Japanese - Set of Boxes for Storing Incense Wood - Walters 6783 - Open

A is an

incense Incense is an aromatic biotic material that releases fragrant smoke when burnt. The term is used for either the material or the aroma. Incense is used for aesthetic reasons, religious worship, aromatherapy, meditation, and ceremonial reasons. It ...

storage box used in

kōdō is the art of appreciating Japanese incense, and involves using incense within a structure of codified conduct. ''Kōdō'' includes all aspects of the incense process, from the , to activities such as the incense-comparing games and . ''Kōdō ...

(, "Way of Incense"), the traditional

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese art which involves using and appreciating incense within a structure of codified conduct. It can be used to store the items needed for the incense-comparing games. called ''kumikō'' () and ''genjikō'' (). The similar word ''kobako'' (; note the short o rather than long ō in the first syllable) means "small box" in Japanese. The kōbako is somewhat similar to a '' kōgō'', an incense box used in the Japanese tea ceremony. However, "the kōbako was usually a little larger than the kōgō, and sometimes had a small tray or small boxes to go with it." Often decorated with

lacquer Lacquer is a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity. Asian lacquerware, which may be c ...

and showing a high degree of craftmanship, ''kōbako'' are studied and collected by those who appreciate Japanese arts and crafts.

Related meanings

The rugged Sōunkyō Gorge in Japan's

Daisetsuzan National Park , or Taisetsuzan is located in the mountainous center of the northern Geography of Japan, Japanese island of Hokkaido. At , Daisetsuzan is the largest national park in Japan, and is approximately the size of Kanagawa Prefecture. Daisetsuzan, mean ...

has an area of "fantastic crags". "The narrowest section of the gorge is called Kobako, or "Small Box", because of the enclosed feeling imparted by the towering rock pillars shooting up from the riverbanks." In 1936, Bourjois introduced a

perfume Perfume (, ) is a mixture of fragrance, fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), Fixative (perfumery), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agre ...

called Kobako, which was packaged in a container "inspired by an old lacquered cabinet". The perfume, described as a "Chypre Floral fragrance", is still on the market. According to Kunihiko Kasahara, there is a traditional

origami ) is the Japanese art of paper folding. In modern usage, the word "origami" is often used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin. The goal is to transform a flat square sheet of paper into a ...

pattern called a Tsuno Kobako, which is identified as a "folded pouch for perfume". This paper folding pattern goes back at least to 1734, when it appeared in a book called '' Ranma Zushiki''. Kōbako is a

slang A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...

term for "

vagina In mammals and other animals, the vagina (: vaginas or vaginae) is the elastic, muscular sex organ, reproductive organ of the female genital tract. In humans, it extends from the vulval vestibule to the cervix (neck of the uterus). The #Vag ...

" in Japanese. It is among several such slang terms for the vagina that "have flourished since the Edo period, and have been sharpened by centuries of persistent use".

References

External links

Strong Garden Storage Box By Godwins
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kobako Furniture Containers