The "Ascetic Shakuhachi" Historical Evidence Research Web Pages

WELCOME ☺ INTRODUCTION

Unveiling & Verifying the Actual Historical Origins & Unique Secrets
of Ascetic, Non-Dualistic Shakuhachi Traditions, Ideologies & Practices

Introduction & Guide
to the Documentation & Critical Study of Ascetic, Non-Dualistic Shakuhachi Culture, East & West:
Historical Chronology, Philology, Etymology, Vocabulary, Terminology, Concepts, Ideology, Iconology & Practices

- by Danish/Icelandic Torsten Mukuteki Olafsson, Denmark: Multimusician, Composer, Music Editor, Graphical Designer, Japanologist, Translator, Shakuhachi Historian, Author & Lecturer

- from the very beginning, in 2003: An unbiased, non-profit, documentary evidence based research and information endeavour completely independent of any external funding, totally devoid of self-promoting academic career aspirations and possible implicated imagined income prospects

Update as of November 3, 2022:

A New Online Article By Kiku Day Has Appeared:

"Mindful playing: a practice research investigation into shakuhachi playing and meditation."
In: Ethnomusicology Forum, No. 31:1, pp. 143-159.
Published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2022.
Direct, active link to the article

Opening paragraph, direct quotation:

"ABSTRACT
This article describes a practice research project investigating how the practice of meditation may be integrated into the playing of shakuhachi, an instrument utilised during the Edo period (1603– 1867) as a tool for spiritual practice by monks of the Fuke sect and later becoming part of the hōgaku (Japanese traditional music) world as a stage instrument. Although we cannot know how the monks were trained to use the shakuhachi in meditation, I have combined my own shakuhachi and meditation experiences, in order to investigate how a shakuhachi player today may approach the incorporation of meditation in their musical practice."
Kiku Day, 2022

COMMENT by T.O., Nov. 3, 2022:

It is indeed very worthy of attention that there exists only one single Edo Period piece of (possible) documentary evidence of the shakuhachi having ever been used as anything like "a special instrument of meditation", namely in an essay written by the early 1800s shakuhachi player Hisamatsu Fūyō, 1791-1871.

The idea to re-define the shakuhachi as "a religious/spiritual instrument" only appeared - in numerous writings - during 1920-1930s' interwar Japan.

And the promotion of the shakuhachi as a socalled instrument of meditation" was an invention and a product of Western New Age and Holism movements arising only during the post-war mid-1960s, beginning in U.S.A.

It is therefore absolutely futile to keep theorizing about, and searching for, any imagined, forgotten or hidden "shakuhachi meditation methods and techniques" ever created, and described, by any komusō, socalled "Fuke monks", or anyone else, for that matter.

Non-existing, never happened - simple as that!

October 30, 2022:

The highly esteemed Japanese music magazine Hōgaku Journal november, 2022,
issue no. 430, features short presentations of Western shakuhachi personalities
Cornelius Boots, Cal./USA, and Torsten Olafsson, Denmark

Introduction by Torsten Olafsson, Oct. 30, 2022:

In Summer, 2022, on behalf of Hōgaku Journal editor Tanaka Takafumi, Kiku Day invited me to produce a presentation of myself for a profile to be printed in a forthcoming issue of the important magazine that covers all aspects of traditional Japanese music.

I was prompted to also tell at length about my research findings, but it turned out that the slot space in the journal was much more limited than expected:
reduced to but half a page.

For you to know what I actually delivered to the Hōgaku Journal, here you have the complete, unabridged and unredacted text in English.
That is, except for a few translations to English of specially selected Japanese quotations meant to be shown in Japanese, only, in the magazine.

Click here to open a PDF-file that contains the full contents of the Profile Status Update, 2022.

---

September 29, 2022:

”Historical Facts”, ”Beliefs of Players”
– and The Much Challenged “Ethnomusicologist”?

In renowned ethnomusicologist Kiku Day’s Facebook invitation to her September 24, 2022,
Zoom Webinar titled
“The Shakuhachi - its capricious background and the body in performance”,
Kiku – a PhD academic from SOAS in London - asked:

“What is the role of the ethnomusicologist when historical facts and beliefs of players do not correspond?”

Read more in this illustration of a flyer, published by Kiku Day on Facebook on September 7, 2022:



Regretfully, however, the webinar was cancelled in the very last minute, allegedly due to illness.

Visit Kiku Day's Facebook page, URL: https://www.facebook.com/kikuday.

Note: Kiku Day, beside being - among other - an academically trained shakuhachi practice & performance researcher, is also herself a practicing shakuhachi player and a close, longtime student of Okuda Atsuya, b. 1945, of the 'Zensabō' Tradition of Jinashi Shakuhachi.

What may be Kiku Day's realization of some "ethical conflict" regarding that double role of hers in her study activities?

Not to speak of other both ethnomusicologists and shakuhachi players who may be facing a similar "dilemma"?

Well, dear readers: What do you think? What is you opinon?

Visit Kiku Day's personal website, URL: http://www.kikuday.com/.

EXTRAORDINARY SHAKUHACHI HISTORY NEWS
as of September 25, 2022, 4:45 p.m. Danish time:

1.000+ downloads !!!

SOAS PhD, Myōan Shakuhachi player and International Christian University, Tokyo, teacher Matt Gillan's myth-busting online article published by The Yale Institute of Sacred Music has now reached, soon to pass, 1.001 downloads from the website:

Matt Gillan: "Sankyoku Magazine and the Invention of the Shakuhachi
     as Religious Instrument in Early 20th-Century Japan."
     In: Yale Journal of Music & Religion, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2021.

