Juno

Hera/Juno

Juno (Latin: Iūno) is an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister (but also the wife) of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Mars and Vulcan. Juno also looked after the women of Rome.  Her Greek equivalent is Hera. As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire she was called Regina ("queen") and, together with Jupiter and Minerva, was worshiped as a triad on the Capitol (Juno Capitolina) in Rome.

Juno's own warlike aspect among the Romans is apparent in her attire. She often appeared sitting pictured with a peacock armed and wearing a goatskin cloak. The traditional depiction of this warlike aspect was assimilated from the Greek goddess Athena, whose goatskin was called the 'aegis'.

Juno cursed the Nymph Echo to only repeat as punishment for helping to distract Juno from finding her husband.

Solitude and Value

There is no doubt, for me personally at least, that solitude, or at least occasional periods of solitude, is not only preferable, but an absolute necessity for psychological well being.

Maybe most people, being the social creatures we are, prefer company, even constant company or contact as an indication of a “normal” sociology. But at the same time, there are quite a few of us that recognize a balance of contact and solitude is really the accurate barometer of a healthy individual, and in turn, a happy society.

Being quiet and introspective is the hallmark of many a great human being. Even the very outspoken and public, the celebrity or successful artist, author or musician, who enjoy public notoriety and popularity, have more likely than not spent many an hour alone, perfecting their art: they delve deep into themselves, “following their bliss,” as Joseph Campbell would say, expressing experience through their work, then returning to the marketplace of friends and acquaintances and admirers for communal interaction. Eventually turning inward once again, supported by a dearth of distraction and influence from others.

Buddhism and the Unconscious

By John Stanley and David Loy

"My life is a story of the self-realization of the unconscious." --C.G. Jung

Those who see into the Unconscious have their senses cleansed of defilements, are moving toward Buddha-wisdom, are known to be with Reality, in the Middle Path, in the ultimate truth itself. Those who see into the Unconscious are furnished at once with merits as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. They are able to create all kinds of things and embrace all things within themselves. --Shen-hui (as translated by D.T. Suzuki)

At the end of his life, C.G. Jung dictated to his secretary an extraordinary autobiography, "Memories, Dreams, Reflections," whose first sentence we cite above. Earlier he had observed how human nature resembled the twin sons of Zeus and Leda: "We are that pair of Dioscuri, one of whom is mortal and the other immortal, and who, though always together, can never be made completely one. ... We should prefer to be always 'I' and nothing else." Recent neurological studies into those "twin sons" have been exploring Jung's insight, leading to discoveries that have many important implications, including how we might understand traditional Buddhist teachings today.

Neuropsychology of the Unconscious

Brain research over the last generation has confirmed the difference between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Our left cerebral hemisphere is the place where language is generated and received. It serves a linguistic consciousness with which we describe and think about the world. On the other side, our silent right brain hemisphere serves an unconscious awareness that cannot be coded in language. Non-verbal contemplative practices -- such as being quietly present in the natural world, "open presence" meditation, tai chi chuan or yoga -- elicit sustained awareness rooted in the unconscious. We are fully aware of what is happening, within and around us. Yet such experiences cannot be put into (or directed by) words because they are served by modules for sensory awareness in the right hemisphere. Focusing attention in the present suspends the usual executive functions of the conscious mind, so that the resources of the unconscious may unfold.

Those resources -- from intuitive reasoning to music, dance, imagery and healing -- are rich indeed. Curiously, unconscious capacities of the right hemisphere are equally essential for praying and a sense of humor. Especially important for our survival and well-being (including our sense of beauty) is the capacity of the right hemisphere to 'read' and delight in the textures and patterns of the natural world. This predilection, which the late Theodore Roszak called the ecological unconscious, reflects our ancestry as hunter-gatherers, which remains an important part of our evolutionary heritage.

What Is the Buddhist Model of the Unconscious?

Vasubandhu (fourth century C.E.) was one of the six great commentators on the Buddha's teachings, and co-founder of the Yogacara school. This major influence on the later Buddhist traditions of Zen, Dzogchen and Mahamudra describes eight types of consciousness. The first five are those of the eye, ear, body, nose and tongue, the sensory inputs to our neuro-linguistic "map of the world." The sixth, called citta in Sanskrit, is the conceptualizing mind.

