Kodo : The Way of Incense

The elegant incense ceremony Kodo has a long, colorful history in traditional Japanese life-but remains little known in the West. This beautiful and informative book comes with several different kinds of incense and two incense holders. Kodo includes all the tools a reader needs to understand and experience first hand the exquisite pleasure and calmness of a ceremony that continues to have a powerful resonance in Japanese culture and history.

Kodo-or "The Way of Incense"-takes readers step-by-step through performing your own Kodo ceremony and offers an overview not only to the different incenses and incense materials used in the ceremony but what it means to "listen to the incense." The book also outlines the highly formalized games-tests of the senses-associated with the ceremony. The only book of its kind available today, Kodo explores the history, development and influences upon this ceremony as it brings the remarkable Kodo ritual into Western homes for the first time.

David Pybus is a perfume historian who has worked in the scent industry for over 30 years. He has participated in the Kodo ceremony in Japan and has a broad knowledge of the different ingredients and composition of incense. He was a contributor to the 1998 book, The Chemistry of Fragrances.