Direct download link: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/yjmr/vol7/iss1/2/

---

WEBSITE WEEKLY STATISTICS as of September 8, 2022:

September 1 through September 8 week's website documented number of visitors:
1.705 in all :-)

Top 5 countries/regions from which the visits have taken place:
USA: 856, Asia: 302, Europe: 284, Korea/Japan: 99, Russia: 42.

WEBSITE WEEKLY STATISTICS as of September 2, 2022:

August 26 through September 2 week's website documented number of visitors:
1.432 in all :-)

Top 5 countries/regions from which the visits have taken place:
USA: 604, Asia: 306, Europe: 239, Korea/Japan: 71, Russia: 42.

WEBSITE WEEKLY STATISTICS as of July 30, 2022:

July 23rd through July 30th week's website documented number of visitors:
1.163 in all :-)

Top 3 countries/regions from which the visits have taken place:
EUROPE: 378, USA: 242, CHINA: 225.

WEBSITE WEEKLY STATISTICS as of July 2, 2022:

June 25th through 2nd of July week's website documented number of visitors:
987 in all :-)

Top 5 countries/regions from which the visits took place:
Europe: 312, China: 226, USA: 207, Japan/Korea: 58, Russia: 32.

WEBSITE STATISTICS as of June 27, 2022:

20th through 27th of June week's website documented number of visitors: 888 :-)

Top 4 list of Zen-Shakuhachi.dk website visitors:

USA: 317
China: 236
Europe: 203
Japan/South Korea: 46

REMARKABLE SHAKUHACHI NEWS as of June 15, 2022:

900+ downloads!!!

SOAS PhD, Myōan Shakuhachi player and International Christian University, Tokyo, teacher Matt Gillan's myth-busting online article published by The Yale Institute of Sacred Music has now passed 900 downloads from the website:

Matt Gillan: "Sankyoku Magazine and the Invention of the Shakuhachi
     as Religious Instrument in Early 20th-Century Japan."
     In: Yale Journal of Music & Religion, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2021.

Direct download link: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/yjmr/vol7/iss1/2/

LATEST Shakuhachi NEWS as of April 20, 2022:

SOAS PhD, Myōan Shakuhachi player and International Christian University, Tokyo, teacher Matt Gillan's myth-busting online article published by The Yale Institute of Sacred Music is now enjoying close to 550 downloads from the website:

Matt Gillan: "Sankyoku Magazine and the Invention of the Shakuhachi
     as Religious Instrument in Early 20th-Century Japan."
     In: Yale Journal of Music & Religion, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2021.

Direct download link: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/yjmr/vol7/iss1/2/

---

ANNOUNCEMENT of January 1, 2022

A New Improved Version of Zen-Shakuhachi.dk has been Uploaded

Now, the website Zen-Shakuhachi.dk has had its name changed to
'The "Ascetic Shakuhachi" Historical Evidence Research Web Pages'.

In Japanese, 'Shugyō Shakuhachi' rekishi-teki shōko no kenkyū hōmupēji.

Also, the menu navigation options have been changed to the effect that there will now be only
two complete Main Menu Item Lists to work with and to choose from while one is studying
the presented research material:

The list displayed to the left on this very Home/Introduction Page: the "Index" HTML page,
and a separate fully dedicated "All Web Pages on this Website" webpage.

Do note that for every new webpage you are then clicking on the menus to study, these will always open and be shown in a new browser window on your screen, so that the main menu(s) shall always be readily open and accessible.

While the change has been taking place, some webpages may have dissappeared for but a while and then soon reappeared - i.e unless the contents may have been moved to other new or expanded webpages and the original webpages have then been removed.

Sorry about the possible confusion and inconveniences until all the webpages came into place again.

Happy 2022 browsing, searching, and reading ☺ Cheers ☺ Torsten Mukuteki Olafsson

---

---

禅 と 尺八 ： 関係 が 全然無 い。

'Zen to shakuhachi: Kankei ga zenzen nai.'

     - "Zen and Shakuhachi?: No Connection at All."

     - Yoshida Mitsukuni, 1921-1991, in March, 1977.

'Komusō to Suizen: Kankei ga zenzen arimasen.'

     - "Komusō and Suizen?: No Connection at All."

     - Torsten Olafsson, b. 1950, in January, 2022.

'Seigi wa jūyō desu.'

     - "JUSTICE MATTERS"

     - Glenn Louis Kirschner, b. 1961.

'Rekishi-teki jijitsu ga jūyō.'

     - "HISTORICAL FACTS MATTER"

     - Torsten Olafsson, b. 1950.

January 1, 2022:

In 2021, A New Really Important Article about Shakuhachi History and Ideology
was Published Online, for Free Download:

Matt Gillan: "Sankyoku Magazine and the Invention of the Shakuhachi
     as Religious Instrument in Early 20th-Century Japan."
     In: Yale Journal of Music & Religion, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2021.

Direct download link: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/yjmr/vol7/iss1/2/

Do note, in any case, that there does not exist any documentary evidence of any solid, well established and long-lasting "affiliation" between a socalled "Fuke Sect" and the Edo Period Rinzai Zen Institution - except for some however quite questionable "connection" between the former Myōan Temple in Kyōto and the Kōkoku Temple in Yura, Edo Province of Kii, present Wakayama Prefecture.

Also, it is noteworthy that neither is the 1928-30 term 'Sui-shō-zen', 吹簫禅,
nor the 1950s term 'Suizen', 吹禅, to be found in any of the numerous 1921-1944 'Sankyoku' articles inspected.

No matter what you may feel like speculating and wishing for, do not be mistaken:
Matt Gillan, who earned his PhD from SOAS in London, clearly confirms in his study that the shakuhachi was "invented as religious instrument" in Japan only as late as years after
World War One.