The seventh type of consciousness (manas in Sanskrit) is described by Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh: "It is the number one discriminator, whose speciality is to say 'This is me. This is mine. This is not mine.' It creates belief in a self and distinguishes self from other." Manas usually keeps a tight grip upon the eighth type, alaya (the All-base or Storehouse consciousness). A key feature of the alaya is that it stores seeds of delusion and habitual reactive tendencies, which can manifest dynamically in manas consciousness. In contemporary terms, we could describe manas as the "self-module" and alaya as the unconscious mind.

Buddhism describes a pathway of self-transformation, which includes an awakening to our true nature. Thich Nhat Hanh describes this as follows: "Manas loses its grip on the store consciousness, and the store consciousness becomes the Wisdom of the Great Mirror that reflects everything in the universe." As Tang dynasty Zen master Shen-hui put it: Those who see into the Unconscious have their senses cleansed of defilements, are moving towards Buddha-wisdom, are known to be with Reality and are in the Middle Path, in the ultimate truth itself.

The 'Enormous Spiritual Task'

Jung believed that we are a very young species, with an inflated sense of our own importance -- and now experiencing the limits of our present evolutionary path, unable to evolve further through (linguistic) consciousness alone. He concluded: "The discovery of the unconscious means an enormous spiritual task, which must be accomplished if we wish to preserve our civilization" (Letters I, 537).

Preserving civilization -- indeed, our own species -- has become the most pressing issue of the 21st century. Our technological powers and enormous population have made us the dominant animal, putting the thermostat of the Earth in our hands. Yet we seem unable to take responsibility for the situation we have created, and gamble distractedly with the future of life on Earth. Are we really a unique biological exception to the laws of nature? In his powerful new book "The Social Conquest of Earth," the distinguished biologist Edward O. Wilson describes ours as a "Star Wars civilization with Stone Age emotions," in global denial as we lay waste to the biosphere. If we continue our present course, he anticipates that half of the Earth's plant and animal species will become extinct by the end of this century or soon thereafter.

Does Wilson's observation point to a spiritual identity crisis? What kind of breakthrough might guide the collective healing of our relationship with the Earth? Einstein remarked that a problem cannot be solved at the level at which it was created. He described the rational mind as a faithful servant and the intuitive mind as a sacred gift. The servant as ruler has brought our species to this juncture -- and reconfiguring its relationship to the intuitive unconscious mind seems to have become a condition of our survival.

Of course, we need the faithful servant going forward, and for numerous crucial tasks. Two of the highest importance are distinguishing scientific facts about ecology and climate from the propaganda of deceit and denial; and implementing breakthrough technologies for clean, renewable and efficient energy. But linguistic, mathematical and technological consciousness, no matter how dynamic their productions, need to be rooted in the guidance of unconscious awareness. In Buddhist terms, the alaya needs to be liberated from manas. The bigger picture requires the whole mind.

Through individual and collective belief in a narrow self-concept generated by the linguistic left brain, we have developed an unsustainable planetary culture preoccupied with dominating and exploiting the rest of the biosphere. That map of "progress" no longer corresponds to the territory we are in. Indeed, we have driven ourselves into a wasteland, where the signs proclaim an evolutionary dead-end.

We cannot think our way out of this with linguistic consciousness alone. We must turn to the creative and ecological unconscious of the right hemisphere to generate the paradigm shift we need to survive and thrive as a species.

John Stanley and David Loy are part of the Ecobuddhism Project.

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How to Make Chinese Green Tea

This article details the art of making a cup or pot of green tea using leaves, not bags, by following traditional Chinese methods. Buy some tea, a teapot and some cups. You really don't need to bother with anything else. 

Preferred Method

1. Add a lot of tea into the pot.

2. Add not-quite-boiling water. Leave for 7 to 10 seconds, and then pour out to wash the leaves.

3. Add more water.

You can feel the aroma through the upcoming steam

4. Wait, then pour to serve.

Gently place the lid and leave it for 55 seconds. For second Dong Ding Oolong tea Brewing leave it for 45 seconds, follow by 55 seconds for the third Dong Ding Oolong tea Brewing.

Tips

• For real Chinese tea especially the premium quality one, adding sugar is akin mixing 7-up with Chateau Mouton Rothschild's red wine. Chinese often find it funny, if not scornful, to see someone to do it. You can add sugar or honey to taste and put even ice, but it's not Chinese tea anymore.

