The Clues Yielded by Incense

Observing people was one of the tasks of the ninja, and in addition to clues such as the way people looked and spoke, incense provided the ninja with further information to work on. The smell of the incense left on a person’s kimono gave the ninja clues about that person’s economic status and the size of his house or mansion. The ninja could learn about people by distinguishing between the subtly different scents of incense on them, such as fennel, cloves, musk, cinnamon, aloeswood, agallochum and sandalwood.

nazotoki