Chijimi fragrant woods, Shibafune fragrance wood
Kiwamegaki (certificate of authentication)

A collection of twenty-six types of fragrant woods and a list naming them. They are believed to have been owned by the Kishu Tokugawa, an Edo-period daimyō clan. The two pieces shown here are particularly large. The fragrant wood named Shibafune is thought to be one of the famous Ichiboku Shimei (One piece of wood, four names), so named because one piece of Kyara agarwood was divided into four segments, each of which was given its own name.

Ranjatai fragrant wood

The chips of fragrant wood (agarwood) known as Ranjatai are without a doubt the most famous in Japan. They were cut from the Ojukuko, a log of agarwood in the temple of Todaiji’s Shosoin Repository, and are thus also known as Todaiji. They are also part of the “ten types of famous fragrances,” a selection of especially famous examples. Ranjatai is also famous for political reasons: over the centuries, powerful persons, including Ashikaga Yoshimasa, Oda Nobunaga, and the Meiji Emperor, received small pieces of Ranjatai as expressions of their authority.

Sixty-one types of famous fragrant woods and container

The sixty-one types of famous fragrant woods are said to have been selected in the Muromachi period by Shino Soshin as ordered by the shōgun, Ashikaga Yoshimasa. This photograph includes chips of three of those fragrances, named Hanachirusato, Horyuji, and Todaiji. They are shown with a kiwamegaki (certificate of authentication), a written appraisal giving the provenance of each piece of agarwood, and with the black lacquered boxes and tin canisters in which they were stored.