dissertation extras

Ranjatai 蘭奢待: World’s Most Famous Aloeswood

Arguably, the most famous singular piece of aloeswood in the world is held by the Shōsō-in 正倉院, the imperial Japanese treasury located at the famed Buddhist temple Tōdai-ji 東大寺 in Nara. This golden-colored piece of resinous wood with dark exterior is 1.56 meters long and weights 11.6 kilograms. Historically in Japan, unique fragrant materials categorized as meikō 名香, “famous aromatics,” were bestowed distinctive names. It is therefore commonly believed that upon entry into the Shōsō-in this piece of aloeswood was adorned with the name ranjatai 蘭奢待.

The ranjatai is sometimes praised in Japanese as the “World’s Most Famous Aromatic.” This is despite the fact this aromatic wood is rarely shown to the public and has an obscure history dressed in popular lore.

Part of the lasting interest in the ranjatai stems from its curious name. The word ranjatai inconspicuously hides the name of Tōdai-ji within its graphs (see above). One circulating story claims it would have been inauspicious to borrow the name of a prominent Buddhist monastery for naming a piece wood that would be burned as incense. Thus, using the characters for ranjatai was viewed as an elegant solution to honor the temple’s name while not indirectly threatening its safety.

Materially, the ranjatai is a large piece of aloeswood. Aloeswood is one of the most expensive materials by weight with higher quality pieces worth more than gold. This cost is directly related to its rarity. Aloeswood is a fragrant resin-infused wood that forms in several species of the Aquilaria tree growing across the tropical regions of southeast Asia. This fragrant material is only formed under certain conditions, typically when the tree is stressed by environmental, biotic, or abiotic factors. Consequently, not all Aquilaria trees contain aloeswood, making it among the most rare commodities for incense and perfume blending. (For more on aloeswood in medieval China, read this post.)

According to one of the more prominent stories circulating, this large piece of aloeswood was originally in possession of Emperor Shōmu 聖武 (r. 724–748) who received it as tribute from China. Accordingly, some believe the ranjatai was donated by Empress Kōmyō (701–760) upon the death of the abdicated emperor in 756. The many donations given by the empress form the foundation of Shōsō-in’s collection today. A more nuanced take claims that during a state protection ritual at Tōdai-ji in 753 the ranjatai may have been gifted as an act of pious generosity. Proponents point out this practice was documented for another rare piece of aloeswood held by the treasury. A related circulating story claims the ranjatai was originally in the possession of Empress Suiko 推古 (554–628) after the wood drifted ashore in 595. This appears to be a further elaboration of a story contained the Chronicles of Japan (Nihon shoki 日本書紀) where a piece of aloeswood, found by locals along the beach of Awaji Island, was gifted to the Empress. This story is often treated as the origin of incense in Japan. It should be noted this story is sometimes associated with a different famous aromatic once known as the taishi 太子 in possession of Hōryū-ji 法隆寺.

Such incongruity in origin stories not only underscores the importance of the ranjatai, but further preserves it as a topic of debate and conversation among the public. The history of the ranjatai is perhaps most embellished by the fact that a few of the most politically important figures in Japanese history have reputedly cut off small portions for their personal use. This includes shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimasa 足利義政 (1436–1490), daimyō Oda Nobunaga 織田信長 (1534–1582), and Emperor Meiji 明治天皇 (1852–1912). For example, imperial records from 1877 note that when Emperor Meiji burned a small piece, “fragrant smoke filled the palace.” In these scenarios, having access to the imperial storehouse, especially for those who did not sit on the Chrysanthemum throne, was viewed as a sign of true political power.

There have been few attempts in the modern era to capture the likeness of the ranjatai. The first record comes to use from when the treasury was opened in 1693 for repairs. During the summer, the chief priest of Tōdai-ji moved all of the objects to the upper level during renovations and ordered illustrations prepared for some of the artifacts. The original illustrated manuscript no longer exists, but several copies were made and circulated under the name illustrations of Shōsō-in Imperial Treasures (Shōsōin gohōmotsu zu 正倉院御寶物之圖) through the Edo period (1603–1868). In most cases the first illustration in the book depicts the ranjatai, such as we find in a copy held by Kyoto University (below).

