INCENSE 香

 The most common koh products are shaped as sticks, cones and coils. The ingredients for these incense products are derived from plants and animals. Some of these substances are used as incense as they are, while others are ground into powder and blended with other ingredients. Some naturally exude fragrance, while others need to be heated or burnt to release the fragrance. Incense materials have many uses. The better-known ingredients as spices are used in cooking, while lesser-known are often found in medicinal cures or in insecticides.

 Shokoh is a mixture of chipped aromatic substances that is burned on Buddhist altars. The mixtures are composed of five or seven ingredients. Major ingredients include jinkoh, sandalwood, cloves, ginger, and eles. A pinch or two of the shokoh is placed directly on hot charcoal and burned.

 Various powdered ingredients are mixed with honey(or sometimes with plum meat) then kneaded and formed into balls, are called nerikoh. Nerikoh sometimes contains over twenty ingredients, which must be finely ground so that they can be kneaded and blended completely. Moisture is very important for creating a rich fragrance, therefore honey is used instead of water to prevent the nerikoh from drying out.

 Joss-stick incense originated in Indea before the Buddha was born. It consists of a bamboo stick surrounded by blended incense, and resembles a lollipop. Besides sharing fragrance, it measured time, since the incense burned at a constant rate. The techniques to make joss sticks were introduced to Japan about 400 years ago. The Japanese joss stick does not have a bamboo stick. Although it is thought that joss stick is used on Buddhist altars, actually it has been burned purely for appreciation.
 The ingredients for joss stick includes jinkoh, sandalwood, cloves, camphor and else with Japanese Judas tree bark. The ground bark's gluelike consistency serves to bind the powdered incenses, just like eggs are used to bind dry ingredients in dough for baking. Recently floral and citrus fragrance joined in the ingredients for joss stick. Light either side of the joss stick with a match or a lighter. Shake it gently once or twice to extinguish the flame. The red spot where the stick is burning dose not emit the fragrance, rather a few millimeters below from the red spot where its color turns into black, the fragrance is released caused by the heat.

 The manufacturing process for cones is almost the same as that for joss stick incense. Instead of being pressed through thin holes the kneaded dough is pressed into cone-shaped molds. Cone incense stands by itself and its ashes do not fall and scatter like joss stick.