These statements quoted from Matt Gillan's Conclusion in his essay on page 39 are especially noteworthy:

"The shakuhachi is a hugely misunderstood instrument both in Japan and abroad.
As Deeg notes, the common image of the shakuhachi as an "instrument of Zen meditation" is not supported by much more than circumstantial evidence in pre-twentieth-century Japanese history.
As Deeg and other writers have stated, these kinds of images are often romanticized Orientalist inventions by Western audiences and shakuhachi players, and have little to do with the cultural position of the shakuhachi in Japan at any historical period."
- - -
"It seems beyond dispute that, at the very least, Edo-period shakuhachi players carried out mendicant activities based around a network of “temples,” and that they claimed a lineage that stretched back to the ninth-century Chinese Zen monk Puhua/Fuke.
All of these elements were referenced by the early twentieth-century protagonists I have discussed. My slightly provocative use of the word “invention” in the title of this essay is not meant to imply that the Edo-period shakuhachi had no cultural meanings that we might retrospectively describe with words such as “religion” or shūkyō.
Rather, it is clear that religious meanings of the shakuhachi were socially constructed in pre–World War II Japan using new religious terminology and conceptions that were very much of their time, and were implicitly connected with Japanese modernity and its place in the early twentieth-century world."
- - -
"Although the shakuhachi’s official religious origins and affiliations are unclear, the instrument was hugely influential in the development of modern conceptions of musical spirituality in early twentieth-century Japan."
                                                    Matt Gillan, 2021

No: Zen Priests did not "use the shakuhachi as a tool for meditation in order to reach enlightenment during the Edo Period" (1603-1867). Period!

'Komusō' were not "Zen Priests". Period!

Read much more on these two webpages, updated yet once again on October 15, 2021:

To be - or not to be: a "Zen Buddhist Priest"?

Furthermore, the Edo Period Kyōto Daibutsu Myōan-ji paid (!) the Kōkoku Temple in Yura
for their fake "monks" to be fraudfully "ordained" and given the tonsure - read more here:

1705: The Kōkoku Temple Ordination Platform
     and Kyōto Myōan-ji's Fake "Chief Monks" -
     In the Words of Makihara Ichirō, August 10, 2007

Latest new web page upload: November 24, 2021

1974: The Year of the End of 'Shakuhachi Suizen'
     - When the Term 'Suizen' was Kidnapped, Hi-jacked,
     and Degraded into Mere "New Age", "Healing",
     "Holism", and "Mindfulness" Meaninglessness

'ŌKI-na SUIZEN no USO' - The Big 'Suizen' Lie

The Pathetic Suizen Hoax and Conspiracy

This is a research project in continuous progress - webpage last updated
on January 8, 2022, with more false and even bordering on fraud statements about 'Suizen', "Shakuhachi Meditation", and Ascetic Shakuhachi history and ideology in general:

1974 ...: Untruthful 'Suizen' & "Shakuhachi Meditation"
     Information & Assertions, East & West
     - Presented in Western Languages, Primarily

中塚竹禅 - NAKATSUKA CHIKUZEN

In Memory of - in Warm Respect for - the late, honorable Nakatsuka Chikuzen,
October 3, 1887 - May 5, 1944.

 

'Kinko-ryū shakuhachi shikan,' 1979.
Left: Title page. Right: 2nd hand copy once offered by Nihon no Furuhon-ya.

Japanese title: "中塚竹禅: 琴古流尺八史観"
'Nakatsuka Chikuzen: Kinko-ryū shakuhachi shikan'
"A Historical View of the Kinko Tradition of Shakuhachi"
Publ. by Nihon Ongaku-sha, Tokyo, 1979

Nakatsuka Chikuzen was an important representative of Japan's pre-WW2 Kinko-ryū Shakuhachi tradition and music movement.

During the late 1930s, his sincere desire to research and delve deeply into the history of the shakuhachi led him to travel, locate, meticulously copy, analyze and present his comments on a multitude of preserved books, documents and texts related to the shakuhachi covering a period of more than 1200 years.

Some Western researchers and writers dealing with shakuhachi history have tended, quite unrightfully, to bagatellize and minimalize Nakatsuka Chikuzen's contributions and merits as a "shakuhachi history" scholar".

For example, renowned American musicologist and professor William P. Malm *, who as early as in 1959 stated that Nakatsuka Chikuzen's research was "incomplete", a viewpoint that has later been echoed by US citizen Dean Delbene. **
It actually appears to be quite clear that very few present-day shakuhachi historians and writers can ever have studied Nakatsuka's work in particularly thorough, exhaustive and critical detail, this being the case outside of Japan, especially.

The fact is that no one will ever get to the bottom of the extremely comprehensive preserved research material illuminating shakuhachi history and ideology.

Prof. Malm is in a way somewhat excused, however, as Nakatsuka Chikuzen's numerous articles in the music magazine 'Sankyoku', 1936-39, could not have been well known, be it available at all, in the West as early as during the 1950s, I presume.

 

Left: Front cover of the music magazine 'Sankyoku', 三曲, No. 188, November, 1937.
In this particular issue you find the first known reprints of both the 'Kaidō honsoku' document of 1628, and Isshi Bunshu's letter to Sandō Mugetsu dating from the early 1640s.
Right: Nakatsuka Chikuzen in 'Gendai ongaku taikan', 1927, page 185.
Source: Gunnar Linder Ph.D. dissertation, 2012, page 76.
Link to complete PDF-version of thesis:
http://su.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:488776/FULLTEXT01.pdf

However, after 1979, when the publishing company Nihon Ongaku-sha re-published the entire bulk of Nakatsuka's original 'Sankyoku' articles in one, single impressive and authoritative 600+ pages book, there has been absolute no excuse for any degree of rejecting the central importance of Nakatsuka Chikuzen's contributions in the field of shakuhachi history and ideology research.