Five years before Emperor Meiji took a small piece of the famed aloeswood, survey teams were sent out around Japan to record objects and artifacts that had historical and cultural importance. Some of the items in the Shōsō-in were photographed over the course of twelve days in the summer of 1872, including the ranjatai. Looking closely at the photograph taken during that survey (below) we can see a small rectangular section had previously been cut away on the hollowed-out end. In comparison to the modern photo above, we can also see where Emperor Meiji would soon cut off a 8.9 gram piece from the narrower end. The Meiji-era label confirms this was the case.

It was not until after World War II that modern scientific studies were undertaken on various artifacts from the imperial treasury, in part for material identification, but also for the sake of preservation. Wada Gun’ichi 和田軍一 (b. 1896–?), director of the Shōsō-in, was among the first in charge for overseeing these matters and he took a special interest in the famous aloeswood piece. After scouring numerous Shōsō-in documents he found no evidence supporting the ranjatai’s presumed benefaction in the eighth century. The oldest document possibly bearing witness to the aloeswood comes only in 1193 (Kenkyū 4), where it might appear under the name ōjukukō 黄熟香.

This corresponds in part to what we know about the history and evolution of kōdō 香道, “the way of incense,” in Japan. It was only during the Muromachi period (1336-1573) that distinctive names were given to famous pieces of aromatics; this did not yet occur in the eighth century. We have evidence of this naming practice growing through the Edo period until a list of sixty-one different “famous aromatics” was developed under the auspices of perfume and incense aficionados (although different enumerations exist). As a sign of prestige, it is typical for kōdō practitioners to place Tōdai-ji’s ranjatai at the head of such listings.

Nevertheless, it remains unknown who donated the ranjatai or when it arrived at the Shōsō-in, although scholars have offered several different speculations. Moreover, precisely when the fragrant wood received its “honorific name” of ranjatai is also in dispute.

The Shōsō-in continues to officially catalogue the famous artifact under ōjukukō despite the widespread use of ranjatai in popular media. This former name can be seen, for example, in the copy of the 1693 illustrated shown above. Ranjatai, in smaller calligraphy, is listed as an “alternate name.” Ōkukukō is also written on the lid of the storage crate (below) were the famous piece of aloeswood is kept. It is believed this crate was also made in 1693 when the imperial treasures were inspected.


More recently, Yoneda Keisuke 米田該典 has performed a scientific analysis on the ranjatai to determine its botanical and graphic origins. Based on its chemical composition and comparison to chemical signatures of collected aloeswood samples, Yoneda concluded the Shōsō-in specimen originated from Aquilaria trees in Vietnam or Laos. This is a region closely associated with fine quality aloeswood since the third century in China.

Since 1946 various items from the Shōsō-in treasury are put on display each fall in the ancient capital of Nara. Many items are only available to be viewed by the public during these annual exhibitions. During the second exhibition in 1947 the ranjatai was selected for display. It was not displayed again until 1982, then again in 1997 and 2011. It was most recently displayed during the 72nd Annual Shōsō-in Exhibition in 2020. In addition, when Emperor Hirohito was enthroned in 2019, the ranjatai was put on special display in Tokyo for the occasion.

Like a scared relic only viewable to the few, these events further deepen the allure of the ranjatai, adding more layers to its already complex mythos.

External Links & Image Sources

  • Ōjukukō (Ranjantai) in the Illustrations of Shōsō-in Imperial Treasures (Shōsōin gohōmotsu zu 正倉院御寶物之圖) held by Kyoto University [here]
  • Ōjukukō (Ranjantai) at Shōsō-in’s Digital Repository [here]
  • Ranjatai photograph from 1872 Jinshi Survey of cultural assets [here]

Selected References

  • Hamasaki Kanako 濱崎加奈子. 2017. Kōdō no bigaku: Sono seiritsu to ōken renga 香道の美学: その成立と王権・連歌. Kyoto: Shibunkaku shippan 思文閣出版.
  • Īda Takehiko 飯田剛彦 and Sasada Yū 佐々田悠. 2021. “Shōsōin Hitsu-Rui Meibun Shūsei (Ni)： Keichō Hitsu Genroku Hitsu 正倉院櫃類銘文集成（二）: 慶長櫃・元禄櫃.” Shōsō‑in kiyō 正倉院紀要 43: 33–61.
  • Wada Gun’ichi 和田軍一. 1976. “Ranjatai らんじゃたい.” Nihon rekishi 日本歴史 335: 40–43.
  • Yoneda Keisuke 米田該典. 2000. “Zensenkō Ōjukukō no kagaku chōsa 全淺香、黄熟香の科学調査.” Shōsō‑in kiyō 正倉院紀要 22: 29–40.

