Front Page / Index File
1.8 Myōan shakuhachi by Ozawa Seizan, 1970s
Kyōto, Japan, Spring 1978.
Photo: Walther Ulrich.
T.O. Profile / Bio / CV
Profile Status Update, Late 2022. Original Profile
submitted to Hōgaku Journal Vol. 430, Nov., 2022
T.O.'s Profile at www.komuso.com
Literature in Eastern Languages
Literature in Western Languages
Contact Info, E-mail
Disclaimer
Ichijō-ji, Sakyō-ku, Kyōto, 1977
TEXTS, QUOTATIONS, ILLUSTRATIONS
INDIA, CHINA, JAPAN - and THE WEST
A Chronological Panorama - 12 Reloaded
Web Pages from the Previous Website Version
that were Closed as of February 1, 2024
INDIA - 1 Web Page
CHINA - 2 Web Pages
JAPAN - 8 Web Pages
The WEST - 1 Web Page
Welcome to A Thousands of Years' History Odyssey
- Start Here:
• INDIA: 2600 BCE - 800 CE
"TRANSLATIONS" THAT WENT WRONG
- OVERLY FANTASTIC "TALES" DEBUNKED
Memories of Ennin / Jikaku Taishi & Kakua ...
More Will Be Added: Events that Most Probably
Never Took Place - And, "Translations" and "Renderings"
that Pathetically Fail a Few Simple Fact Checks
1965: SHAKUHACHI MUSIC GOES ALL "NEW AGE"
1965: Clarinetist Tony Scott & "Music for Zen Meditation"
How Japanese Music Became US "New Age" Music
from Day One - Including All of Shakuhachi Music,
for that Matter, indeed
THE MANY DIFFERENT 'SHAKUHACHI' FLUTES
and THEIR DIFFERENT PLAYERS
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
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
薦僧/菰僧 - 虚無僧
From 'KOMOSŌ' to 'KOMUSŌ':
1614 to 1664 - 1628 to 1646
Mid-1620s - Early 1660s
1549 ... The Catholic Christian Century in Japan
& the Temple Patron Household System
1614 to 1664: From 'Ko-MO-sō' to 'Ko-MU-sō'
When That Actually Happened - The Broader Context
Essential Documentary Evidence Observed
1614: The Keichō kenmon-shū Short Story Book:
The 'Fuke-Komosō' in Hachiōji, West of Edo City
1621-1625: Neo-Confucian Scholar Hayashi Razan's Writings
on 'Shakuhachi', 'Komosō', and Related Matters
1623: The "Fuke Monk" at Yūfuku Temple in Tōgō,
mod. Aichi Prefecture
1628: The Kaidō honsoku Fuke-komosō Credo Version 1
1640-1658: Methods of the Christian Convert Inquisition
Described by Inoue Masashige in the Kirishito-ki
1646 at the latest: Abbot Isshi Bunshu's Letter to
"a Proto-Komusō" named Sandō Mugetsu
1664: The Shichiku shoshinshū Music Treatise
by Nakamura Sōsan. The First 'Komusō'
'Shakuhachi-Rōnin' Ever Witnessed in Kyōto?
HIGHLIGHTED IMPORTANT KOMUSŌ CASES AFTER 1664
1678: The Enpō 5, 12th Month Komusō-ha Oboe
Bakufu Memorandum of January 11th, 1678
1748: Chikamatsu's Play Kanadehon Chūshingura
and the Komusō Shakuhachi Piece 'Tsuru no sugomori'
1751?: The Problematic 'Keichō 19' (1614) 'Komusō' Scripts:
The Many Different All Fabricated Versions
Playing, having lectured at
Kyōto Rakuhoku Rotary Club
June, 1978
RESEARCH MATTERS, ISSUES - The RESOURCES
The Failure of Ethnomusicology Regarding the Shakuhachi -
The Sad and Deplorable Legacy of post-WW2 Ethnomusicology
Debunking Claims and Flawed Beliefs about
Edo Period 'Komusō Suizen' -
- Do Some "Scholars" Really "Debate" Such Issue?
- Who May Those "Critical Scholars" Be?