It is in this essential book, that I was fortunate to obtain in the Spring of 1983, I discovered the two above mentioned source documents, reprinted and commented on on pages 268 through 273.







Ascetic shakuhachi history and ideology research files and material c/o T. Olafsson

References, links:

*) Scroll, search for Prof. Malm's text about the 'Komusō' here

**) Dean Del Bene's blog page about Prof. Malm's writings in 1959


Click here to study Yatō Osamu's complete list showing chapters and parts contained in Nakatsuka Chikuzen's essential 1979 book

Kind regards, Torsten Olafsson, November 29, 2021

Zen-shakuhachi.dk Weekly Website Statistics from July 31, 2021, to August 7, 2021

Top 3 countries/regions from which the visits took place:
Asia (China/India): 442, U.S.A.: 320, Europe: 91.

May 8, 2021:

A Truly Sad Situation: How Many More Lies Can You Keep On Believing In ... ?

Why Are So Many Still Lying And Misleading The Readers, and Believers,
About Ascetic Shakuhachi Cultural History, Chronology, Ideology & Practices ... ?

No matter what you may be feeling or thinking, these are the plain and simple facts:

Overall conclusion that has manifested itself
     as an inevitable result of the present, decades long research project:

The asserted history and alleged characteristics of Ascetic Shakuhachi Culture in Japan have been most purposefully "constructed" since the very early beginnings.

This more or less constantly ongoing activity of deliberate source falsification, forging and fanciful myth fabrication is taking place still, this very day - generated by "professionals" and "amateurs" alike, inside as well as outside of Japan - be they both shakuhachi musicians and players, musicologists and "history" writers, book editors and publishers - beside a wide variety of enough so sincerely devoted shakuhachi "admirers" in general.

Very little indeed of what you can find and read in most of the books and articles, in phonogram cover notes and on the internet - be that on websites or weblogs presented in a variety of languages - can actually be soberly corroborated when first one is investigating the totality of known, preserved text and picture source materials etc. - the multitude, comprehensiveness and complexity of which is not only aweinspiring but truly terrifying.

The very most central and important fact having now been revealed is that there were absolutely no socalled 'Komusō', 虚無僧, "Pseudo-monks of Non-Duality & None-ness", in existence and action in Japan before the middle decades of 17th century, at the earliest!

Neither did the Edo Period 'Komusō' in their writings about themselves, nor any outsiders writing about the 'Komusō', present, document and share any kind of specific, collective and descriptive term for any ascetic use of the 'shakuhachi' for "mind-body enlightenment therapeutic" purposes - a.k.a. "meditation", "mindfulness", "healing" in the West.

Anything like that only became "reality" in Japan after 1950, when 'Suizen' was, eventually, invented and established by the Myōan Temple in Kyōto to characterize and represent the extraordinary original ascetic shakuhachi culture celebrated and preserved within the circles of the Myōan Taizan-ha Tradition of 'Fuke Shakuhachi'.

'SUI-ZEN' "Translated" to English as "Blowing Zen" ... ?

- Well, first of all: "Zen" is not "an Explanation! "Zen" is not "a Religion"!

"Zen" is just "a Method" to Improve and Further Refine,
and Free, Your Mind, Your Being, Your Existence - From Dualism ...

Well, really ... ☺ Using the same word or term in a "translation" as in the original text
is not a "translation", the result is devoid of meaning.

A more proper, academically and philologically fitting "interpretation" of 'Sui-zen' could be:
"Flute-blown Meditation", or "Flute-driven Mental Training".

The Japanese 'kanji' for 'sui' is also used in the verb 'fuku', "吹く", "to blow", both when f.i. the wind is blowing, 'kaze ga fuku', "風が吹く", or when you blow and play a wind instrument, 'kangakki wo fuku', "管楽器を吹く",
'Sui-zen' could also be re-phrased and read as "Shakuhachi Asceticism", or "Ascetic Bamboo Flute Practice".
Or, even better: Do not "translate" - just leave 'Suizen' as it is, and explain it in a note, instead.

"Asceticism" comes from Greek "áskesis" and means "Exercise, Training" - which is potentially an equivalent of Japanese 'Shu-gyō', "修行", "Ascetic Practices, Mental Training", and 'Shūyō', "修養", "Self-Improvement, Cultivation".

The term and concept 'Sui-zen' was invented only as late as after 1950, among a small group of both "genuine" Buddhist monks and practitioners of the Taizan-ha Way of Shakuhachi Asceticism at the Myōan Temple in Kyōto.

So, obviously, 'Sui-zen' could never have been practiced at anytime before 1950, be that during the Edo Period, 1603-1868, nor even less during the 13th century, as more and more writers and websites keep postulating.
'Sui-zen', therefore, can not be described as an "ancient tradition". Period ☺

However, sadly so, with the 1974 release of the Columbia Japan KX 7001-03 triple-LP set
'Sui-zen', that new "fancy term" very soon went viral and nothing but "New Age fashion", first spreading within shakuhachi circles in Japan, then disseminating in the West, too, the term becoming more and more diluted, while its original semantics and "ideological essence" have now, eventually, been pretty much lost - not least "thanks to" that "fraudful" WWW Internet, as well.

Read more about 'Suizen' history matters here - an ongoing research project:

1950s ... : The Origin of 'Suizen' at Kyōto Myōan-ji:
     Kobayashi Shizan, Tomimori Kyozan,
     Tanikita Muchiku, Yasuda Tenzan,
     Hirazumi Taizan, Koizumi Ryōan,
     Fukumoto Kyoan, Yoshimura Sōshin a.o.