• Boiled water is too hot for tender green tea leaves. Pouring boiled water upon the leaves will cause the immediate release of tannins, resulting in a bitter brew.

•  In any circumstances, before you pour tea into your own cup, always look around and see whose cup is not full, pour tea into their cups first. It's regarded as "selfish", "impolite" or "socially unadaptive" if you pour tea just for yourself.

•  When someone pours tea for you, lightly knock your two fingers on the table and say "thank you". If he's elder than you, you should pretend to be a little "guilty" that you don't deserve his politeness. This drama should be repeated every time someone pour tea for you.

•  In Chinese culture, pour tea for someone can have a lot of meanings. When a guest comes, they serve tea to show a sign of welcome. When getting married, a couple kneel on the floor and pass the tea to their parents to express their gratitude. When apologize in a private place, they stand up, bend their back, pour tea to the one who accept the apology. So, whenever an elder people pour tea for you, it's regarded as a gross politeness.

•  In a proper tea ceremony, everyone has their roles. The host is in the position for pouring tea for everyone and you shouldn't take this role. However, in a restaurant, if someone pour tea for you, you can do it for him in the next round.

•  Having the spout of the teapot facing anyone may be regarded as a bad manner in a proper tea ceremony, but Chinese usually skip this manner in a casual place.

Warnings

• Watch out for old, out-of-date tea. Check the tea. Smell it. Look at it and check for dried-out leaves. Taste a piece (but don't taste it if is has been wet and in a container for a long time, or smells completely different from its original scent; if it smells a sickly sweet [rotted]).

• It helps to know how a specific tea will smell before you buy it. If you happen to buy a tea frequently, then you can check at the store if it has gone bad before buying it.

• If you are buying loose leaf tea, make sure you examine what you are putting in the pot. Rarely small objects, such as twigs, foil(depending on the wrapping), or insects can make their way into tea accidentally.

 [SOURCE] and  How to brew Dong Ding Oolong Tea

Chinese Tea Ceremony History

The evolution of the Chinese Tea Ceremony mirrors the growth and importance of tea within Chinese culture.  In the beginning, tea was cultivated and used solely as herbal medicine mostly within temples. Monks began to use tea to teach a respect for nature, humility and an overall sense of peace and calm.  In fact, the spirit of the Chinese Tea Ceremony is described as he, jing, yi, zhen which translates to peace, quiet, enjoyment and truth.  Monks felt they could illustrate deep philosophical concepts through tea service.  It is for that reason that the underlying philosophies of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism blend together through the Chinese Tea Ceremony.  Over time, people recognized the health benefits of tea but also its overall enjoyment.  Tea ceremonies could be seen in memorial celebrations for both emperors and family ancestors.

The first written account of tea ceremonies was during the Tang Dynasty over 1200 years ago.  The term to describe the serving of tea was initially called cha dao or the way of tea.  Japanese monks traveling through China during this period began to learn tea and tea culture.  After bringing this knowledge back to Japan, tea ceremonies evolved in Japan as it blended with Japanese culture resulting in the well-known Japanese Tea Ceremony and is still called cha dao.  Although cha dao originated in China, many felt a new term was needed to distinguish between Japanese and Chinese tea ceremonies.  In 1970, a Taiwanese tea master Lu Zi Kuang coined the term cha yi or art of tea, to represent current Chinese tea ceremonies.

There are six major aspects to consider when performing a Chinese Tea Ceremony. The following is a summary of both the technical knowledge and subtle skills for a successful ceremony.

1. Attitude – The attitude of the person performing the ceremony should reflect both a happy and confident demeanor. The performer should exude a calm and relaxed manner to create a peaceful and enjoyable tea ceremony.
2. Tea Selection – There are many considerations when selecting the right tea. In addition to fragrance, shape and taste, the tea should have a beautiful story and name.
3. Water Selection – The best quality tea leaves will have poor taste if bad quality water is used. Therefore, select pure, light and clean water to ensure a wonderful tasting tea.
4. Teaware Selection – It is important to select the correct teaware for brewing your tea leaves. In addition, allow your participants to fully appreciate the teaware by selecting both useful and beautiful items.
5. Ambiance – A peaceful and calm environment can be created with a clean, comfortable and quiet room. Artwork can be used to enhance the overall atmosphere of the space.
6. Technique – The basic skills for brewing tea are needed but also a graceful manner reflected through hand movements, facial expressions and clothing. 