2024: The Remarkably Really Few Western
'Shakuhachi' "History" Writers Who Actually Express
Just Some Degree of Growing Skepticism
and Critical Thinking Regarding Tokugawa Period
'Komusō' Shakuhachi Reality: Fiction Versus Fact ...
2021, May: Oliver Aumann, Japanologist and Itchō-ken
Player on 'Komusō', "Meditation", and 'Suizen'
The Ethnomusicologists' Shakuhachi Historical Facts
Ethical Challenge and Dilemma
- Documentary Evidence or Just Hearsay?
1887-1944: Nakatsuka Chikuzen in Memoriam, 2024
A Shakuhachi History Research Pioneer
80th Anniversary
1979 Book: Nakatsuka Chikuzen's Articles
in Sankyoku Magazine Published in 1936-1939
- A Complete List of Contents, in Japanese
2024: Most Recommendable Critical Japanese Shakuhachi -
Historians. Their Fact Finding Researches,
Online Fact Resource Web Sites & Books
1899 till today: Translators of Japanese Source Texts
published in the West / Outside of Japan
including the Internet / WWW
THE KOJI RUIEN DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE COLLECTIONS
From 1879 ... 1896-1914: The Koji ruien
Historical Encyclopedia, Section 'Fuke-shū',
and the Further Falsification of 'Komusō'
and Ascetic Shakuhachi "History"
The 'Fuke-shū' Chapter in the Koji ruien Source Collection
The 'Shakuhachi' Chapter in the Koji ruien Source Collection
'(HON)KYOKU' MUSIC HISTORY RESEARCH MATTERS,
ISSUES, RESULTS, CLARIFICATIONS, CONCLUSIONS
How "Old" is "Ancient"?
Are So-called 'Shakuhachi Honkyoku' "Ancient"?
2000: Tsukitani Tsuneko, Overview of Titles
and Notations - Never Were There Any 'Honkyoku'
in the Edo Period, only 'Kyoku'!
2000: Tsukitani Tsuneko '(Hon)kyoku' Book,
English Summary
1732: The Fascinating Shakuhachi denrai-ki Document.
Early Edo Period 'Shakuhachi' Music History.
The Oldest Known List of 'Komusō' Melody Titles
1735: Kyōto Myōan-ji Temple Chief Administrator
Kandō Ichiyū's Letter about 'Sankyorei-fu',
the "Three Non-Dual Spirit Music Notations"
1819, 1st Month: The Ranzan Old Documents Study Society
Presents List of 18+17 Shakuhachi Music Pieces
of the Early Kinko Shakuhachi Tradition
1819: The Ranzan City Society for the Study of
Old Documents: Keichō no okitegaki, Enpō 5 Oboe,
Okite & Shakuhachi kyoku-moku
TEXTS, QUOTATIONS, ILLUSTRATIONS
INDIA, CHINA, JAPAN - and THE WEST
A Chronological Panorama - 12 Reloaded
Web Pages from the Previous Website Version
that were Closed as of February 1, 2024
INDIA - 1 Web Page
CHINA - 2 Web Pages
JAPAN - 8 Web Pages
The WEST - 1 Web Page
Welcome to A 1000s of Years' History Odyssey
- Start Here:
• INDIA: 2600 BCE - 800 CE
THE MANY DIFFERENT 'SHAKUHACHI' FLUTES
and THEIR DIFFERENT PLAYERS
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
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
North Sealand, Denmark, 1983
Photo: Mikkel Scharff
EXAMPLES of SHAKUHACHI HISTORY
"MYTHS" & "LEGENDS"? MADE UP MISINFORMATION? ...
- FABRICATIONS, FALSIFICATIONS - "FORGERIES"? ...
- DELIBERATE "MISINTERPRETATION"? ...
- WILLFUL "MISREPRESENTATION"? ...
- "INVENTED TRADITION"? or BLATANT LIES? ...
- CONSPIRATORY EXCLUSION of FACTS? ...
- JUST SHEER INCOMPETENCE, and IGNORANCE? ...
- and, EVEN POSSIBLE DELIBERATE HISTORY FRAUD?
1832 ... : Shakuhachi & Komusō "History" Narratives
Written and Publicized in Western Languages
The "BIG LIE": "Nothing like a 'Fuke-shū' ever existed"
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'?
1965: Clarinetist Tony Scott & "Music for Zen Meditation"
How Japanese Music Became
US American "New Age" Music from Day One
1974: The Nippon Columbia 'Suizen' Triple-LP Set with a
"Separate Commentary Book" by Kamisangō Yūkō a.o.
Why Did the Nippon Columbia Record Company
Ever Put Out That 1974 LP Album 'Suizen'?
1974: 'Komusō' & 'Suizen'?: The Emperor's New Clothes!
PART 1
What Prof. Kamisangō Yūkō Once Precisely Told Us
about Supposed "Edo Period 'Komusō Suizen' Life"
1974: 'Komusō' & 'Suizen'?: The Emperor's New Clothes!
PART 2
What Prof. Kamisangō Yūkō Once Precisely Told Us
about Supposed "Edo Period 'Komusō Suizen' Life"
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
1980s: Questionable Western Writings about 'Suizen'
Andreas B. Gutzwiller, Christopher Blasdel, Riley Kelly Lee ...
1974 ...: Untruthful 'Suizen' & "Shakuhachi Meditation"
Information & Assertions, East & West
- Presented in Western Languages, Primarily
More "Fuke Shakuhachi" and 'Suizen'
Disinformation in Print and on the Internet,
Discovered & Revealed - Debunked & Rejected
Hottō Kokushi a.k.a. Kakushin Did Not "Invent" 'Suizen',
Nor Did He "Invent" 'Suishō-zen'!
Debunking Claims and Flawed Beliefs about
'Komusō Suizen'
- Do Some "Scholars" Really "Debate" Such Issue?
TO BE, OR NOT TO BE: A "ZEN BUDDHIST PRIEST"?
To be - or not to be: a "Zen Buddhist Priest"?
Clarifications by Shakuhachi Player and Researcher
Makihara Ichiro and others
No, No, & No Again:
Edo Period 'Komusō' were not "Zen Monks"
of the Rinzai Zen Sect of Japanese Buddhism:
The 'Komusō' and the Authoritarian 'Danka' System
The 'Komusō' Movement's Place & Destiny
in Mid- to Late Tokugawa Society
楽阿弥 - 両頭切断
Late 15th Century?: The 'Kyōgen' Play 'Rakuami'
and the Shakuhachi "Cutting Through" Dualistic Thinking
海道本則
Torsten Olafsson, 1987 & 2003_
"The 1628 KAIDŌ HONSOKU"
Komos佭Shakuhachi Document, thesis
TAI HEI SHAKUHACHI at
www.shakuhachi.com
切支丹教世紀
1549 ... The Catholic Christian Century in Japan
& the Temple Patron Household System
1614 to 1664: From 'Ko-MO-sō' to 'Ko-MU-sō'
- When That Actually Happened - The Broader Context
- Essential Documentary Evidence Observed
1628: The Kaidō honsoku Fuke-komosō Credo Version 1
Early 1640s?: The Kaidō honsoku "Version 2"
Copy
Late 1640s?: The Kaidō honsoku "Version 3" Copy
一絲和尚から山堂無月へ
1646 at the latest: Abbot Isshi Bunshu's Letter to
"a Proto-Komusō" named Sandō Mugetsu
1640-1646: Abbot Isshi Bunshu's Letter to Sandō Mugetsu
- the 1981 Kowata Suigetsu Version of the Text
1640-1646: The Hottō Kokushi/Kakushin
Fully Fabricated Fable: The "Four Buddhist Laymen"
& the "Disciple" 'Kichiku'
1665-1675?: The Kyotaku denki Fairy Tale is Born?
Shinchi Kakushin, Kichiku, Kyochiku & Kyōto Myōan-ji
After ca. 1665? to 1795: The Kyotaku denki Original Text,
1981 edition, the Kyotaku denki kokujikai Illustrations,
and Tsuge Gen'ichi's 1977 Translation
1795: The Kyotaku denki kokujikai Source Book, 1925 Ed.
Authored and Published in Kyōto by Yamamoto Morihide
- Preserved at the National Diet Library, Tōkyō
Frederiksborg Castle Park, 2007
- 明暗双双 - 両頭切断
- 不生不滅
ASPECTS of SHAKUHACHI NON-DUALISM:
'MYŌ-AN SŌ-SŌ', 'RYŌ-TŌ SETSU-DAN', 'FU-SHŌ FU-METSU' ...
"Dual(istic) Bright-Dark Pair", "Cutting Off Dualism",
- "Non-Born, Non-Perished"
A forthcoming web page under preparation.
- 無生の曲 - 無常心
- 無弦琴 - 無孔笛
ASPECTS of 'MU' - NOTHING THERE, NONENESS:
MU-SHŌ no KYOKU - MU-JŌ-SHIN
- MU-GEN-KIN - MU-KU-TEKI
"Music of the Non-Born", "Mind of Impermanence"
- "Zither with no Strings", "Flute with no Holes"
A forthcoming web page under preparation.
- 行脚 - 物乞い - 托鉢
- 行 - 修行
- 気息修行 - 吹笛修行
- 吹簫禅 - 吹禅
- 行の音楽 - 尺八修養
ASPECTS of ASCETIC SHAKUHACHI PRACTICE:
- ANGYA - MONOKOI - TAKU-HATSU
- GYŌ - SHU-GYŌ
- KISOKU SHUGYŌ - SUI-TEKI SHU-GYŌ
- SUI-SHŌ-ZEN - SUI-ZEN
- GYŌ no ONGAKU - SHAKUHACHI SHŪ-YŌ
Chronology of Ascetic Shakuhachi
Ideology-related Terms, Concepts & Names
Ascetic Shakuhachi Ideology: Documentation
of the Experienced Basically Non-Dual Nature
of Ultimate Reality - Highlighted Quotations
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'?
1930: Kobayashi Shizan & Tomimori Kyozan
Co-publicize the Shakuhachi Concept 'Suishō-zen' a.o.
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.
1960: Uramoto Setchō's Statement about
'Gyō no ongaku': "Ascetic Music"
1977 & 1978: The Legacy of the Late Myōan Taizan-ha
'Suizen' Players/Teachers Yoshimura 'Fuan' Sōshin
& Ozawa 'Zetsugai' Seizan - and Hisamatsu Fūyō's
Sincere Ascetic Shakuhachi Credo 200 Years Ago
1995: This is Original 'Suizen' Shakuhachi, Myōan Taizan-ha
Tradition: Yoshimura Fuan Sōshin
'Suizen ichinyo', 1995 - An Utterly Ignored,
If not Even Deliberately "Purged", Yet Monumental
Myōan Taizan-ha 'Suizen' Shakuhachi Sound Collection
Copenhagen, 2009
Photo by Elisabeth Grønvald
SPECIALLY SUGGESTED READINGS & LINKS
- Books, Articles and Youtube Videos:
C.R. Boxer: "The Christian Century in Japan." Important
1967 publication now also available as PDF file
The Shimabara Rebellion
The 'Shūmon aratame' Sects Inquisition Bureau."
Edward Hagemann:
"The Persecution of the Christians in Japan
in the Middle of the Seventeenth Century." PDF file
Namlin Hur: "Anti-Christianity and Funerary Buddhism
in Tokugawa Japan." PDF file.
Kenneth A. Marcure: "The Danka System." PDF file
Tamamuro Fumio & Duncan Williams: "The Development
of the Temple-Parishioner System." PDF file.
Matt Gillan: "Sankyoku Magazine and the Invention
of the Shakuhachi as Religious Instrument
in Early 20th-Century Japan." PDF File
2019-2023:
Zen-Shakuhachi.dk Research Inspired Youtube Videos
by Shawn Renzoh Head and Nick Hoko Bellando
Shawn Renzoh Head.
Photo source: shawnheadmusic.com, 2024
North Sealand, February, 2019
The final (?) 'Suizen' lecture at Elsinore Library
TEXTS, QUOTATIONS, ILLUSTRATIONS
A Chronological Panorama - 12 Reloaded
Web Pages from the Previous Website Version
INDIA - 1 Web Page:
• INDIA: 2600 BCE - 800 CE
CHINA - 2 Web Pages:
• CHINA 1: 6000 BCE - 500 CE
• CHINA 2: 500 CE ...