Links to closely related webpages:

1852: Kyōto Myōan-ji's 32nd 'Kansu' Rodō Genkyō's
     Commandments Regarding 'Komusō' Begging Practice
     and 'Sui-teki shugyō' - and the Possible Origin
     of the Now so Very Misused Term 'Suizen'?

1974 ...: Untruthful 'Suizen' & "Shakuhachi Meditation"
     Information & Assertions, East & West
     - Presented in Western Languages, Primarily

1861 ... : Shakuhachi, Fuke & 'Komusō' Narratives
     Authored and Published in Western Languages

Last updated on June 2, 2021

More Recently Updated Webpages as of May, 2021:

1549 ... The Catholic Christian Century in Japan
     & the Temple Patron Household System

Research-related Recommendations:

Dan E. Mayers, Esq.:

"Torsten Olafsson taught himself, unaided, to read ancient Japanese in order to complete the following thesis: an astonishing scholarly feat.

The conclusions of the thesis are not widely accepted by Japanese scholars but are interesting and challenging, throwing new light on an area in which Japanese scholarship has tended to become all too formal.

Those wishing further scholarly enlightenment should consult the original thesis, of which this is a very brief and incomplete summary. Only through study of the original thesis can a full appreciation be obtained of the scholarship involved."

Dan E. Mayers, Esq., d. 2014, editor, in The Annals of the International Shakuhachi Vol. II, 2005, page 138.


Tsukitani Tsuneko:

"The body of shakuhachi researchers in Japan is relatively small; names that recur in the bibliography include Kamisangō, Tsukitani/Tukitani, Seyama and Simura/Shimura.
It is regrettable that the most conspicuous work is being produced not in Japan
but by scholars abroad. (See the works by Fritsch, Gutzwiller, Keister, Lee, Olafsson.)"

Prof. Tsukitani Tsuneko, d. 2010, in The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music, 2008, page 168.

'Fuke', 'Kakushin', 'Komusō' & ... 'Suizen'?
No Proven Historical Connections Exist at All!

Forget It! No Proof, No Common Sense at Play There ...

The findings and conclusions presented on these research web pages are all based on
the actual concrete surviving, academically trustworthy written and pictorial source materials:

'Fuke', known as the monk 'P'u-k'o' in 9th century Buddhist T'ang China, most probably never even lived, to be frank.
Anyhow, how about the "idea" that some Chinese flute player named Chang would really have made up a melody, allegedly inspired by P'u-k'o's ringing a Buddhist monk beggar's bell, that could ever have survived til' this very day, in Japan?
Of course: Proof of anything like that, stretching over a timespan of almost 1200 years, is absolutely non-existant.

'Kakushin' lived in 13th century Japan and could never have imagined how, about 4 centuries later, his good name and reputation was destined to suffer from being fraudfully "hi-jacked"/"kidnapped" to play a very central role in a grand fake 'shakuhachi' "history" fabrication fraud executed by a steadily growing number of desperate unemployed 'samurai' warrior class members becoming "half-lay half-monk" beggars.

So called 'Komusō' "Pseudo-Monks of Non-Duality and Noneness" did not appear in Japan until after the middle decades of the 17th century at the earliest.

The concept of 'Suizen' was introduced into "modern" 'shakuhachi' ideology only after 1950 by a small group of genuine, dedicated Buddhist monks and Myōan Taizan-ha shakuhachi ascetics at the then newly inaugurated, rehabilitated 'Kyorei-zan Myōan-ji', now located in SE Kyōto within the compounds of the Tōfuku Zen Temple.

Those are the plain and simple facts.

The Top 15 List of Truly Embarrassing Pathetic and Fraudful Shakuhachi History
     Fabrications, Falsifications, Untruths, Lies ... & Fancy Fairy Tales

There exists no proof nor even the slightest suggestive historical evidence of any kind that
any of the below listed widespread, common claims and statements are "true", have any
"Merit on Earth", whatsoever!


Untruth #1 - 'Suizen' is "an ancient tradition of playing Japanese bamboo flute
     as a form of meditation" ...

Untruth #2 - A "Fuke Sect" was founded by a 9th century Chinese monk named 'Pu-hua' ...

Untruth #3 - A flute melody titled 'Kyorei' was created by some Chinese civilian named
     'Chang Po' in the early 9th century ...

Untruth #4 - A Japanese Shingon monk nicknamed 'Kakushin' brought 'Kyorei' to Japan
     accompanied by four "Buddhist laymen" - and then "invented" 'Suizen' ...

Untruth #5 - A disciple of Kakushin's named 'Kichiku' created two flute tunes titled
     'Mukaiji' and 'Kokū' ...

Untruth #6 - Kichiku's disciple 'Myōfu' established a "temple" in 1335 and called it 'Myōan-ji' ...

Untruth #7 - A defeated Japanese samurai general became the first so called 'Komusō' ...

Untruth #8 - A Japanese dictator granted special privileges to 'Komusō' in 1614 ...

Untruth #9 - 'Komusō' formed a "Buddhist sect" titled 'Fuke-shū' in the early 1600s ...

Untruth #10 - 'Komusō' blew a bamboo flute named 'shakuhachi' for "meditation"
     since the early 1600s ...

Untruth #11 - A 'Komusō' "temple" was founded on the Southern island Kyūshū in 1640 ...

Untruth #12 - A "Buddhist sect" titled 'Fuke-shū' was officially acknowledged in 1677 ...

Untruth #13 - By the eighteenth century, the mendicant monks - who now called themselves
     'Komusō' 'monks of emptiness' - - - were divided into about eighty regional temples
     around the country ...

Untruth #14 - The Myōan-ji in Kyōto "was founded by the 'Komusō' and Zen master 'Kichiku'
     (known honorarily as 'Kyochiku Ryōen Zenji')" ...

Untruth #15 - The Myōan-ji in Kyōto "is the former headquarters and the premier pilgrimage
     site of the Fuke sect of Rinzai Zen" ...


And so, and so, and so on ... there's no end to it - none of the above never, ever happened ...


We in the West, outside of Japan, those many of us who once - more than 50 years ago - became fascinated with that enchanting, mesmerizing sound of the shakuhachi - we were both misled and even downright fooled from the very beginning, sadly speaking.

And the deception continues to govern the scene, getting worse and worse, on and on!

No matter what you may call it, these are the plain facts:

Overall conclusion that has manifested itself
     as an inevitable result of the present research project

The asserted history and alleged characteristics of Ascetic Shakuhachi Culture in Japan have been most purposefully "constructed" since the very early beginnings.

This more or less constantly ongoing activity of deliberate source falsification, forging and fanciful myth fabrication is taking place still, this very day - generated by "professionals" and "amateurs" alike, inside as well as outside of Japan - be they both shakuhachi musicians and players, musicologists and "history" writers, book editors and publishers - beside a wide variety of enough so sincerely devoted shakuhachi "admirers" in general.

Very little indeed of what you can find and read in most of the books and articles, in phonogram cover notes and on the internet - be that on websites or weblogs presented in a variety of languages - can actually be soberly corroborated when first one is investigating the totality of known, preserved text and picture source materials etc. - the multitude, comprehensiveness and complexity of which is not only aweinspiring but truly terrifying.

The very most central and important fact having now been revealed is that there were absolutely no socalled 'Komusō', 虚無僧, "Pseudo-monks of Non-Duality & None-ness", in existence and action in Japan before the middle decades of 17th century, at the earliest!

Neither did the Edo Period 'Komusō' in their writings about themselves, nor any outsiders writing about the 'Komusō', present, document and share any kind of specific, collective and descriptive term for any ascetic use of the 'shakuhachi' for "mind-body enlightenment therapeutic" purposes - a.k.a. "meditation" in the West.

Anything like that only became "reality" in Japan after 1950, when 'Suizen' was, eventually, invented and established by the Myōan Temple in Kyōto to characterize and represent the extraordinary original ascetic shakuhachi culture celebrated and preserved within the circles of the Myōan Taizan-ha Tradition of 'Fuke Shakuhachi'.

'Shugyō' & 'Shūyō' Shakuhachi
     versus
'Ensō' & 'Gikō' Shakuhachi

"Ascetic" & "Self-Cultivation" Shakuhachi Breathing
     versus
"Entertainment" & "Show-Off" Shakuhachi Fingering?

     - Do You Know - and Appreciate - the Difference, Possibly, at All ... ?

FU-SHŌ FU-METSU

"NON-BORN NON-PERISHED"

According to Yamamoto Morihide who compiled and partly authored the famous 1795 Kyōto publication Kyotaku denki kokujikai, 虚鐸傳記国字解, this definitely the most fundamental principle underlying the teachings of all the schools of Mahayana Buddhism, including Chinese Ch'an and Japanese "Zen", was meant to be calligraphed on the wooden board that was, allegedly, placed on the grave of a deceased 'Komusō', 虚無僧, a "Pseudo-Monk of Non-Duality & None-ness".

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MYŌ-AN SŌSŌ

"The Myō-an Pair of Light & Darkness Duality"

明頭来 明頭打
暗頭来 暗頭打
四方八面来 旋風打
虚空来 連架打

"The Bright Aspect of Duality appears,
The Bright Aspect of Duality hits,
The Dark Aspect of Duality appears,
The Dark Aspect of Duality hits,
Appearing from Anywhere & Everywhere,
Whirlwinds hit,
Non-Duality appears
- a Harvest Knife cuts through ..."

虚空, 'Ko-Kū': "Empty Sky"/"Emptiness" = "Absence of Duality" = "Non-Duality"

Ascetic shakuhachi practice is, simply, nothing but training and freeing yourself to non-egoistically appreciate the Essentially Non-Dual Nature of Ultimate Reality.

A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT as of April 27, 2021 (renewed)

SHIRYŌ / SHIRYŌ

Historical Materials Like Documents & Pictures etc.
= Documentary Evidence = Possible "Proof" or Possible "Disproof",
or Sometimes Only "Un-Proof" ...
i.e In Full Recognition of "The Three Logical States", namely,
1) Proven, 2) Disproved or 3) Unproven.

During the course of Spring and Summer 2021, a new, major expansion of this website is being prepared, realized and eventually publicized, case by case, step by step, webpage by webpage.

Many hitherto largely unnoticed surviving source texts and essential quotations are now continuously being added to this site, not least dating from the middle years of the 1600s, the time when the so called 'Komusō', 虚無僧, the "Pseudo-monks of the Non-Dual & None-ness", made their actual very first appearances in Japan.

Do note, that this website and the research project being illuminated here is presenting textual and pictorial documentary evidence ("facts") while, not least:

Debunking plain fiction, mere speculation, romantic wishful thinking, and utter non-truth.

Remember: We can only "know" and should only publicly share information that can be convincingly evidenced and proven, disproved - or un-proven - from truthfully and honestly presented, logically analyzed, and credible surviving source materials.

So, for any claim & mere postulation that anyone may make and share regarding shakuhachi history, ideology and practices in general - and shakuhachi asceticism in particular:

Show us your proof, the absolutely irrefutable textual and pictorial evidence of yours - if any such really exists?

Cheers ☺ Torsten Mukuteki Olafsson, Denmark

Prof. YOSHIDA MITSUKUNI, 吉田光邦, stating in a private conversation in March, 1977:

'Zen to shakuhachi: Kankei ga zenzen nai.'

     - "Zen and Shakuhachi?: No Connection at All."

     - Yoshida Mitsukuni, 1921-1991:
Since 1977 a highly esteemed professor of Science & Technology at Kyōto University who also wrote outstanding books and articles about Japanese Arts and Aesthetics.
Quoted from a private communication in Kyōto in Early Spring, 1977

On this website and in this research project the UTTER NON-ZEN-se in traditional 'Komusō' shakuhachi music "historianship" is being investigated and exposed ☺

The CENTRAL 6 W's:

WHAT? WHERE? WHEN? WHO? HOW? WHY?

何事  何所  何時  何者  何様  何故

- those are the serious issues and proper questions to be truly honestly addressed and most soberly replied to ...

THE ESSENCE of ASCETIC SHAKUHACHI IDEOLOGY and PRACTICES:

Fu-ni Fu-shō Mu-ku-teki Shugyō Shakuhachi Suizen

Non-Dual Un-Born No Hole Flute Ascetic Practice Bamboo Flute Breathing Contemplation

ADVAITA ("Non-Duality") & NIRVANA ("Perfect Stilness", lit.: 'Breathed Out'):

The Ultimate Original Inspiration for Shakuhachi Asceticism

"Nirvana is a freeing from the chains of a false sense of individuality.
Nirvana is a state of nonduality (Advaita or Advaya);
a state where the illusion of a false sense of "I" (Parikalpita Swabhava, Fen-bie-xing – in Chinese) does not exist.

Expressed differently, liberation from the illusion of separateness
of the individual Self from the Whole is Nirvana.
Freedom is, Nirvana is, Truth is."

     Dr. Amartya Kumar Bhattacharya, 2019

Latest update as of November 11, 2020:

Latest updates as of November 3, 2020:

Latest update as of October 24, 2020 - important additions re the terms
'Kisoku shugyō' (1818), 'Sui-teki shugyō' (1852), 'Sui-shō-zen' (1930),
and - 'Suizen' (after 1950):

Latest update as of October 18, 2020 - significant new web page:

Latest update as of August 21, 2020 - significant new web page:

Latest update as of August 18, 2020 - significant new web page:

Latest update as of July 24, 2020 - more information added:

Latest update as of July 12, 2020 - commentary expanded:

Latest update as of July 7, 2020 - a new comprehensive web page:

Latest update as of July 5, 2020 - more text and links added:

Latest update as of July 4, 2020 - about the 'Komusō' bath house temples:

Latest update as of July 1, 2020 - new web page:

Latest update as of June 30, 2020 - web page expanded:

Latest update as of June 29, 2020 - more text added:

Latest updates as of June 27, 2020:
The monumental Meiji Period encyclopedia Koji ruien
and its biased and deceptive selection of sources about 'Fuke-shū' and 'Shakuhachi'

Latest updates as of June 21, 2020 - new text quotations presented:

Latest updates as of June 16, 2020:

Latest updates as of May 20, 2020 - new texts:

Latest updates as of May 20, 2020 - important new information and pictures added:

Latest update as of April 14, 2020 - a new web page:

Latest update as of April 5, 2020 - a new web page further updated:

ZEN-SHAKUHACHI.DK WEBSITE ANNUAL STATISTICS
Feb. 11, 2019, to Feb. 10, 2020

zen-shakuhachi.dk website full year statistics for Feb. 11, 2019, to Feb. 10, 2020: Visits

ZEN-SHAKUHACHI.DK WEBSITE WEEKLY STATISTICS Nov. 19 to Nov. 26, 2019

zen-shakuhachi.dk website one week statistics for Nov. 19 to Nov. 26, 2019: Visits

Who was the very first so called 'Komusō',
     - "Pseudo-Monk of the Non-Dual & None-ness"?

     - When, Where - Why?

When was the very first so called 'Komusō' "temple" established?

     - Where, by Whom - and Why? How was it financed?

Did you know that some, many, maybe even all of the so called Edo Period
"Komusō temples" were in fact "professional bath house temples"?

     - How come that that has always been kept quite a deep secret?

Do you really - seriously - believe that all Edo Period
'Komusō' were "Rinzai Zen Buddhist Devotees"
- and: even "Rinzai Zen Buddhist Priests"?

     - How could that in any logical way have been the case? Show us the evidence, please ...

Who created the very first 'Konjiku', or "Root-end", Shakuhachi?

     - When, Where - Why?

Who created the very first 'Honkyoku' - the ascetic shakuhachi solos of the 'Komusō'?

     - When, Where - why?

Was the so called 'Fuke Shūmon', "Fuke Sect Religious Denomination", ever
in any way a true, genuine "Sect of Rinzai Zen Buddhism"?

     - No, to be completely honest: That is simply impossible. Forget it.

KOMO-SŌ, 'FUKE-SŌ', 'FUKE-KOMOSŌ' - or 'KOMU-SŌ'?

     - That's the Question!

The history of the 'Komusō' and the so called "Fuke Shakuhachi Tradition" is first of all
a deliberately deceptive pseudo-historical narrative of continuous fabrication and very purposeful falsification of alleged "written evidence", from the very Beginnings till the very Present.

Rōnin KOMUSŌ - Takuhatsu KOMUSŌ - O'Furo KOMUSŌ
- Honkyoku KOMUSŌ - Kabuki KOMUSŌ

     - Do You Know the Difference - How to Distinguish?

KOMO-SŌ

薦僧

Era of the "Mat Monks": ca. 1470? to ca. 1550

1494:



'Komosō' "mat monk" in 'Sanjūni-ban shokunin uta-awase emaki'.
Date of original: 1494. Kōsetsu-bon edition, detail.
Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo.
Source: Wikipedia, Japan.

FUKE KOMO-SŌ/FUKE-SŌ

普化薦僧 / 普化菰僧 / 普化僧

Era of the "Fuke Mat Monks" / "Fuke Monks": ca. 1550 to 1628? (or ca. 1640?)


ca. 1550-1560:

   

Details from the 'Ryūmon bunko no Setsuyōshū'
Here, for the first time in "recorded history", we see the two characters for the 9th century Chinese Ch'an/Zen monk 'P'u-k'o'/'Fuke' to be pronounced as 'Fuke'+'sō', フケ 僧, "Fuke monk",
and presented as being synonymous with 'komo-sō', コモ 僧, "Mat monk".

Library of Nara Women's University
Mid-1500s - precise date unclear

Second half of the 16th Century:



'Komosō' playing a short 'hitoyogiri' flute in a street
Detail of section 4 of the folding screen
'Tsukinami fūzoku-zu byōbu'
"Screen with Genre Scenes of the Twelve Months"
Anonymous, late Muromachi Period (2nd half of 16th century).
Source: Tokyo National Museum

Early Edo/Kan'ei Period before 1630:




Painting of a Parasol-maker & Two Fuke-komosō
by Iwasa Matabei, 1578-1650.

An "important work of art" dating from the early Edo Period,
17th century, before 1630.

Official however highly questionable museological title of the work:
傘張 り • 虚無僧図
'Kasa-hari • komusō-zu',
"Picture of an Umbrella Maker & Komusō".
Source: The Nezu Art Museum, Tōkyō.

KOMUSŌ

Era of the Edo Period "Pseudo-Monks of the Non-Dual & None-ness":
From 1640? (or perhaps 1628?) to November 30, 1871


1658:

KYŌ WARABE by NAKAGAWA KIUN



Two wandering vertical flute players in a Kyōto street
Possible very early Edo Period 'Komusō' -
"Pseudo-Monks of the Non-Dual & None-ness"?
In: the 'Kyō warabe' by Nakagawa Kiun
The Remembering the Capital Archive, Kyōto

Source URL: Frame 13 in Volume 4 of the 'Kyō warabe'.
Source: The Remembering the Capital Archive, Kyōto.

1661 or 1665:



Two 'Komusō' playing, thin vertical flutes.
In: 'Ukiyo monogatari', 1661 or 1665/1666 - Maki/Vol. 4, Story 3.
By Asai Ryōi.
Source: Exact original version unknown.


1690:



Two 'Komusō' playing long, thick root-end shakuhachi flutes.
In: 'Jinrin kinmō zu-i', 1690 - Maki/Vol. 2.
By Makieshi Genzaburō
The Library of Kyōto University
Link to Kyōto University's online presentation of this volume

1791:



Woodcut print of a 'Komusō' receiving alms.
In: 'Yamato meisho zue', "Pictures from Famous Places in Japan".
Illustration by Takehara Shinkei, 1791.
Source: The National Museum of Denmark, Department of Ethnography, Copenhagen.
Photo reproduction by John Lee.

1806:



Wood cut print of a 'Komusō' by Katsushika Hokusai, 1760-1849.
No. 53, 'Kusatsu', in: 'Tōkaidō gojūsan tsugi',
"53 Stations of the Tōkaidō", 1806 edition.
Source: www.hokusai-katsushika.org

1864:



"Japanischer Bettler als Klarinettbläser".
"A Japanese Beggar as Clarinet Player".
'Komusō' in Gustav A. Spieß, 1864, page 201.

This is but the second oldest known Western picture of a performing shakuhachi-playing beggar lay monk. It was printed from an engraving based on an original photograph taken in 1861 somewhere in Nagasaki in SW Japan by either August Sachtler or John Wilson during the visit there of the official Prussian Expedition to Japan, 1860-61.
Source: Gustav A. Spieß, 1864.

MYŌAN KYŌKAI KOMUSŌ

Era of the Myōan Society "Pseudo-Monks of the Non-Dual & Noneness": 1890 to 1950

Probably around 1900:



Early Myōan Society 'Komusō' by an unknown photographer. Possibly around 1900.
Source: flickr.com.

Early 1900s:



Hand-coloured 'Myōan Kyōkai 'Komusō' photograph by Nobukuni Enami, early 1900s.
Sources: io9.gizmodo.com & pinterest.com.


1924-1927:



Kyōto 'Komusō'
Name of photographer unknown.
Source: https://hznews.hangzhou.com.cn/wghz/content/2019-10/11/content_7282303_0.htm

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POST WW2 KYŌTO MYŌAN-JI KOMUSŌ

Era of the "new" Kyōto Myōan Temple "Pseudo-Monks of the Non-Dual & Noneness":
1950 to the Present

Possibly 1960s-1970s?:



Two 'Komusō' in front of the Kyōto Myōan Temple Gate.
Source: myouan-doushukai.org

2009:



A "modern" Myōan 'Komusō' at the Himeji Castle Festival in Hyōgo Prefecture, August 1, 2009.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Early 1870s:

The old, worn Kyōto Myōan-ji gate - disassembled sometime after 1871 - can be seen and appreciated within the precincts of the Yūzū Nenbutsu sect's mother temple Dainenbutsu-ji,
大念仏寺, in Hirano-ku, Ōsaka:




The old Myōan-ji gate reinstalled at Dainenbutsu-ji in Hirano-ku, Ōsaka.
Photos: Torsten O., March 13, 2019

1.8 Myōan Taizan-ha shakuhachi made by Ozawa Seizan, 1939-2012

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'MU-KU-TEKI SUI ZEN'
"No-Hole-Flute Breathing Contemplation"

Calligraphy signed 'Myōan Taizan'