metaphor for purity and the body; the body should be kept as clean as one's incense censer, and incense smoke which rises to the sky and leaves behind ash is seen as the journey of the soul in tangent with the body of the censer. This idea is sometimes used to meditate on, while the differing forms of meditative worship are embodied by the incense itself. For this reason, many people prefer to light incense during meditation, though it is often used to relax the mind and body and purify the air of a space in a nonreligious manner as well.
In addition to the types of incense I mentioned yesterday, I did not include some of the earliest forms of incense and their uses. They are rarely seen outside of specific Buddhist rituals, but I think that they are pretty interesting.
Zukō is a type of incense which is rubbed on the body by Buddhist monks. It is said to purify the body and defend from the unclean. As such, it is often used before rituals relating to death, or in specific situations where its abrasive quality is felt to focus the mind and body towards the offering and works to the Buddha, as well as to quell humanistic errors and earthly desire.
Small amounts of zukō are rubbed between the hands of the practitioner, as well as placed in the mouth. It may seem familiar to those who have visited religious or formal events in Japan, where the hands and mouth are ritualistically cleansed with small amounts of water. The concept of symbolically purifying one's body and mind before entering a special place is consistent in Japanese cultural thinking, whether for religious purposes or not. One could safely say that ingesting incense must be firmly in the idea of religious iconography, as I certainly would not recommend trying it at home.
The simplest and earliest type of incense imported into Japan was makkō. Makkō is differentiated from regular incense as powder for incense, as it is most often used as a binding agent and has no real smell of its own. However, makkō was brought to Japan by Buddhist monks for its convenient ritual use in purifying large areas, specifically temples. The makkō is usually sprinkled all around the breadth of the space, but it can also be lit or used privately at home for prayer before one's Buddhist altar for mourning by pinching a bit of the powder and sprinkling it back into the container.
Like so.
These two types of incense and uses are very prevalent in Buddhist ritual worship, and their relative simplicity and makeup of (now rare) Indian ingredients and iconography reflect the popularity of Indian-influenced Buddhism in China and Korea at the time it was introduced to Japan.
Today, however, the most obvious and well-known use of incense is associated with Buddhism in the form of stick incense. Stick incense is lit and offered to the dead, and it is most often seen in graveyards (especially near holidays) and lit before one's home shrine honoring a deceased relative. It has also become kind of an obvious visual joke (or poor writing) in Japanese movies, dramas, and comedies, to suddenly cut to the sight of someone's picture with incense lit beside it.
Yep, he's dead.
Incense is usually offered at funerals and at the home shrine by family and friends following a death. Family graves almost always have a small place to put incense and other offerings to the deceased, and the sight of many curls of smoke rising from incense before the graves is a common feature in Japanese horror, or even art, which gives the area an ethereal feel, as if the smoke were spirits. But more on that later.
Buddhist temples often will have large bronze pots filled with white ash (occasionally sand) to hold sticks of incense offered by visitors and pilgrims. You may have noticed that most incense censers have your incense lit at an angle. This is not necessarily for any sort of aesthetic or fire safety purposes, but because the sight of incense sticking straight up is specifically associated with the dead, and is extremely unlucky. As such, it is very bad luck to stick your chopsticks into your rice bowl in this manner, since people usually offer rice for the dead with the chopsticks jutting out of it like incense.
Also, never stick your chopsticks in your food, or on your plate, or play with them, or drum with them, or separate them, or cross them, or do anything other than sit there quietly with them resting benignly in front of of you facing to the left. Some of it is considered bad luck, but most of it is because old people you've never seen before in your life will shout at you for improper table manners. Maybe ask for a fork.
That concludes some of the most well-known uses of incense relating to Buddhism. However, not everyone in Japan is Buddhist. Tomorrow, I'll explain how incense is used by practitioners of Shinto, in addition to those who follow other religions, or those who follow none at all.
The origins of incense in Buddhism can be traced to many various, nebulous sources, but the general consensus is that incense is good and purifying. Many Buddhist texts and prayers relate that Buddha or Buddha-nature will come to those who light incense, seeing it as a kind of marker which purifies the area and lights the way. Incense itself is also used as a metaphor for purity and the body; the body should be kept as clean as one's incense censer, and incense smoke which rises to the sky and leaves behind ash is seen as the journey of the soul in tangent with the body of the censer. This idea is sometimes used to meditate on, while the differing forms of meditative worship are embodied by the incense itself. For this reason, many people prefer to light incense during meditation, though it is often used to relax the mind and body and purify the air of a space in a nonreligious manner as well.
In addition to the types of incense I mentioned yesterday, I did not include some of the earliest forms of incense and their uses. They are rarely seen outside of specific Buddhist rituals, but I think that they are pretty interesting.
Zukō is a type of incense which is rubbed on the body by Buddhist monks. It is said to purify the body and defend from the unclean. As such, it is often used before rituals relating to death, or in specific situations where its abrasive quality is felt to focus the mind and body towards the offering and works to the Buddha, as well as to quell humanistic errors and earthly desire.
Small amounts of zukō are rubbed between the hands of the practitioner, as well as placed in the mouth. It may seem familiar to those who have visited religious or formal events in Japan, where the hands and mouth are ritualistically cleansed with small amounts of water. The concept of symbolically purifying one's body and mind before entering a special place is consistent in Japanese cultural thinking, whether for religious purposes or not. One could safely say that ingesting incense must be firmly in the idea of religious iconography, as I certainly would not recommend trying it at home.
The simplest and earliest type of incense imported into Japan was makkō. Makkō is differentiated from regular incense as powder for incense, as it is most often used as a binding agent and has no real smell of its own. However, makkō was brought to Japan by Buddhist monks for its convenient ritual use in purifying large areas, specifically temples. The makkō is usually sprinkled all around the breadth of the space, but it can also be lit or used privately at home for prayer before one's Buddhist altar for mourning by pinching a bit of the powder and sprinkling it back into the container.
Like so.
These two types of incense and uses are very prevalent in Buddhist ritual worship, and their relative simplicity and makeup of (now rare) Indian ingredients and iconography reflect the popularity of Indian-influenced Buddhism in China and Korea at the time it was introduced to Japan.
Today, however, the most obvious and well-known use of incense is associated with Buddhism in the form of stick incense. Stick incense is lit and offered to the dead, and it is most often seen in graveyards (especially near holidays) and lit before one's home shrine honoring a deceased relative. It has also become kind of an obvious visual joke (or poor writing) in Japanese movies, dramas, and comedies, to suddenly cut to the sight of someone's picture with incense lit beside it.
Yep, he's dead.
Incense is usually offered at funerals and at the home shrine by family and friends following a death. Family graves almost always have a small place to put incense and other offerings to the deceased, and the sight of many curls of smoke rising from incense before the graves is a common feature in Japanese horror, or even art, which gives the area an ethereal feel, as if the smoke were spirits. But more on that later.
Buddhist temples often will have large bronze pots filled with white ash (occasionally sand) to hold sticks of incense offered by visitors and pilgrims. You may have noticed that most incense censers have your incense lit at an angle. This is not necessarily for any sort of aesthetic or fire safety purposes, but because the sight of incense sticking straight up is specifically associated with the dead, and is extremely unlucky. As such, it is very bad luck to stick your chopsticks into your rice bowl in this manner, since people usually offer rice for the dead with the chopsticks jutting out of it like incense.
Also, never stick your chopsticks in your food, or on your plate, or play with them, or drum with them, or separate them, or cross them, or do anything other than sit there quietly with them resting benignly in front of of you facing to the left. Some of it is considered bad luck, but most of it is because old people you've never seen before in your life will shout at you for improper table manners. Maybe ask for a fork.
That concludes some of the most well-known uses of incense relating to Buddhism. However, not everyone in Japan is Buddhist. Tomorrow, I'll explain how incense is used by practitioners of Shinto, in addition to those who follow other religions, or those who follow none at all.