Paper short abstract:

This paper will approach philosophically Japanese olfactory culture: non-visual forms of thought centered on the manifestation of scent in the lifeworld through affective involvement, embodiment, desire and cultural memory. I will discuss both ancient olfactory culture and the aesthetics of kōdō 香道.

Paper long abstract:

Giving how deep and consistent the bias in favor of vision has been in European thought, both ancient and modern, it is unsurprising that until very recent years the research on olfaction has been scarce and superficial. But if this suppression of olfaction is indeed one of the defining traits of Eurocentric modernity, then an inquiry into non-European and premodern olfactory cultures offers a fresh approach to these sensual-intellectual heritages, and unique opportunities to break free from the philosophical assumptions of ocularcentrism.

I will first introduce the specifically double paradigm of nioi 匂 and kō 香 in Japan, the first stressing the multimodal, immersive quality of olfactory ambiance and originally meaning both "color" and "scent", the second used to refer to scented substances (often imported, and thus carrying with them already a echo of otherness) and the temporal-spatial ecstasis that they produce after their disappearance. Both these elements were creatively employed in Heian court culture, as I will show through a phenomenological reading of poetry and prose. Beginning from Kamakura and later in Edo, it was in particular the appreciation of incense to be formalized into a unique olfactory form, kōdō 香道. A mixture of game and social gathering, spiritual and sensual experience, kōdō’s reliance on atmospheric attunement, impermanence and non-linear temporality prompt us to renew aesthetic language to make sense of it, producing categories that are highly relevant both within and outside the study of Japanese culture and thought. (If viable, the paper presentation will include a concrete use of incense).