Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/23

Rh school recognised sixty-six distinct kinds, all distinguished by names derived from literary allusions. A great authority of later times alleged that the use of compound incenses was confined to the Court aristocracy, military men always preferring a simple kind; but that rule seems to have received only limited recognition. Briefly stated, the outlines of the pastime were these. Three varieties of incense were taken and divided into three parcels each. A fourth kind was then added, making ten packets. This method of division was so invariable that the game came to be designated by the term Jisshu-ko or "ten varieties of incense." The units of each subdivided group were numbered from one to three, and each group was indicated by one of the names "plum," "pine," "bamboo," "cherry, "snow," or "moon," but the supplementary, or undivided, incense received invariably the title of "guest." The players having been formed into parties, a stick from each of the subdivided groups of incense was placed in a censer and passed round to be "listened to" by way of trial, the name being declared, but the "guest incense" was never tried. Thereafter portions were taken from each group indiscriminately, and the players had to identify the names by the aroma only, writing down the result of their identification. The most accurate identifications constituted a partial title to victory, but to each incense a literary name had to be given in addition to its identification, and by the