2008/01/20

Incense Burner

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Incense Burner

Kooro - Daruma as an Incense Burner 香炉とだるま

Incense burners for religious use come in various forms.
Pots with three or four legs with or without a lid (kooro, koro 香炉)


source : new.uniquejapan.com
Size: 22cm (8.6″) long

This bronze container shows Daruma reclining on a boat.
He is also carrying his szepter, which comes apart if you lift Daruma off his boat. The boat shows careful imprints of Sanskrit letters on both sides. The smiling Daruma is about 10 cm high. He is obviously enjoying some evening cool in China.

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You can find some huge forms of this type in front of any temple. Most of these traditional containers take their form form old ritual implements of the Shang dynasty in China. They have been introduces into Japan by the Zen sect during the Kamakura period. Some have handles on both sides.

One special version of the Zen sect is a large metal bowl in a stand with six long legs and six small legs for decoration.

The long legs can be more than one meter long. This form is called as it looks, "incense burner with legs of an octopus"(takoashigooro 蛸足香炉).

The lid with many holes can be shaped in the form resembling a mountain and is then called "incense burner with a lid in mountain form" (hakusangooro 博山香炉).

This type comes from China and the oldest artefacts found were made of bronze during the Han dynasty.

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Incense pans with a long grip (egooro, ekooro 柄香炉)



They are used to carry incense around (shuro 手炉) during religious ceremonies. The grip is usually about 20 to 30 cm long and can be made from wood with a laquer finish. The pan at one side is usually without a lid and at the insertion and the end of the grip there are artistic patterns, which give the article its name. We have incense pans with a little lion (shishichin egooro 獅子鎮柄香炉) or a small vase (byoochin egooro 瓶鎮柄香炉) or in the form of the tail of a magpie (shakuo egooro シャク尾柄香炉) at the end of the grip. Some others take the form of a
lotus flower with a long stem and a leaf on the grip (rengegata egooro
蓮華形柄香炉).

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Incense trays (koo-inban 香印盤, jookooban 常香盤)



They have the form of a round tray modelled like a lotus flower used to burn incense for a long time in front of a Buddha statue. In this case incense powder is layed out in the form of complicated patterns or the Sanscrit syllables for the Buddha statue and the burning starts from one side. If the powder is layed out in a special pattern you could tell the time from the parts that had burned. These trays have
been used since the Nara period.

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Two-layered incense burner (kasha 火舎)



This type is often used for special ceremonies of the Esoteric Buddhism on a large altar. During these ceremonies four burners of this kind are placed at the four corners of the altar and one in the middle. Usually it has a pot with three legs, a flat container and a lid with a knob in form of a wishfulfilling jewel or a little pagoda.
The lid has many holes in different artistic forms.
You can read a lot more about this and other Buddhist ritual implements in my German book about this subject, see below.

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source : www.yamato-kottou.asia
with more photos

Satsumayaki pottery
with the family crest of the Shimazu family
薩摩焼 島津家紋在銘

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CLICK for more Online Daruma Koro.

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Small incense burner from Iron




Photo from my friend Ishino.

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CELADON AND BISQUE PORCELAIN
INCENSE BURNER

Meiji Period
In the form of Daruma seated on a large guardian lion.
Height 5". Length 6". Depth 4". Wood stand.

CLICK for enlargement !

© Robert C. Eldred Co., Inc. 2008

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Kiyomizu yaki

from : Kiyomizuyaki
「豆香炉/だるま」
松韻 作
qutoe from .. kiyomizuyaki.noblog.net/

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akoda koro 阿古陀香炉 melon-shaped burner

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Photos from my friend Ishino
hight 13 cm, diameter 14 cm

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My Photos to be added

Now let us look at some Darumas posing as incense burners. They are usually ment for private use during the tea ceremony, not for the use in temples.
These two come form a similar form and are made of Bizen pottery.
Daruma's beard and eyebrows are quite heavily modelled. They are 7 cm high and you can easily find them now in Bizen city.

These two are also from Bizen pottery. They are very similar, but the
openings at the back have different shapes. Also the nose of one is a
lot more rounded than that of the other one. They are 6 cm high and
you have to put them on a pottery plate to use them.

. . . CLICK here for Photos !

This smiling fellow has a wide-open mouth as if he was laughing (not yawning as in the AKUBI story). His robe and the flywhisk (hossu) are nicely modelled. The plate is big enough to hold one of the mosquito coils used everywhere during the Japanese summer. He is 10 cm high.


The next two are bronze containers with Daruma.
They might have been used in a Zen temple for the private use of a priest. Daruma carries his priest's scepter (nyoi) and looks pretty serious.
The bronze of this seated Daruma is highly polished and shining. It is 11 cm high with two openings at the back and an open mouth. Daruma's robe is swung heavily around his forehead.

. . . CLICK here for Photos !

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The Incense Burner Virtual Museum - Kandaki

The incense burners are sorted in two main categories : ANTIQUES and PRESENT.
The other descriptors are
WORLD PART or COUNTRY, SHAPE and FIGURE, MATERIAL, INCENSE.
- source : kandaki.com/BP-Index -

source : facebook

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Gefäße zum Abbrennen von Räucherwerk


1. Opfergefäße für Räucherwerk und Duftstoffe (koo kuyoogu)

Seit alter Zeit herrschte in Indien der Brauch, Räucherwerk zu verbrennen, weil viele Dinge in der feuchten, heißen Jahreszeit leicht verschimmeln und verrotten. Anfangs verwendete man Duftstoffe, um die Buddhastatuen, den heiligen Ort und den eigenen Körper zu reinigen, später kam dazu die Vorstellung einer Opfergabe an das Haupt-Heilswesen. Man unterscheidet zwischen Räucherwerk (kunkoo), das in Räucherbecken verbrannt wurde und Duftstoffen, mit denen der Körper eingerieben wurde.

. Opfergaben, Rauchopfer .

Buddhistische Kultgegenstände Japans
(Buddhist Ritual and Ceremonial Tools)
butsugu 仏具, hoogu 法具
ISBN 4-938864-05-3
Gabi Greve

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All about Incense

Koo お香 Incense - Introduction

Senkotate 線香立 Incense Stick Holder

Koogoo - Incense Container 香合とだるま

Kooro - Incense Burner  香炉とだるま

. Incense in India ... HAIKU
Agarbatti



CLICK for more beautiful samples.

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- #kooro #koro #incenseburner #burner -
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The Development of Censers in China

The use of incense in Chinese civilization goes back a long way, giving birth to a rich incense culture along with a great variety of instruments for incense burning, among which the censer, as the major type of instrument for the burning and holding of incense, bears the highest significance. Censers were used on various occasions: ancient folks burned incense as prayers and tributes to Heaven and the deities as well as to purify the interior environment and calm the mind; the intelligentsia regarded incense appreciation and contests as pursuits of elegance; the nobility, the bureaucrats and the tycoons scented their clothes and offered incense as a demonstration of social status.

http://www.xiang-he.org/aloe_exhibition/artifacts_cat.php?cat=B&file=cat-B-9