Shakuhachi

「修行尺八」歴史的証拠の研究ホームページ
'Shugyō Shakuhachi' rekishi-teki shōko no kenkyū hōmupēji - zen-shakuhachi.dk

**The "Ascetic Shakuhachi" Historical Evidence Research Web Pages**

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 Torsten Mukuteki Olafsson • トーステン無穴笛オーラフソン • デンマーク • Denmark

Introduction / Front Page / Home

1659?/1752: A Falsely Dated Myōan-ji Document Revealed?

This "double" Kyōto Myōan-ji document is highly questionable, if not even extremely controversial.

中興淵月了源定置家訓二十三ケ条

Chūkō Engetsu Ryōgen teichi kakun nijūsanka-jō

"Myōan-ji Restorer Engetsu Ryōgen's 23 Fixed Rules for the House"

Dated 1659, Manji 2, however with an attached appendix dated 1752, Hōreki 2.

This text could certainly not have been produced as early as in 1659 and must therefore be termed a falsification as far as the early date is concerned.

Engetsu is being celebrated by the Myōan Temple as the "restorer",'chūkō', 中興, of the temple at some time during the second half of the 17th century.
He is recorded to have died in 1695 and is most certainly the first actual genuine "historical person" to be regarded as such in the history of the Kyōto Myōan Temple.

Source: Reprinted in Nakatsuka 1979, pp. 151-162.

Iida Kyorei, 飯田峡嶺, has rendered the contents of this document in modern Japanese -

Click here to study the text at Iida Kyorei's 'Koshūan' Shakuhachi History Website

You may also study Riley Kelly Lee's short comment in his 1992 PhD thesis on pages 87-89.

Engetsu Ryōgen's 23 Fixed Rules for the House, original text in kanbun.
Source with comments: Nakatsuka 1979, pp. 151-162.

To the front page