Ten-Round Incense Game (1700s–mid-1800s): Art, History and Details

Ten-Round Incense Game (1700s–mid-1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

A popular pastime in the Edo period was a game in which a group of players passed around incense and guessed its name or scent. Small pieces of incense would be placed on thin mica plates and heated over hot ash, releasing their aroma for the players to smell. Players then cast their guesses with playing pieces. The game master kept score with the writing set. This game is handsomely decorated with images of deer in an autumn setting.

Object facts

• Title: Ten-Round Incense Game
• Date: 1700s–mid-1800s
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Lacquer
• Technique: Lacquered wood with gold and silver sprinkled powder (maki-e) and mother-of-pearl inlay, metal fittings
• Dimensions: Overall: 23 x 25.4 x 16.6 cm (9 1/16 x 10 x 6 9/16 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1921.405

A detail from the museum

The blue and white porcelain containers in which the heated incense was passed feature designs of foreigners.

Collection credit

Gift of George Trumbull Ladd

Further reading listed by the museum

• MacLean, J. Arthur. “Recent Gift of George Trumbull Ladd.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 8, no. 5 (May 1921): pp. 79–80, 87.
• “Accessions.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 8, no. 5 (May 1921): 84–85.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.