JAPAN - 8 Web Pages:
• JAPAN 1: 600 - 1233
• JAPAN 2: 1233 - 1477
• JAPAN 3: 1477 - 1560
• JAPAN 4: 1560 - 1614
• JAPAN 5: 1614 - 1664
• JAPAN 6: 1664 - 1767
• JAPAN 7: 1767 - 1883
• JAPAN 8: 1883 ...
The WEST - 1 Web Page:
• The WEST: 1298 ...
2010 - Photo: Tom Steffe
|
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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, Linguistics, Terminology, Etymology, Vocabulary,
Concepts, Semantics, Ideology & Iconology
By Danish/Icelandic Torsten Olafsson, Denmark:
Multi Musician, Composer, Lyrics Writer, Music Publishing Editor, Music Transcriber, Graphical Designer, Photographer, Web Designer,
Language Critic, Japanologist, Chronologist, Shakuhachi Historian, Translator, Author & Lecturer
From the beginning, active WWW Internet presence since 2003:
An unbiased, non-profit, strictly documentary evidence based research and information endeavour
completely independent of any external funding,
totally devoid of self-promoting academic career aspirations and any possible implicated imagined financial profit prospects.
Torsten Olafsson's 1987 master's thesis in Japanology titled
"Early Seventeenth Century Shakuhachi Ideology.
THE KAIDŌ HONSOKU:
A Komosō's Fuke Shakuhachi Credo Dated 1628.
University of Copenhagen, Denmark, 1987."
was published internationally in 2003 by Tai Hei Shakuhachi, c/o Monty H. Levenson, Willits, California.
Link: https://www.shakuhachi.com/PG-Olafsson.html
Torsten Olafsson earned the "Exam. art." degree (English equivalent: B.A.) in Chinese Art
& Culture in 1974, the "Exam. art." degree (English equivalent: B.A.) in Japanology in 1981,
and submitted his internationally recognized academic Japanology master's thesis on the 1628
Kaidō honsoku 'komosō' shakuhachi document in 1987, all c/o the University of Copenhagen,
Eastasian Institute, Denmark.
Academic, truth-seeking credo:
Only objective, unprejudiced, well documented evidential historical facts count and matter ...
- secondarily so, though - maybe just at times - objective and unbiased
educated academic speculation may occasionally be allowed for,
under due responsibility, of course.
Kronborg, Elsinore, North Sealand, a.k.a. "Hamlet's Castle". Photo: Torsten Olafsson
This Website is Programmed in Very Simple HTML Coding
- Recommended Browsers
During ongoing editing and programming the web pages are primarily being checked in and prepared for the browsers Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox
occasionally checked and tested in Opera and Safari, on PC and cell phone.
It is warmly recommended to view this website on personal computer with a large widescreen HD monitor.
This is not a commercial website that monitors your internet behaviour, records your search preferences.
You are being met with no request to "accept cookies" or anything like that.
There is no "asking for your money" here, don't worry :-)
Only the necessary open front door to this site, the so-called "index" file ... at times also the "Introduction" web page ...
are made publicly detectable by the internet "search engines", the "robots", at this moment of writing.
The provider, the web hotel, only registers where on our planet any visitor is entering from, and which different search engines the visitors are using.
No names, no identities are registered and documented, anywhere here, locally, inhouse.
All the Best - Torsten Olafsson, Elsinore, Denmark, October, 2024.
I Do Have a Fascinating and Important 'Shakuhachi' Story to Tell You.
I Am Telling It Here, and: I'm Not Lying to You :-)
The Questions That Must Be Asked and Replied to Are:
The 6 "W"s: WHAT - WHERE - WHEN - WHO - WHY - HOW
Kind Regards, Torsten Olafsson, Elsinore, Denmark
"Zen is Thinking with the Body."
- Statement by Swami Nikhilananda, quoted by renowned researcher and translator Reginaĺd Horacio Blyth, 1960
Reference:
R.H. Blyth/Reginald Horace Blyth: Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 1: General Introduction.
From the Upanishads to Huineng. The Hokuseido Press, Tokyo, 1960.
Link to online PDF version: https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/blyth-zen1.pdf
Nothing Mattered More in Edo Period Society
Than Neo-Confucian Ideology, Class Surveillance, Separation and Control.
