incense-comparing

Updated: August 20, 2026

Other literary pastimes were: "incense-comparing," a combination of poetical dilletantism and skill in recognizing the fragrance of different kinds of incense burned separately or in different combinations; supplying famous stanzas of which only a word or so was given; making riddles in verse; writing verse or drawing pictures on fans, testing literary and artistic skill; and making up lists of related ideographs.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era