Why is the traditional Chinese incense ceremony dominated by Japan?

Originally Chinese but treated as Japanese, besides sushi there is also incense. How did the incense ceremony come to Japan? And why has it become the glory of Japan? If you want to make a difference, you need to know first.

Japanese incense culture originated around the sixth century, and has been around for thousands of years since then. However, when Japanese people talk about the history of incense, the first thing they always say is that it is the story of "the wood of incense".

The spring of the third year of Emperor Peko (596), a sunken wood floated to Awaji Island, and the islanders, not knowing that it was incense, burned it on the hearth as firewood, and the fragrance drifted far and wide, and so they offered it to the court.

Subsequently, through the promotion of the aristocratic scholar, Sanjo Nishimitaka, and the shogun, Shino Soshinobu, the incense ceremony became the "flower of the art" in the Muromachi era Higashiyama culture, along with the tea ceremony and the flower ceremony. The "Three Paths of the Oriental Way" were established against that magnificent backdrop, and they are like three clear streams that flow to this day.

When "Incense" was called "Asr burning incense", it was only used to burn incense for the Buddha and to purify the altar during the important puja activities of the temple. Later, "incense" from the Buddhist altar into the royal aristocracy, aristocrats will be incense as a purification of home, hair and clothing fragrance purposes, so burning "incense" of the wind, gradually spread widely.

In the Nara period, incense was mainly used for Buddhist religious ceremonies, and people refined incense wood into incense, and in a few cases, it was also used to freshen clothes or make indoor air fragrant.

In the Heian period, spices crept into the lives of the nobles, and along with the rise of the national culture, burning incense became an integral part of the life of the nobles, but the use of incense was still only limited to the use of incense. A variety of incense wood powder mix, then add charcoal powder, and finally to the honey and solidification, this is the so-called "refining incense".

With the change of seasons***Make six kinds of incense - "plum blossom", "lotus leaf", "attendant ", "Chrysanthemum", "Fallen Leaf", and "Black Fang" - all of which were made to suit the nobles' hobbies required to make them.

The aristocrats' preference for incense added to the splendor of the Heian Dynasty by using incense to perfume their clothes, burning it indoors, and even taking it with them when they traveled. The recipe for the incense is now carefully treasured by the descendants of the Heian nobles and passed down from generation to generation.

During the Kamakura and Muromachi eras, the nobility declined and the samurai came to power. A culture of pure love for incense grew. Built on the spirit of "goodness," the samurai honored the fragrance as a distant and subdued form of incense. During the same period, the development of Tantric beliefs and Pure Land Zen in Buddhism, and the emergence of ink painting in painting expanded the influence of this trend, which emphasized spirituality.