For further information and additional references, see: Peter M. Romaskiewicz, “Sacred Smells and Strange Scents: Olfactory Imagination in Medieval Chinese Religions.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2022.

A Visual Primer for Chinese Mountain Censers (Boshan lu 博山爐)

Two centuries before the common era, ideas about immortal beings residing in distant mountains started to gain popularity in the Chinese imperial court. The first emperor of a unified China, Qin Shihuang (r. 221 – 210 BCE) even sent a mission to locate the isles of immortals believed to exist off the eastern coast in his quest for an elixir that would extend his life. Ideas like these reflect the social, political, and religious significations of mountains in the ancient Chinese imagination.

As a generic type, the boshan lu 博山爐 or “mountain censer,” represents a long East Asian artistic tradition of crafting incense burners in the shape of a mountain. The form first originated in the second century BCE and continued for hundreds of years, albeit with lessening popularity through the later medieval period. The apex production of mountain censers was during the Han Dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE) when bronze foundries perfected the delicate craftsmanship necessary to create ornate mountainscapes crawling with people and fantastic creatures. Apertures hidden within the craggy rock face would emit the smell of fragrant incense and animate the visual scene with curls of rising smoke.

After the Han, the mountain censer was more frequently crafted in ceramic and regional variations started appear. This would sometimes create an object that bore only the faintest resemblance to the Han prototypes. Floral elements became increasingly common, sometimes completely replacing the mountain cliffs with petals. Abstraction became the norm as more regional kilns started to produce mountain censers in addition to a range of different censer designs.

Here I provide a simple visual narrative of the mountain censer with minimal commentary. If you’d like more information about these censers I’ll leave a few references at the end.

Too often, East Asian art history books, or even world art textbooks, show one among a handful of very early, and very ornate, mountain censer specimens. It’s typically one of the first three below. These designs were all made for members of the imperial family and the ornate design did not last very long. The presentation below is to demonstrate how the mountain censer form underwent significant changes throughout the centuries.

Each image below is made in a 16×9 slide format; feel free to download the images for classroom use. You can contact me at peter.romaskiewicz@gmail.com.

