|
Historical Shakuhachi Pictures Part 1 - until about 1640:
A Pictorial Chronology of Known Fine Historical
Illustrations of so-called 'Shakuhachi' Flutes,
Its Many Players Throughout Time,
with Additional Shakuhachi History Related Images
See also:
Historical Shakuhachi Pictures Part 2
- from just before 1640 until the Present:
A Pictorial Chronology of Known Fine Historical
Illustrations of so-called 'Shakuhachi' Flutes,
Its Many Players Throughout The Times,
with Additional Shakuhachi History Related Images
INDIA
a. 2600 BCE:
Square seal depicting a nude male deity with three faces,
seated in yogic position on a throne.
Harappan Bronze Age Culture, c. 2600-1900 BCE.
Dimensions: 2.65 x 2.7 cm, 0.83 to 0.86 cm thickness.
Excavated at Mohenjo-daro, present-day Punjab, Pakistan.
Now in the Islamabad Museum.
Sources: https://www.pinterest.dk/pin/289285976042826155/
https://www.harappa.com/indus/33.html
CHINA
6000 BCE or even older? - THE OLDEST PLAYABLE FLUTES in the WORLD
Ancient bone flutes excavated at Jiahu, Henan Province,
Central China, in 1986.
The Jiahu site was inhabited between a. 7.000 BCE to a. 5.700 BCE.
Read more about these remarkable old musical instruments here:
Brookhaven National Laboratory: Bone Flute Found in China
Shakuhachi.com: Article in Nature Magazine 1999
Wikipedia.org: Gudi (instrument)
Icobase: Flutes Aerophones
Listen to sound samples here:
Brookhaven National Laboratory: Wav file 1 (4.2 MB)
Erik the Flute Maker
Ca. 180 BCE:
Set of 12 Chinese pitch pipes dated a. 180 BCE found at a famous, very significant burial site
at Ma-wang-tui, No. 3 Tomb, near Ch'ang-sha in Hunan Province, China.
Picture from a special edition of the archaeological magazine Wen Wu, September, 1972.
It has to be noted that the 12 pitch pipes shown were apparently manufactured to be part
of a special Chinese Han Period type of mouth organ, namely the 'yu',
竽.
Around 630-645:
Chinese T'ang Dynasty music master Lü Ts'ai,
呂才,
606-665, creates 12 bamboo pitch pibes and perhaps even also the Chinese 'shakuhachi'?
One T'ang-shu edition in the possession of the Museum of Hangzhou Local Chronicles/Hangzhou Local History Museum, China.
Dimensions of the bamboo pitch pipes
Names of T'ang court musical instruments listed in the T'ang-shu
In the far left of the illuminated columns, three flutes are named as follows:
長笛, 'cháng dí'/'chō-teki', "long Flute";
尺八笛, 'chǐ bā dí'/'shakuhachi teki', "shakuhachi flute";
短笛, 'duǎn dí'/'tan-teki', "short flute".
Around 700?:
Earthenware figurines of Chinese T'ang Dynasty musicians, the one to the left seemingly
a 'hsiao'/'xiao'/Chinese 'shakuhachi' player, the one to the right playing a horizontal stringed zither.
Source: https://hznews.hangzhou.com.cn/wghz/content/2019-10/11/content_7282303_0.htm
Around 700-750 - Mid-T'ang Dynasty period:
A quartet of T'ang Dynasty female musician earthenware figurines.
Source: https://education.asianart.org/resources/four-seated-musicians/
Around 700-800? - Mid-T'ang Dynasty period:
T'ang Dynasty female flute musician earthenware figurine.
Source: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/chinese-tang-dynasty-terracotta-female-musician-t-488-c-58040db817
Around 700-800 - Mid-T'ang Dynasty period:
T'ang Dynasty female musician holding a long bamboo flute..
Source: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/867/tomb-figure-representing-a-musician-playing-a-bamboo-flute-china
Many more examples of T'ang Dynasty female musician tomb figurines
Around 750-800?:
Musicians pictured in a wall painting in Cave 25, 'Yulin',
at Tun-huang on the Silk Road, in the Kansu Province, W. China.
The Yulin grotto system was built and expanded since the N. Wei Dynasty, 356-534 CE.
The player at the top appears to be blowing a very long, quite thin flute that quite much
resembles the modern Chinese 6-holed 't'ung-hsiao'/'dong-xiao',
洞簫, Jap.: 'dōshō'.
Source: Izumi Takeo, 2016, p. 5, and the Internet
About 750? - Painting dated approx. 970 CE:
Female Chinese musicians performing in the T'ang Emperor Ming Huang's palace,
mid-8th century.
In the background to the right we see a musician blowing a medium long vertical flute
- maybe a 't'ung-hsiao',
洞簫, Jap.: 'dōshō'.
Scroll painting on silk attributed to the Chinese Imperial court painter Chou Wen-chü, ca. 970.
Source: Werner Speiser, 1961, p. 176
JAPAN
Around 700 CE?:
Small sculpture of a bodhisattva playing a shakuhachi look-alike.
Discovered in 2009 during a restoration of the canopy overhanging the Shaka Triad
being housed in the Hōryū-ji Kondō.
Source: Yatō Umiosa's 'Komusō' website
Hōryū-ji Kondō, Nara - Photo: T.O. 1977
Hōryū-ji Kondō, Nara - Photo: T.O. 1977
Early 8th century - maybe even early 7th century?:
5+1 hole 'Gagaku' type shakuhachi officially owned by the Hōryū Temple in Nara
in The Gallery of Hōryū-ji Treasures, Tokyo National Museum.
Precise date unclear.
Possibly not later than early 7th century, or so?
Photo from the Tumblr gallery "Sally Away From Home".
Source:
https://sallyawayfromhome.tumblr.com/post/168497873724/tokyo-national-museum-what-a-treasure-house-of
8th CENTURY:
雅楽尺八 - GAGAKU SHAKUHACHI
Shōsōin Imperial Treasury, Tōdai-ji, Nara - early 8th century
Gagaku Shakuhachi, Shōsōin Imperial Treasury, Tōdai-ji, Nara
Early 8th century
8th CENTURY:
Bodhisattva musician playing the shakuhachi, Tōdai-ji, Nara.
Detail of a large bronze lamp standing in front of the Great Buddha Hall.
One of the very few remains of the original 8th century temple.
Sources: Wikipedia & the Internet
Tōdai-ji bronze lamp shakuhachi player on the front cover of the 'Kikan Hōgaku' journal, 1975
About 1470 to c. 1550: ERA of the 'KOMOSŌ' "Mat Monks"
薦僧
1477?:
PAINTING of RŌAN PLAYING a LONG VERTICAL FLUTE
朗庵吹笛画 - RŌAN SUITEKI-GA
無常心 - MUJŌ-SHIN
Is this really a "genuine work of art"?
Picture of Rōan Playing a Flute
Painting attributed to the Zen monk and painter Shōkei,
aka Kei Shoki, "Clerksman Kei", who was active
during the last two decades of the 1400s and died in 1518.
In the collection of the late Kowata Suigetsu,
木幡吹月, 1901-1983
Another Picture of Rōan Playing a Flute discovered on the internet, uncommented.
If you study and compare this picture closely with the two smaller ones above it you will soon realize that they are actually quite different!
How can this be? Which of them is the original - which is a copy?
Are they both falsifications?
If this were indeed a genuine painting, more than 500 years old, it would have been created sometime between 1467, when the renowned painter monk Kenkō Shōkei,
賢江祥啓,
was appointed clerksman/calligrapher at the Kenchō Zen Temple in Kamakura, and 1477, when the shakuhachi hermit Rōan supposedly added his short anecdote, his
Chinese style 4-line 7-syllable poem, and the place and date, at the top of this quite mysterious hanging scroll.
It has so far been impossible to locate a proper high resolution picture of the painting which includes the written text.
Acc. to an internet web page (see link below) the hanging scroll is reproduced in the Nihon-ga taisei,
日本画大成, "A Compilation of Japanese Painting", 1931, Vol. 3, Plate 66.
Fortunately, the shakuhachi scholar Ueno Katami appears to have had access to the original painting (or a good reproduction)
and he has presented the complete text in his book
Shakuhachi no rekishi, "History of the Shakuhachi", published in 2002 (revised and enlarged edition, first publ. in 1983), on page 153.
Whether this painting attributed to Shōkei is actually "a fabrication", or not, let us appreciate the story and its sincere message for all it is worth, anyway:
余、東奥行脚の砌、相州巨福路,
建長禅寺宝珠庵に入り沓憇す。
庵主祥啓書記、吾が躰、甚だ異なるを相て、
以って 紙上に写し、而して予に給す。
依って年来演じる所を執って云う。
"While I [Rōan] was performing a pilgrimage along the Kobuku Road in Sōshū
[Sagami, mod. Kanagawa Pref.] I entered the Hōju Hermitage at the Kenchō
Zen Temple in [Kamakura] and rested my feet.
The clerksman there, Shōkei the Hermit, noticed my very strange appearance,
then rendered [my portrait] on paper and, eventually, bestowed it on me.
For this reason, I said that I would form an attachment, committing myself
to [come and] play [the shakuhachi] at that place for years to come."
竜頭切断兮以来
尺八寸中通古今
吹出無常心一曲
三千里外絶知音
"When Dualism is cut off,
the shakuhachi dissolves the distinction between Past and Present.
That one unique Sound of Everlasting Impermanence
brings even the Purest of Wisdom [Skt.: Jnana] to an end,
without limit."
時に文明丁酉 秋 宇治の旧蘆に於いて 朗庵叟書
"The 9th year of Bunmei [1477] - Autumn -
Written among the old reeds of Uji by Rōan the Elder."
Trsl. by Torsten Olafsson, 2010 & 2013.
Source: Ueno, 2002, pp. 152-153.
A rather poor version of the painting can be found here:
www.um.u-tokyo.ac.jp/publish_db/1994collection1/tenji_kaiga_48.html
www1.cncm.ne.jp/~seifu/rouanzu.htm &
The poem is quite similar to poems preserved in
various versions of the kyōgen play 'Rakuami'.
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
1501:
Biwa-hōshi with a short single-noded shakuhachi and a panflute by his side
in 'Shichijūichi-ban shokunin utaawase emaki'
Date of original: 1501. Tōkyō National Museum
1512:
TAIGENSHŌ - by Toyohara Sumiaki (1450-1524)
體源抄 / 体源抄
楽人 - GAKUNIN
Single-node 'shakuhachi' pictures in the Taigenshō, 1512, Maki 5
The entire 1933 edition of the Taigenshō may be downloaded
from this location:
www.archive.org
- Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library, University of Toronto
1521-1532:
Two 'komosō' playing vertical flutes in a Kyōto street
Detail of the folding screen 'Raku-chū raku-gai zu byōbu',
"Pictures from In and Around the Capital",
Machida-bon edition.
Dated to between 1521 and 1532.
Close-up detail of the folding screen 'Raku-chū raku-gai zu byōbu',
"Pictures from In and Around the Capital",
Machida-bon edition.
The National Museum of Japanese History, Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture
For further information, see Gunnar Jinmei Linder, 2012, pp. 205-207.
1543, September 23 (W. calendar):
A Portuguese merchant ship shipwrecks on a beach of the island Tanegashima south of Kyūshū, Japan.
That is the first recorded visit of European Christians in Japan.
1549:
The Spanish Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier lands in Kagoshima and begins movement to spread Christian teaching in Japan.
Japanese portrait of Francis Xavier (1506-1552)
Kōbe City Museum, Kōbe, Japan
c. 1550 to 1628 or c. 1640?: ERA of the FUKE-KOMOSŌ
普化薦僧
c. 1550-1560:
普化僧 - FUKE-SŌ synonymous with KOMOSŌ:
コモ
僧
節用集 - SETSUYŌSHŪ DICTIONARY VERSIONS: Guides to Character Readings
Details from the 'Ryūmon bunko no Setsuyōshū'
Library of Nara Women's University - precise date unclear
When, approximately, did the komosō of Medieval Japan adopt Fuke Zenji as their idol of shakuhachi asceticism?
A few late Muromachi Period versions of the popular dictionary Setsuyōshū", "Economical Collection" or "Collection [of Words] for Everyday Use",
do actually present noteworthy evidence in that respect:
Right: Readings for the kanji 'Komo-sō' and 'Fu-ke(-sō)'
in three different early versions of the 'Setsuyōshū'
- second half of the 16th century
After 1560 - Late Muromachi Period:
'Komosō' playing a short 'shakuhachi' ('hitoyogiri'?) in a street (center)
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). Tokyo National Museum
Do we actually see the 'komosō' above wearing a long sword, possibly made of wood (?),
the tip of which is protruding from his left side, appearing just beneath the bed roll
that he is carrying on his back?
Link to an online, inter-active website presenting the complete screen:
Tokyo National Museum - E-Museum online
1565-1576
Possibly an tinerant monk (?) obviously playing a short vertical flute on a bridge
Detail of the folding screen 'Takao kanpu-zu byōbu'
By Kano Hideyori, act. 1565-1576. Tokyo National Museum
1574:
'Komosō' playing a vertical flute in a Kyōto street
Detail of the folding screen 'Raku-chū raku-gai zu byōbu',
"Pictures from In and Around the Capital",
Uesugi-bon edition. Commissioned by Oda Nobunaga.
The Yonezawa City Uesugi Museum, Yamagata Prefecture
Old Edo Period (1603-1867) hitoyogiri shakuhachi.
Makers unknown. In: Kikan Hōgaku 5, 1975.
1597:
The 26 Christian Martyrs in Nagasaki. Painting by Eustaquio Maria de Nenclares, 1862.
On February 5, 1597, 26 Christians - missionaries and Japanese followers alike -
were crucified at Nishizaka in Nagasaki,
on the order of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, then the absolute ruler of Japan.
In 1612 the Tokugawa government outlaws Christianity in the district immediately under its control, and martyrdoms began in Edo.
Following upon the Shimabara Uprising - the insurrection of Christians and peasants in Shimabara and Amakusa in 1637 to 1638 -
Japan sealed its borders for all Christian foreigners except the Dutch who were allowed to maintain a trade station on the small 'artificial' island Dejiima in Nagasaki Bay.
1600:
The Sekigahara Battle
Source: WikiMedia
About 1600?:
Late Momoyama Period (1573-1615) - Very early 17th century
Yet not fully identified, so far undated, very early 17th century 'komosō' picture.
Apparently part of a rather typical Azuchi-Momoyama Period gold-leaf decorated folding screen
with everyday scenes, quite certainly dating from the early 1600s.
OBS: Dated 1735, this picture is indeed a curiosity - sort of an "anachronism":
Very similar in theme and execution as the picture above, this is one of 12 illustrations
on a folding screen dated to 1735 and titled 'Shokunin zukushi-e byōbu', 職人尽絵屏風,
"Pictures of People of Various Occupations in Their Workshops".
One would not term it "a copy", however, but rather an anachronism,
as the shown mat-carrying 'komosō' type of mendicant flute-player
had been replaced by the 'Komusō' many decades before 1735.
The art historian Kazuko Kameda-Madar has described the screen in this article
(link) at www.academia.edu:
"Pictures of People of Various Occupations in Their Workshops"
1614-15:
The Siege of Ōsaka Castle
Source: WikiMedia
1622:
元和
の
大殉教 - GENNA no DAIJUNKYŌ
The "Great Genna Martyrdom" at Nagasaki.
55 arrested Christians die from torture, exhaustion or execution.
"The Great Genna Martyrdom in Nagasaki"
Painting by unnamed Japanese artist.
1623:
江戸
の
大殉教 - EDO no DAIJUNKYŌ
The "Great Martyrdom of Edo".
First 50, soon afterwards further 37 Christians are executed.
"The Great Martyrdom in Edo"
Painting by unnamed Japanese artist.
1624-44 - Kan'ei Period
洞簫 - DŌSHŌ
The Shijō shirakawa yūraku-zu folding screen:
Female & male shakuhachi ('dōshō?') players
and one 'hitoyogiri' player performing
Kan'ei Period, 1624-44. Creator unknown
Seikaidō Bunko Art Museum, Tōkyō
1624-1630 - Early Kan'ei Period:
Iwasa Matabei's painting of Two Komosō & An Umbrella Maker, detail.
Now in the possession of the Smithsonian/Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Dated no later than 1630, according to Japanese art historians
c/o the Nezu Museum in Tokyo.
'Kasa-hari • komusō-zu' on display (right) at Nezu Museum,
Tōkyō - November 23, 2010, through December 23, 2010
For more detailed information, do visit this dedicated webpage, first uploaded here on April 27, 2021 - revisited and checked on October 20, 2024:
1630 at the latest: Iwasa Matabei's Famous Painting of
Two 'Fuke-Komosō' With Swords & An Umbrella Maker
1620s:
Illustration of two komosō with swords in the picture scroll 'Shokunin tsukushi zu-maki',
apparently by Iwasa Katsumochi Matabei, 1578-1650.
Idemitsu Bijutsu-kan/Idemitsu Museum of Art, Tokyo, Chiyoda City.
Presented online by Shakuhachi-Kataha, link to web page:
https://note.com/kataha_comjo/n/nb964ee048e6c
After 1628?, or from c. 1640?: ERA of the KOMUSŌ
- the "Pseudo-Monks of the Non-dual & None-ness"
虚無僧
1629:
The practice of fumi-e, 踏み絵 - the forced trampling of Christian images -
is introduced and kept in constant national execution and effect all through the year 1869.
The religious authorities of the Tokugawa shōgunate required suspected Christians to step on images of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary
in order to prove that they were not members of that outlawed religion.
Fumi-e: Jesus Christ & the Virgin Mary tablets. No exact dates.
Source: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B8%8F%E3%81%BF%E7%B5%B5
Painting of a 'fumi-e' inquisitional ceremony by Keiga Kawahara, created sometime during 1800-1829.
Source: National Library of the Netherlands. Link:
geheugenvannederland.nl
Date of picture acc. to Wikipedia: December 31, 1869.
Source: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B8%8F%E3%81%BF%E7%B5%B5
Mid-1600s?:
Painting of three early 'Komusō'?
Attributed to Iwasa Matabei, 1578-1650.
Possibly dating from the 1630s.
Owned by the Shingon Sect temple Tōya-san Fumon-ji Taishō-in near Matsudo City in NW. Chiba Pref.
Source: Yamaguchi Masayoshi, 2005, p. 176.
Painting of three early 'Komusō'?
Acc. to Kakizaki Shōhō, this picture should date from the Genroku Period, 1688-1704.
If that were so, Iwasa Matabei, 1578-1650, cannot be the artist.
Most probably 1630s-1640s:
Picture of a late 'Komosō' or: an early 'Komusō'? in a Kyōto street.
Detail of a yet not fully recognized and identified version
of a 'Raku-chū raku-gai zu byōbu'.
Possibly dating from the 1630s.
Do note that the flute player is carrying a sleeping roll on his back,
with three extra long flutes on top of the roll,
like a 'Komosō' "beggar monk" - not like a 'Komusō', at all!
Source: Izumi Takeo, 2013, pp. 82-83.
You find the detail in the very bottom of the screen,
right above the Japanese character, 'zu', 図.
The screen is a treasure of the Tanabe City Fine Arts Hall.
Source: Izumi Takeo, 2015, p. 81.
Most probably 1630s-1640s:
Yet not fully identified and dated early 17th century 'Komusō'? picture.
Possibly dating from the 1630s?
Exhibited at Matsudo City Museum, Matsudo-shi, NW Chiba Pref.
Detail
The above picture photographed at the Matsudo City Museum in Chiba
by Ronald Nelson, summer 2014.
Acc. to Bandō Jirō's weblog, however: From a (yet obscure!) 17th century art work entitled
Jidai fūzokuga-fuku",
時代風俗画幅,
"Scroll with Pictures of Customs of the Day".
Post card purchased by a companion of Bandō Jirō's at Matsudo City Museum in Autumn 2012
Link: Bandō Jirō's weblog
1637-38 - The SHIMABARA REBELLION near NAGASAKI on KYŪSHŪ
1637: Christian farmers, warriors, 'rōnin' (masterless samurai) and others revolt against the authorities on the Shimabara Peninsula in Kyūshū.
When the uprising was put down in 1638, tens of thousands had been killed.
All surviving rebels, numbering in the thousands, were decapitated.
Christianity was now strictly outlawed in Japan and informers were encouraged.
'Shimabara ran-zu byōbu'
"Folding screen depicting the rebellion at Shimabara".
Source: Wikipedia.
1630s-1640s?:
Samurai look-a-like flute player featured in the picture scroll
'Shokunin fūzoku emaki', "Picture scroll of Professions and Manners".
Artist unnamed. Dating still in some dispute. The scroll may be a mid-18th Edo Period work,
but the sword-carrying - though quite more samurai-looking - flute player certainly matches
the however few pictorial 'Komosō' late "mat monk" appearances that we know of
from only the first early decades of the 17th century.
Link to more information at The National Museum of Japanese History:
https://www.rekihaku.ac.jp/education_research/gallery/webgallery/shokunin_f/shokunin_f.html
And, acc. to that museum's art researcher Kojima Michihiro here:
https://twitter.com/ko_0021/status/1395715775936172040/photo/2
English lanugage page about the 'Shokunin fūzoku emaki' picture scroll:
https://www.rekihaku.ac.jp/english/outline/publication/rekihaku/164/witness.html
Presented - and dated "1650" - online by Shakuhachi-Kataha, link to web page:
https://note.com/kataha_comjo/n/nb964ee048e6c
1640, 6th Month, 17th Day:
The 'SHŪMON ARATAME-YAKU', "The Office of Sect Inquisition" is Established
See also:
Historical Shakuhachi Pictures Part 2
- from just before 1640 until the Present:
A Pictorial Chronology of Known Fine Historical
Illustrations of so called 'Shakuhachi' Flutes,
Its Many Players Throughout The Times,
with Additional Shakuhachi History Related Images
|
|
