Ten-round incense game set with arabesque foliage and family crests

This incense game set (jisshukō-bako) was part of Princess Atsu-hime’s elaborate wedding trousseau. The tiered lacquer storage box of the incense set, and all the utensils are decorated with a design of arabesque foliage (karakusa) that includes two wild ginger leaves (aoi), a plant featured in the family crest of the Tokugawa. The family crests of the Tokugawa and Konoe families, three ginger leaves in a circle and a flowering peony, respectively, as rendered here, reflect the marriage of Atsu-hime to Tokugawa Iesada, the thirteenth shogun, in 1856.

One of the precious items in the trousseau was a “ten-round incense game” set. One of the earliest incense games, it involved four different incense woods, three scents identified and passed around in a trial round, and one unrevealed. All the necessary utensils of the game fit into a richly embellished tiered storage box. Atsu-hime’s box is complete with all the necessary tools to play the game, including a “Genji incense” (Genji-kō) folding album.

Atsu-hime (1836–1883), originally named Okatsu, was the daughter of Shimazu Tadatake (1806–1854). Born in Satsuma province, she soon moved to Kyoto, and then, in 1855, to the Shimazu mansion in Edo. Given that the wife of the shogun was supposed to be from the imperial family or the nobility, Atsu was adopted by the Minister of the Right, Konoe Tadahiro (1808–1898), and named Fujiwara no Sumiko. In the eleventh month of 1856, Atsu-hime entered Edo Castle as the wife of the thirteenth Tokugawa shogun, Iesada (1824–1858). The incense game box is a symbol of this very important political alliance between the Tokugawa and the Shimazu families.