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A Very Brief History of Go

The origins of go are shrouded in the mists of ancient Chinese history, but the game is thought to have originated, at least 2500 - 4000 years ago. It is the oldest game still played in its original form.

Some say that the board, with ten points out from the center in all directions, may have originally served as a forerunner to the abacus. Others think it may have been a fortune-telling device, with black and white stones representing yin and yang. A prominent legend holds that the sage-king Yao created the game to teach his rebellious son discipline.

By 400-300 B.C.E., Chinese scholars such as Confucius were writing about wei-chi (a Chinese name for the game) to illustrate correct thinking about filial piety and human nature. By the 1600's it had become one of the "Four Accomplishments" (along with calligraphy, painting, and playing the lute) that must be mastered by the Chinese gentleman. This kind of sanctified thinking about the game has inspired people to play for millennia.

Wei-chi entered Korean and Japanese culture through trade and other contact between countries in the first millennium A.D. In ancient Chinese art, noblemen (and noblewomen!) can occasionally be found playing go (wei-ch'i or weiqi in Chinese).

Japan's Four Go Schools

We know that go was present in Japan at least since 1000 A.D., since it figures peripherally in Murasaki's The Tale of Genji, but it took a giant leap forward there in the 1600s. When the warlord Tokugawa unified Japan in 1602, he decreed that four schools of go would be established.

Each year representatives of the schools would play in a "Castle Game" series, and the winner would hold the Cabinet-level position of go-doroko (minister of go) for the following year. This system raised Go to a new level of skill and popularity.

With the Meiji restoration in the late 1800s, Go fell into a period of relative decline in Japan, but it was brought back to life in the 1920s with the formation of the Japan Go Association. Newspapers began to sponsor tournaments, a professional system was established, and today there are more than a dozen major titles, with columns and game analysis every day in the major newspapers. Top Japanese Go players are major celebrities.

Chinese Revival

The long, rich story of Chinese Go is well covered in John Fairbairn's Web page on Go in Ancient China. During the Cultural Revolution, Go was discouraged as a "bourgeois pastime," and players had to meet in secret.

In 1978 a modern professional system was established, and a few years later began the Japan-China Super Go Series, an annual event where each countries top players faced off in a knockout format. Japan dominated this competition, but in more recent international tournaments Chinese players have shown themselves to be among the best in the world.

Korean Pro System

The Korean professional system was established in the 1950s, when Cho Nam-chul returned from professional training in Japan. Today go (baduk in Korean) is more popular in Korea than anywhere else in the world. It is estimated that from 5 to 10 percent of the population plays regularly.

As in Japan, there are many newspaper-sponsored tournaments with a large, devoted following. In recent years, some of the top Korean players have scored impressive victories in international competition. Today there is little doubt that some of the world's strongest players live and play in Korea.

The Modern Era of International Go

As recently as the 1970's, formal games between Go masters from different countries were practically unheard of. The years since then have seen a historic proliferation of international championships, where the great players from Japan, China, Korea and elsewhere compete to be seen as the world's best player. The World Ing Cup, a quadrennial event with $1 million in prizes, tops the list. Annual events include the Fujitsu Cup and the Dongyang Securities Cup.

Other world championships on the amateur level include the World Amateur Go Championship, sponsored by the International Go Federation; the World Youth Goe Championship, sponsored by the Taipei-based Ing Goe Educational Foundation; the IGF-sponsored World Women's Championship; and the World Pairs Go Championship for male-female teams, sponsored by the La-La-La Go Club in Japan. The American Go Association selects U.S. representatives for these events.

Go in America

The earliest Go players in North America were probably Chinese workers toiling on the transcontinental railroad in the mid-1800s, but if so the game did not attract notice outside the Chinese-American community.

Go first came to the attention of Westerners in the early 1900s when a group of German mathematicians and game players stumbled upon it, including Otto Korschelt and Edward Lasker, a cousin of the legendary chess legend Emanuel Lasker and himself a well-known top player. With Lee Hartmann (editor of Harper's magazine) and a few others, Lasker formed the American Go Association in New York in 1937.

Today, with about 2000 members, the American Go Association remains a small, tight-knit national community that generally greets a new player as a long-lost member of the family. 