Standing at nearly 11 inches in height, this is an exquisitely crafted vessel. Small figures of humans and animal are included in the folds of the rocks. It has become customary for modern scholars to claim mountain censers depict the land of the immortals (xian 仙), mythic beings envisioned since the Han to occupy islands off China’s eastern coast . The mountain censer is most often believed to depict the immortal isle of Penglai 蓬萊 rising up from the sea.
Animal motifs were frequently incorporated into the decor of the mountain censer. The lower register of openwork around the lid here depicts fantastic beasts such as the dragon and phoenix. Many mountain censer have trays; their use has been in dispute since the Song dynasty. Some claim the trays were used to hold water to cool the device when in use (and also vivifying their representation of the isles of the immortals), while others claim it was for catching ash.
This censer has two inscriptions telling us that it was cast in 137 BCE and made to be housed in the imperial Weiyang Palace (Weiyang gong 未央宮). The censer body is held aloft by gilded bronze bamboo stem that terminates at the top with three dragons holding the basin.
Because mountain censers appear in the archaeological record rather suddenly, one scholar, Jessica Rawson, has proposed a hypothesis that older Central Asian censers with conical lids may have inspired Chinese artisans. The “Rawson hypothesis” is partly founded on a well-known claim – that by the second century BCE, China had ongoing contact with regions further west.
Metal workers would sometimes embellish the stem of the vessel with creatures, here depicting a bird or phoenix standing atop a turtle while holding the censer basin in its beak. Above, we saw a man atop a beast holding the censer. Below, we will see two twisting dragons acting as the stem.
Chinese archaeologists unearth amazing finds every year. This mountain censer was recovered from a tomb discovered in 2011. The original excavation report claimed to find the residue of burned aromatics inside the vessel.
Many recovered mountain censers are more simple in design, sometimes rendering the mountain with less embellishments and less sculptural depth. Concerns with functionality are also expressed; this censer is fashioned with a hinge (seen on the right side) so the lid can be flipped open.
Through the Han and into the Jin, more mountain censers were made in ceramic. This one includes a bird at the top, a feature that also appears in earlier bronze mountain censer designs, as well as older Chinese incense burners that are shaped like chalices (i.e. ritual dou 豆 vessels).
Many ceramicists started to play with the basic design of the mountain censer, creating far more abstract renditions. Here the mountain cliffs resemble the petals of a flower calyx or even the fingers of a flickering flame.
Significant regional differences also start to manifest in ceramic mountain censer designs. The previous two examples were produces at kilns in modern Zhejiang, while this specimen was made in Jiangxi. Note, for example, the elongated rocky outcroppings and the overall taller profile.
While there was a native Chinese artistic tradition of depicting lotus flowers, the influence of Buddhist motifs, especially the frequent use of new lotus flower imagery, cannot be overlooked in later mountain censer designs. Curiously, we find a head protruding from the lotus placed atop this censer lid. The abstract horn shapes surrounding the body of the censer was popular in the kilns of Fujian.
Here we see the side of a lotus flower etched into the censer basin.
This ceramic censer is influenced by the Buddhist sculptural and architectural tradition of reliquaries, known in Sanskrit as stūpa. As was commonly seen in those forms, and here, a spire with discs was placed atop the structure.
One of the more common elements in later medieval censer design was to render the basin into a lotus by surrounding it with petals.
Similar to the above design, in addition to the lotus petals, the top of the lid was decorated with a flaming pearl motif, representative of the iconography of the Buddhist wish-fulfilling gem (in Sanskrit, cintamani).
The mountain censer design lasted into the Song, a full thousand years after it first appeared. By this time, the mountain censer was just one incense burner design among many and it no longer garnered the same social significance of centuries earlier.
The Song was also a period of great trade in foreign incense, with frankincense and aloeswood being two of the more popular imports into China.
This simple, but elegant design that gained popularity in the Song was continued through to the Ming. You can see the faint design of lotus petals around the basin.
As late as one hundred years ago, before the widespread use of modern archaeological techniques, it was believed that mountain censers were the first type of incense burner in China. New finds have shown that incense burners go back to the third century BCE, if not much earlier (this depends on how we define the shape of a censer).
Arguably one of the more elaborate and beautiful mountain censers was excavated in Korea in 1993. Standing at over two feet tall, it is considered a National Treasure of Korea.

Further Reading [English Resources]

  • Erickson, Susan N. 1992. “Boshanlu: Mountain Censers of the Western Han Period: A Typological and Iconological Analysis,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 45, pp. 6-28.
  • Kirkova, Zornika. 2018. “Sacred Mountains, Abandoned Women, and Upright Officials: Facets of the Incense Burner in Early Medieval Chinese Poetry,” Early Medieval China, Vol. 24, pp. 53-81.
  • Laufer, Berthold. 1909 [1962]. Chinese Pottery of the Han Dynasty. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
  • Rawson, Jessica. 2006. “The Chinese Hill Censer, Boshan lu: A Note on Origins, Influences and Meanings,” Arts Asiatiques, Vol. 61, pp. 75-86.
  • Romaskiewicz, Peter M. 2022. “Sacred Smells and Strange Scents: Olfactory Imagination in Medieval Chinese Religions.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara.
  • Wenley, A.G. 1948/1949. “The Question of the Po-Shan-Hsiang-Lu,” Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America, Vol. 3, pp. 5-12.

*There are hundreds of mountain censer designs, I tried to select versions where I could find a good, high-resolution photograph and information about its provenance and current ownership. I claim no ownership of the original photos and only use them here for educational purposes. The censers noted as part of a private collection were found on Chinese auction sites with no indication of the identity of the final bidder.

Additional Posts on Chinese Incense Culture: