Incense ceremony – Kodo in Japan
FROM AGARWOOD ENJOYMENT TO FORMATION OF KODO IN JAPAN
(Vinh Sinh )
After years whenever it is
Burning incense sticks, compete playing
(Kieu)
Long-life aquilaria becomes calambac
That stone maybe become gold
(Folk)
Fragrant materials (香料 perfume) are generally taken from plants (flowers, fruits, roots, leaves, or sap), animals or minerals. Ever since, the most popular flavors are aromatic wood (香木 incense). Cinnamon and agarwood (agarwood, aloeswood or agalloch) are two typical aromatic wood species of Vietnam.
According to the late scholar Pham Hoang Ho, the type of Agarwood found in Vietnam is caused by aquilaria crassna which is eaten by the worm, produce resin, freezing and then long time becoming Agarwood. Wood bearing the resin of that aquilaria has large proportion; put into the water will "sink." "Agar" 沈 Han means sink and the name "Agarwood" comes from that.
“Agarwood” (沈香jinkô, “sinking fragrance”), according to the definition of the Kojien dictionary, is "natural fragrance derived from the 'highland' type of tall “blue” tree. Plants are in tropical Asia, about 10 meters high, stiff and submerged. Flowers are white. Buried under the ground, or rotten, the tree will become 'old' 伽羅 black muddy, fragrant superiority and very expensive price.
The tall tree here is aquilatia tree growing in the jungle. "Agarwood" is the trunk containing many aromatic resins. Long life aquilatia become large and old-aged. The fold has said: " Long-life aquilaria becomes calambac" but we need to add that not all aquilatia become Agarwood, it’s luck to have.
“Calambac” is considered the best Agarwood
Agarwood is not found in Japan and China but only in Southeast Asia. "Calambac" is unique in Central Vietnam from Thanh Hoa to Khanh Hoa - the land has an attractive name, but right to the truth, is "land of Agarwood"!
Agarwood in the central provinces famous throughout the world with elegant fragrance. The earliest document on Japanese Agarwood is Nihon Shoki (Japanese journalism, 720 AD).
According to this book, in 595 AD there was a "agarwood trunk drift into Awaji-shima Island," near the Kobe city today. This wood has a perimeter of 1 meter 80. Residents on the island do not know it is Agarwood, bring out burning to cook. The smell of smoke rises and the aroma spreads away. People are surprised [but guess it is precious], bring to the Emperor [this is Suiko]. " At that time, Prince Shōtoku knew immediately that is Agarwood (jinko).
We can guess this Agarwood is from Central (in the 6th century in Champa) and follow warm current Kuroshio drift north and then cross into Japan. It should be added that the Kuroshio currents also originate in Central Vietnam.
When introduced to Japan, it was used in Shinto / Shintoism and Buddhism. Later, Agarwood became more and more important in Buddhist ceremonies. Entering the Nara period (710-794 AD), this ceremony became a national celebration and continued until the Meiji Restoration (1868).
The thing that few people know is that the important role of aquilaria in the history of exchanges between Vietnam and Japan. Calambac is considered to be from Vietnam, commonly known as kyara 伽羅.
According to Nakata Kyosubur, the name "Calambac" was originally Cham language because Champa was a "calambac" merchant from the beginning. The term "calambac" is a synthesis of Sanskrit "kara" meaning "black", and the word "bak" in Chinese means "tree, wood". With the synthesis of two languages, we have the word "kalambak", and gradually the word is shortened to "Agarwood", ie "black wood", as we have today.
It should also be added that it is no coincidence that this particular type of aquilatia is of Sanskrit origin, because the Sea Silk Road is also the path of spreading Buddhism from India, and Calambac has followed that path with Buddhism. Champa was also influenced by Indian civilization, instead of Chinese civilization like Vietnam.
There were a lot of anecdotes about calambac passion of historical figures in Japan. In Shôsôin (正 倉 院 Chinh Thuong Vien)- The archives of Buddhist monuments and scriptures are located within the grounds of the Togaiji Temple (東大寺 Dong Dai Tu) in Nara- there was Agarwood trunk called Ranjatai (蘭奢待 Long distance) about 1 ½ meters. All three characters who contributed to the unification of Japan in the late sixteenth century, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, have been looking at this Agarwood trunk which is classified as “treasure”. Probably this treasure is considered a symbol of authority. Nobunaga's legend tells the horned two pieces, each about 40 centimeters long; a piece of the royal tiara, a piece to be used in the tea ceremony. Hideyoshi also seems to imitate Nobunaga because the military genius also likes to interact with the tea artistes. It is believed that this Ranjatai was donated by the Emperor to the Tōyaiji Temple in 756. At present, Ranjatai can view every 10 or 15 years through the Shōsin exhibition at the National Museum in Nara city. This Ranjatai according to Yoneda Kaisuke, an expert on Agarwood at the Osaka Museum, presumes to have traveled from Laos or Vietnam.
As for the Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun (General) of the Tokugawa government, it is known that Ieyasu ordered man to see the Ranjatai, but no one knew whether he brought some parts of the Agarwood trunk back or not. However, through the documents that still remain, we know that Ieyasu is very fond of Agarwood and had sent letters to the king of Champa and Lord Nguyen to ask for calambac.
A letter from the Tokugawa Ieyasu to King Champa in 1606 stated: "We would like to have high quality Agarwood. Those of medium quality or below average do not send because we have a lot already. ".