With over 100 chapters, we may have one near you. If not, write or e-mail for help on how to start your own club! If you'd like to join the AGA, send us an application today.

To learn more about the fascinating cultural and hisptorical aspects of go, visit The Bob High Memorial Library. Many thanks to Peter Shotwell for his assistance in preparing this page.

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SEE ALSO:  The History of Weiqi

Incense Making -- Part Three

Mixing, Kneading, Extruding, Straightening, and Drying the Incense 

Each incense ingredient is carefully measured and then mixed together in the mixing container. Once they are completely mixed they are put through a sieve to remove impurities and sifted for uniformity. The powder should be very fine for the incense to blend, knead, extrude, and dry properly. You can do the same by using a flour sifter after you mix your ingredients. Makko is also added to the other ingredients for proper burning and binding. At least 10% makko should be used, and depending on the other ingredients, more makko maybe required for proper combustion.

Next the powder is put in a machine to knead it into a uniform paste called "Tama." Water is added to make the dry powder into tama. 

For making incense at home you can use a medium or large porcelain mortar and pestle. Be sure to add a little water at a time and knead the tama until it is consistent.

The next step is extruding the incense sticks in much the same way as pasta is extruded. Baieido uses a hydraulic extruder in Japan. It requires considerable pressure to push the tama through the extruder. When making incense at home you can either form the tama into cones at this point, or you can roll the dough flat and cut in thin strips. Then follow the same procedures in the rest of this demonstration.

What you see above is the extrusion of incense paste (tama) into long strands. These strands are captured on a board and cut to a fixed length. Next the incense sticks (senko) will be separated from sticking to the board and then straightened.

The next step is to cut the incense sticks to various lengths according to their uses. 

Once the incense sticks (senko) are cut to the proper length they are placed on drying trays and placed in racks to dry. It takes many days to dry the incense properly, and during the process the incense sticks are adjusted with a board to remove the space between the half dry incense, and make certain the sticks remain straight.

Finally the incense sticks are bound together in bundles to prevent any bending.

As you can see, Japanese Style incense is quite an art. Every part of the process requires careful attention and skill. There are ways to shortcut the process, but this is the method that produces the finest incense in the world!

Many thanks to Baieido Ltd. and the Sakai Small Business Promotion Association for information and photos used in this presentation.

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Incense Making -- Part Two

Powdering Incense Materials

The picture above is a machine used by Japanese incense companies to powder ingredients. It pulverizes the materials instead of grinding them in an electric powder mill. This keeps the material from being overheated and losing aromatic integrity. This is very important because materials like Sandalwood will lose some ranges of aroma entirely, as well as generally weakening the overall aroma.

There are a couple of methods you can use at home that work well. One is the Mexican culinary Molcajete (shown below)

  

Another way is using a hand crank coffee mill like the one shown below. 

Sometimes you can find ingredients already powdered. Ingredients like Clove, Cassia, (Cinnamon) Spikenard, etc. can be obtained from Spice and Ayurvedic herb suppliers. Cassia is usually called "Vietnamese Cinnamon" and you should look for one with 4% oil content or better. Some Baieido incense retailers stock some of these ingredients.

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Incense Making

Incense, has its roots back in mankind's first experiences with fire itself. It is unlikely primitive man would have missed that certain woods had more pleasing aromas and indeed varying emotional effects. Incense artifacts, thousands of years old, have be found in throughout the world, and appear to be a part of virtually every culture. The connection between incense, religions, medicine, and shaman practices is obvious, it would be impossible to separate them, or say which proceeded the other. Historically it is difficult to trace because it has always been largely an esoteric and oral tradition evolving in relation to both religion and medicine.

There are many myths regarding incense as well. Several modern sources include the use of Salt Peter (Potassium Nitrate) in making incense. This is undoubtedly a much later addition that arose in the commercialization of incense, primarily in the last 40 years.

Incense has appeared in many forms: raw woods, chopped herbs, pastes, powders, and even liquids or oils. What most of us think of as incense today is joss-sticks or cones. Cones as we know them were an invention of the Japanese and introduced at the World's Fair in Chicago in the late 1800's. I cannot say, at this time, when the Joss Stick or Masala incense first appeared. We do know that it was brought to China by Buddhist monk's around 200 ce. as both incense materials and Buddhism traveled the various routes of the Silk Road. The process of extruding incense sticks and coils from finely ground incense materials seems to have begun in China, as well as the use of these types in time measurement. 

