Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/26

Rh generation of refined practice. The incense pastime illustrates that fact almost as strikingly as the tea cult. It may be said to have a literature of its own. Volumes have been compiled setting forth the exact principles that should be observed in the competition and explaining the numerous modifications that the game underwent from time to time. The various incenses were divided into groups according to the seasons. Thus for spring there were the "white plum incense," the "aged plum," the "blossom and snow," etc.; for summer, the flower petal," the "green plum," the "iris," the "orange," etc.; for autumn, the "waning moon," the "maple leaf," the "Weaver" (Vega), the "double chrysanthemum," etc.; and for winter, the "evening rain," the "early plum," the "first snow," the "frosty night," and so on. Then there were incenses suggesting love—the "arm pillow," the "waking from sleep," the "sweet face," the "dishevelled hair," etc.; there were miscellaneous incenses,—the "smoke of Fuji," the beautiful "Yokihi," the "myriad fences,"—and there were many incenses called after famous places. The pastime itself took various forms, each of them deriving its name from some recondite motive. For example: the anchorite Kisen, who lived on Mount Mimaro beside the Uji River, composed a thousand poems and threw nine hundred and ninety-nine of them into the stream, finding one alone worthy of preservation.