Through the letter, we also know that at least two years 1605 and 1606, Lord Nguyen Hoang sent some gifts to the Tokugawa Ieyasu, each time consists of 1 piece of agarwood, 2 times, 1 kilogram each time. Before that, in the Genroku (Original Period), ie from 1592 to 1595, Lord Nguyen had donated to Nagasaki Bugy (equivalent to the Gunman) half of kilogram of Agarwood and other gifts. An interesting and significant detail is that in the list of donations between East Asian countries, Agarwood was first listed and considered a precious donation in diplomatic relations with Japan and China. After Ieyasu died, it was said that in his relics there were more than 100 kilos of agarwood and more than 180 kilos of other types of aquilaria. This shows how Ieyasu enjoyed the incense.
According to research by Ogura Sadao, Agarwood is a Japanese item imported from Southeast Asian countries (Vietnam, Cambodia, Siam [now Thailand], Borneo, etc.) during trade by " Shuinsen 朱 印 in the late 16th century - early XVII century that Japan is now still continuing to import. According to Ogura, Japan imported Agarwood from Vietnam accounted for 70% of Japan's imports from Shuinsen time, and by 1987, Japan's volume import of 16 tons from Vietnam was still about 50% the total amount of Japanese imported Agarwood (about 32 tons).
In the past, Vietnam and Indonesia played an important role in exporting lobster to Japan, which is now replaced by Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand
Compared to famous Japanese arts such as tea ceremony, shoji, kendo, bushido or judo, kodo (香 道 incense) is less known to our country. Interestingly, even in Japan, it is hardly known that the history of Kodo has marked the exchanges between the land of Central and Japan from ancient times.
Kodo (Way of incense / Voie de l’encens) is the art of savoring incense, which is the art of "smelling" the aroma - a unique art found only in Japan, not in other countries. Although not until the 15th century, Koda had been shaped, but in fact this elegant enjoyment has been originated since Buddhism was introduced in Japan around the sixth century.
During Buddhist ceremonies, the most important ceremonies are usually offered by incense. From 1500 years ago, incense offering was a sacrifice to wipe away the Buddha statues, or when the monks sang chanting.
Incense-burning in Temple Todaiji, Nara, Japan
Gradually, the elegant scent was more and more popular among the Japanese, the nobility of Kyoto at the time of Heian (794-1185) prefered to burn indoors for "fragrant aroma for house" and clothes. As the development of this burning enjoyment (the Japanese called sora-dakimono 空 炊), deep-down contests - like poetry or flower arranging - are organized to determine which kind of Agarwood that have best incense.
Materials used for sora-dakimono are fresh materials of traditional medicine. Incense-burning enjoyment was not only common in the aristocracy but also in ordinary people's race to guess what is the most fragrant and unique among the species of incense.
With the advent of the samurai regime at the end of the twelfth century, the influence of Mediation on Japanese culture grew deeper. Due to the influence of the Tong Dynasty (Chinese), the Japanese convert to nerikô (煉 り 香) with the way of mixing the incense stick together like jinkô at the beginning. In this way, the art of enjoying by "smelling of incense (聞 香 bunkô or monkô) was one step further and then shaped into a Kodo (incense) in the Muromachi Dynasty ( 1336-1573).
From this moment on, the incense-burning enjoyment sora-dakimono is more or less flashy, replaced by the incense-absorbing under quiet atmosphere-suited to the introverted spiritual life and the aesthetic sense permeated the martial arts of the boxer.
Agarwood Rikkoku (“Six countries”)
According to Kodo, the smell of incense has since been categorized as "five flavors 6 countries" (五味 六 国, meaning "five flavors and six countries"). Five flavors are sweet, sour, spicy, salty, and prodigious. "Six countries" are the six places where incense is produced; It's Kyara, Rakoku, Manaban, Manaka, Sasora and Sumatora. According to the classification of the connoisseur of Agarwood appointed by Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1436-1490), the "six countries" were:
• Kyara (伽羅 Gia la). As mentioned above, the word kara is originally Sanskrit, meaning "black". The best Agarwood that has elegant scent. Only in Vietnam.
• Rakoku (羅 国 La Quoc) The smell is bitter, salty and spicy. Only in Thailand.
• Manaban (真 南蛮 Chan Nam Man) There are much incense and resin, taste is almost sweet, but do not seem "beautiful". They are in the East of India, or between Malaysia and India.
• Manaka (真 那伽 Chan Na Gia) Among the scents, this may be the lightest scent. Available in Malacca (Malaysia).
• Sasora (佐 曾 羅 Ta Tango) Have a light scent. With a good sasora, it is easy to mistaken with kyara, especially when just burning. It is in western India.
• Sumator (寸 聞 多 羅 Tha Van Da) lot of resin and sour. There are many in Sumatra (Indonesia).
Under the Muromachi Dynasty, the art of savoring incense began to grow in tandem with the art of tea.
Many types of competition have different content and forms were created. First of all, the "tea contest" required participants to guess the quality of the tea. Later, tea and Agarwood competitions were held to see who could distinguish 10 kinds of tea and 10 different types of Agarwood. In the incense test, attendees were divided into two groups, each group gueses the origin, background and characteristics of each famous type of Agarwood, such as scent, the shape of smoke-rising, etc.
Gradually, in addition to the ability to enjoy incense, the player must also had the knowledge of culture and the ability to sense aesthetics - that is the ability to feel what is beautiful. In front of people to watch, Agarwood will be emanating from one type to another, like the different sides in a renga poem (連 歌 link). Each time Agarwoodwas exhaled, the contestant had to make a poetic note of fragrance and remind the right type of Agarwood just burned. Finally, there would be a renga verse about the scent of the competition.
The combination of enjoyment of incense and the tendency to pursue what is beautiful, called bi (美 fine) or bigaku (aesthetics), in the Japanese literary tradition can be said to be the decisive factor the formation of Kodo.
Kodo reflects the depth of the culture of the enjoyer, while expressing the elegant beauty of incense, but also can express various themes of literature. Therefore, Koda is considered a unique art of Japan.