That Is Practically Even So This Very Day, also in the Shakuhachi World.
When, after about 1640, 'Rōnin' ex-samurai known as 'Komosō' began to identitfy themselves as 'Komusō' and claimed members
of some kind of a fine old Buddhist brotherhood, they faced one very obvious problem - a serious challenge:
Neither did 'Komosō', nor 'Komusō' enjoy any documented history of their own, whatsoever.
So, out of necessity, they had to make one up, from scratch! That is:
Somehow establish an uninterrupted line-up of "transmitters" of an invented "Buddhist" 'shakuhachi' flute tradition that originated with early 9th century
Fuke Zenji, who was the one and only possibly historical person that they had inherited, taken over from the 'Komosō'.
That process of "history fabrication" culminated only about 150 years later with the production and publication of the 1795 Kyotaku denki,
"History of the Imitated Bell" - presented in a remarkable Kyōto book, the Kyotaki denki kokujikai, that has so far not been translated, analyzed and interpreted in full.
In other words, in Neo-Confucian society of Tokugawa Japan, as it is quite much still today in fact, nothing matters more than
claimed ancestry, a proper pedigree, a detailed genealogy and an unbroken lineage leading back to some
highly honorable personality in the distant past.
In the case of the 'Komusō': Leading all the way back to the historial Sakyamuni Gautama Buddha, himself.
Form over matter!
As for any imagined 'Komusō' "affiliation" or "connection" with Rinzai Zen, Fuke Zenji and his remarkable 'Myōan sōsō' statement
was the only tiny link available to the 17th-18th century 'Komusō ideologists, indeed.
Read more about Japanese Neo-Confucianism here:
Wikipedia: "Edo neo-Confucianism"
明暗雙雙/明暗双双
MYŌAN SŌZŌ
"The Dualistic Pair of 'Myō' & 'An', "The Bright & The Dark" - "Brightness" vs. "Darkness"?
'Myō-An Sō-Bō', "Forget the Duality of the Myō-An Pair.
Calligraphy by Tanikita Muchiku, probably dated 1941.
The Most Mistaken and Misleading English Translation
in the Entire History of Ascetic Shakuhachi Ideology
Early 9th century Fuke Zenji's 4-line statement on the Duality of 'Myōan'.
Calligraphy in a Tani-ha/Kyotaku Tradition 'gakufu orihon' by Nishimura Kokū, possibly 1970s?
Anonymous failed "translation" presented online by Kyōto Myōan-ji:
"If attacked in the light, I will strike back in the light.
If attacked in the dark, I will strike in the dark.
If from all quarters, I will strike as a whirlwind does.
If attacked from the empty sky, I will thrash with a flail.
(transl. Genichi Tsuge)"
Link to the Kyōto Myōan Temple's official web page, English language page
The closely identical, original Tsuge Gen'ichi "translation" published in Asian Music magazine in 1977:
"If attacked in the light, I will strike back in the light.
If attacked in the dark, I will strike in the dark.
If attacked from all quarters, I will strike as a whirlwind does.
If attacked from the empty sky, I will trash with a frail."
Fuke Zenji's four line statement about 'Myō-An' translated by Tsuge Gen'ichi,
printed in 'Asian Music' magazine in 1977.
Tsuge Gen'ichi, 柘植元一, is the name of a renowned 20th century Japanese musicologist
who researched and published about a variety of music related subjects in his capacity as professor at the Tokyo Unversity of Fine Arts, a.k.a. 'Geidai'.
Not much is otherwise written about him.
Link to "Tsuge Gen'ichi" c/o komuso.com: http://www.komuso.com/people/people.pl?person=1000&lang=39
Reference:
Tsuge Gen'ichi: 'The History of the Kyotaku.'
In: Asian Music, Vol. VIII, 2. New York, 1977.
Link to online PDF file:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0044-9202(1977)8%3A2%3C47%3ATHOTK%3E2.0.CO%3B2-M
Why have contemporary Myōan Temple people not done anything at all to investigate and improve that English "translation" even the slightest?
The original text is, first of all, not written in modern Japanese, but in 9th century classical Chinese, remember!
