Kogo incense box / "Hagoïta Shôchikubaï" Seikanji

Kogo incense box in Kyo-yaki ceramic in the shape of a “hagoïta†with a pine, bamboo, plum and cloud motif, made by Shôhei Sugita IV (1942-). at the Seikanji oven in Kyoto. The hagoita is a rectangular wooden racket used to play the traditional Japanese game called hanétsuki: the game consisting of trying to keep the “hané” shuttlecock in the air for as long as possible either by a single person or by two people who exchange it for as long as possible. In Japan, mosquitoes were believed to carry and cause various diseases, and dragonflies, which feed on mosquitoes, were considered a beneficial insect that kept diseases away from people. So this game hitting a shuttlecock, resembling dragonflies, would have become both a game and a kind of ritual to ward off evil spirits. The hagoita has also become an object of good luck.