Box for Incense Utensils with Cherry Blossoms in a Landscape

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This box with two compartments and an interior tray would have contained incense and the implements used in the traditional game of discriminating different fragrances of incense. Its landscape decoration of rolling hills covered with flowering cherry trees and a swift-flowing stream are motifs associated with the Yoshino mountains south of Nara, long celebrated in Japanese art and poetry.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art