Alongside Sado, or tea ceremony, and Kado, or flower arranging, Kodo, the art of incense preparation and appreciation is one of the major forms of accomplishments. On this occasion, Sanjonishi, Gyosui, 23rd-generation head of the Oie School of Kodo, gave a talk based on the theme of “The fragrances of Kodo and the Genji-ko ceremony.”
In the Heian Period, incenses were not only blended by members of the nobility to imbue rooms and attire with fragrances, but also used in “Takimonoawase,” a game in which the participants competed to determine who can distinguish between the fragrances of different types of burning incense. This “Takimonoawase” evolved with the times to become “Kumiko” a form in which the main type of incense used is Jinko, or agarwood incense. Nowadays, the most common form of incense appreciation ceremony is “Kumiko” in which participants try to distinguish differences in the fragrance of incenses and on this occasion, the talk focused on a type of “Kumiko” known as “Genji-ko.”
The design of the patterns used in the Genjo-ko ceremony are well-known and used, for example, in patterns on Japanese confectionary, or transoms in Japanese-style rooms. The Genji-ko pattern design can be seen in townscapes in Japan and during his talk, Sanjonishi Gyosui also pointed out examples of use of the design as marks on buildings in Nihonbashi and in Kyoto Station.

*Genj-ko
“Genji-ko,” a type of Kumiko with its roots in The Tale of Genji, was formed about 300 years ago in the Edo Period. Five different type of incense are each divided into five small packets, making a total of twenty-five packets, five of which are selected at random and the incense they contain burned and the participants try to distinguish between the types of incense by their fragrance. Answers are written in a unique way, with five vertical lines. Participants join the vertical lines of incenses they think are the same with a horizontal line with crossed lines representing incenses the participants think are different. There are fifty-two types of Genji-ko pattern, each bearing one of the names of one of the fifty-four chapters of The Tale of Genji with the exception of Kiritsubo and Yume no Ukihashi, or “The Floating Bridge of Dreams.”

This was followed by a demonstration of a Genji-ko incense ceremony by the Society for research on Kodo with commentary by Sanjonishi Gyosui.
Two members of the audience were invited onto the stage to take part in the ceremony while a censer was passed around the audience so that everyone could enjoy the Genji-ko experience.

The ceremony begins with the “Komoto,” or facilitator of the ceremony, saying “Let us begin the ceremony,” after which the ceremony proceeds in the prescribed order and, on this occasion, not only participants in the ceremony on stage, but also members of the audience filled in the answer sheets, with the correct answers given at the end of the ceremony.
With the audience having enjoyed the fragrance of the incense that filled the room, the ceremony was brought to a close with the Komoto saying “I pronounce the incense ceremony ended.”

Master Sanjonishi explained that the purpose of an incense ceremony is not to correctly distinguish between the different types of incense or give participants a feeling of failure if they were unable to give the right answers, but to give the participants an opportunity to enjoy the various fragrances.
Mr. Sanjonishi ended his commentary by saying that, "although some of the participants in a ceremony are successful and some unsuccessful in distinguishing between the various incenses, everyone is smiling when the when the ceremony comes to an end and I believe that this is the most wonderful part of an incense ceremony."

Accompanied by music, students of the Society for research on Etiquette and Manners put on a performance during which they demonstrated actions such as returning a 12-to-3-meter length of cloth into a roll and tying their sashes in a puffed-out bow style called “taikomusubi,” or drum knot.
In addition, in line with “Floral Designs on Kimono Sashes,” the title of the performance, featured the iris, the flower of France, and the cherry blossom, the flower of Japan. The performance also used sashes to express four other flowers such as roses and chrysanthemums.

The audience responded to the gorgeous performance by some twenty students with thunderous applause.

Ms. Takakura Eika, heir to the traditions of Emondo (the art of dressing) gave a presentation on the attire worn by women appearing in “The Tale of Genji” and the relationship between Murasaki Shikibu and the Takakura Family.

The so-called “Juni-hitoe,” a twelve-layered ceremonial kimono worn by women appearing in the Tale of Genji, is the common name for the garment and not the formal name and does not actually appear in “The Tale of Genji.” The “Juni-hitoe” was written in literature of the times as “Karaginumo” or “Mokaraginu.” It is probable that Murasaki Shikibu was thinking of the highest-grade attire for women serving in the court when she depicted the gorgeous attire worn by princesses who appear in The Tale of Genji.
On the subject of the relationship between Murasaki Shikibu and the Takakura family, Ms. Takakura introduced the Takakura family tree. In addition, Ms. Takakura explained that there was a possible relationship between Fujiwara no Fuminori and Murasaki Shikibu, an ancestor of the Takakura family who founded Daiunji Temple, thought to be a possible candidate as a model for the “such-and-such a temple in Kitayama” where Hikaru Genji fell in love with Wakamurasaki in The Tale of Genji.

※About Emondo
Emondo is the art of putting on Japanese court attire passed down from the Heian Period.
Attire in the days or Murasaki Shikibu was called “Naeshozoku,” a type of garment with beautiful, elegant curves made of thin silk material, but influenced by the preferences of the warrior class with their growing power in the late Heian Period, the name changed to “Kowashozoku,” a garment made of thick starched hard material that required a special technique to put on. The Yamashina and Takakura schools continue to transmit the art of Emondo to this day.

The final event of the exhibition was a demonstration of putting on a twelve-layered ceremonial kimono by students from the Society for research on Etiquette and Manners with commentary by Master Tomoko Nagai of the Headquarters of the Takakura School of Emondo.

During the demonstration, models called “Okata” were dressed in attire by dressers known as “Emonja.” The attire is called “Ofuku,” the process of putting on the garment as “Ofuku wo Ageru” and the process of taking it off as “Ofuku wo Sageru.”
On this occasion, modern-day and old attire were compared as the models were dressed in Hitoe (unlined robe), Itsutsuginu (set of five different-colored layers), Uchiginu (beaten scarlet silk robe), Uwagi (patterned woven and decorated silk robe), Karaginu (waist-length Chinese-style jacket) and Mo (apron-like train down the back of the robe.)
After the dressing was completed, Professor Nagai described differences between the ways of putting on modern-day and old garments and their appearances and the event ended with a performance of “Utsusemi” by a model attired in and olden-day garment.