Herbal Incense 

Herbal incense is blended primarily for effect. Scent is the secondary consideration in many cases, but in "all" cases, the scent is designed for the burn. Many natural incense ingredients have almost no aroma until they are heated. Notably, Aloes wood as well as many other resins have little or no aroma until they are smoldered over the incense fire.

Incense and Herbalism go hand-in-hand, and the oldest sources we have regarding herbalism and incense is the Indian Vedas. The primary references are in the Athar-vaveda and the Rigveda. This is commonly considered first phase of Ayurveda and deals with the subject in a more magical and religious approach to healing. Examination of early Vedic texts indicates that the herbalists, or healers were a second tier of Hindu priest that emerged out of the agrarian areas. They appear to assimilated their knowledge of herbalism with the rituals and beliefs of the orthodox or "Sacrificial" priests. However, they remained two distinct classes and were scorned in the later days of this phase by the sacrificial priests who considered them unclean because of their association and medical treatment of all classes of people. Around 200 bce. They were excluded by law from participating in sacred rites. Even before this, the medical priests had begun associating with wandering mendicants and ascetics who were renouncing sacrificial rites and orthodoxy, and among these were the Buddhist or bhikkhus. Pali sources indicate that the Buddhists were the principal means by which these emerging physicians organized, developed and disseminated their emerging art. This begins the classical phase of Ayurveda and the great healer Atreya emerges among others at the medical university at Taxila. Among his students were Jivaku (Buddha's Physician).

Later, Brahmanization of certain medical texts amends the heterodox practices in light of a more orthodox view, and Buddhist medicine appears to split with Ayurveda. From this point, incense evolves in both traditions in association with medicine and herbal remedies, and becomes even more a closely guarded secret passed down primarily in the oral tradition and apprenticeship. 

Incense Ingredients 

Breaking down the five elements and their Ayurvedic relationship to plants and common incense ingredients we find them falling into five classes. The following chart shows the relationship: 

            1. Ether (Fruits) Star Anise 

2. Water (Stems & Branches) Sandalwood, Aloeswood, Cedarwood, Cassia, Frankincense, Myrrh, Borneol 

3. Earth (Roots) Turmeric, Vetivert, Ginger, Costus Root, Valerian, Spikenar

4. Fire (flower) Clove 

5. Air (leaves) Patchouli

By Buddhist traditions, the 5 primary ingredients are:

1. Buddha Family

Vairocana (Transmutation of Ignorance) Aloeswood

2. Vajra Family

Akshobhya (Transmutation of Aversion) Clove

3. Padma (lotus) Family

Amitabha (Transmutation of Desire) Sandalwood

4. Ratna Family

Ratnasambhava (Transmutation of Pride) Borneol

5. Karma Family

Amoghasiddhi (Transmutation of Envy) Turmeric

Making Incense

The process of making herbal incense without the use of salt peter, or even charcoal is actually quite easy. However, perfecting the art is another matter. Perhaps the easiest way is by using a binder commonly called Makko. Makko not only serves as a water soluble binder, but as a burning agent as well. Makko is a natural tree bark from an evergreen tree and contains no synthetic chemicals, charcoal, or salt peter.

To make incense, simply mix the desired ingredients, in powdered form, with makko, and add some warm water. Knead the incense-dough thoroughly and form into cones or sticks and let them dry slowly. Japanese makers have ways to control the drying time. About a week in the summer and ten days in the winter.

Sandalwood is common to almost every incense formula, and serves as a wonderful base aroma as well as a burning agent of its own right. If you were making an incense of sandalwood alone, the amount of makko required may be a little as 10%. However, resins like Frankincense are more difficult to burn and must be used in much lower percentages to burning agents such as sandalwood or makko. Otherwise, your incense won't burn properly, and may me too smoky or keep going out.

What is Makko?

 

Tabu no ki (Makko)

Makko really just means "Incense Powder," but when we refer to Makko we are talking about a specific incense powder called Tabu no ki. It is the bark of a tree that grows in Southeast Asia, the Machillus Thunbergii tree. Makko comes in four grades, and the the higher grades have less aroma than the lower ones. What makes this powder so special is its water soluble adhesive properties, an almost odorless characteristic that seems to be entirely lost when mixed with other ingredients, and its abilities to burn smoothly and evenly.

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