Languages that are fundamentally different in both syntax, grammar, and quite much also semantically.
Next, here you have U.S. Japanologist James H. Sanford's "translation", dated 1981:
"P'u-k'o was always going about the streets ringing a hand-bell and saying,
'If a bright head-comes, strike the bright-head.
If a dark-head comes, strike the dark-head.
Whatever direction or quarter it comes from,
hit it like a whirlwind.
And if it comes from emptiness, cut it down with a scythe.'"
Reference:
James H. Sanford: Zen-man Ikkyū.
Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions, 1981.
Now, what's so really wrong with those renderings in English, as well as with many more of a similar kind?
A scrutinizing analysis and thorough explanation will follow soon.
Cheers - Torsten Olafsson, Denmark, late November, 2024.
"Translations" That Failed
- Overly Fantastic Tales Debunked
1620s:
1620s: Two 'Komosō' "mat monks" with thin flutes, long swords, and pointed braided hats.
'The' most important pictorial evidence ever in Japanese ascetic shakuhachi history:
Selected detail of Iwasa Matabei's painting of two early Kan'ei Period 'Komosō' "mat monks".
Created not later than 1630 acc. to Japanese art specialists
c/o the Nezu Museum in Tokyo, Japan.
Present owner: National Museum of Asian Art/Smithsonian/Freer Gallery of Art.
SIMULTANEITY, CONTEXT & COHESION MATTERS!
That 1620s painting by Iwasa Matabei is closely contemporary with one particular unique 1628 document
titled 'Kaidō honsoku',
海道本則.
Read in much detail about that document and its extraordinary significance here:
1628: The Kaidō honsoku Fuke-komosō Credo Version 1
Editorial note as of February 3, 2024 - Re-approved as of November 18, 2024:
No Field, no Chapter, nor Aspect of All Time Recorded World Wide Music "History"
has Ever been More Fabricated, Falsified, Forged, Utterly Distorted
and Misrepresented than that of "the" Japanese 'Shakuhachi' Flute,
the 'Komusō' Pseudo "Monks" of the So-called "Fuke Sect",
and the Fully Fancified Practice of So Called "Zen Shakuhachi Meditation",
Also Known, and Romanticized, as 'Shakuhachi Suizen'.
The term, concept and whole idea of 'Suizen',
吹禅,
that was only defined and presented as late as in or soon after 1950 by Kyōto Myōan-ji abbot Yasuda Tenzan,
has now, since 1974,
been reduced and completely distorted to being nothing but a simple banal and meaningless promotional
New Age & Mindfulness business slogan
exploited by countless self declared Western "romantic bamboo flute meditation therapy, mindfulness and healing gurus"
- or even academically approved ethnomusicology M.A.s & Ph.D.s, for that matter -
who do not even know how to read neither modern nor classical Japanese texts, including 'kanbun',
and cannot relate to and quote from any of the actual very many existing available documentary evidence sources, at all.
Overall Statements, Quotations, Comments & Conclusions, as of November, 2024
• Had it not been for Western Global Imperialism and the Christian Catholic ideological invasion in Japan between 1549 and 1639
there would
never have been a single 'Komusō',
no thick root-end 'Madake Shakuhachi',
not a single 'Honkyoku',
no 'Ichi-on jōbutsu' "promise of enlightenment",
never any Big 'Suizen' Lie after 1974,
in that otherwise so deeply fascinating "Land of the Rising Sun": Japan.
Torsten Olafsson, November, 2024
• George Orwell, 1949, in the novel "1984":
"Who controls the past
controls the future
who controls the present
controls the past."
• "Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted,
every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered.
And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped.
Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right."
• Virgil, Rome, 2000 years ago:
"Fama, malum qua non aliud velocius ullum."
The Financial Times' translation:
"Rumour — no other evil travels more quickly."
Paraphrased by Mark Twain as:
"A Lie Is Halfway Round the World Before the Truth Has Got Its Boots On."
Source: https://interestingliterature.com/2021/06/lie-halfway-round-world-before-truth-boots-on-quote-origin-meaning/
Read more here:
2024: Overall Conclusion that has Manifested Itself
as a Result of the Present now 55+ Years Long Lasting Japanological Research Endeavour
Social, Political, "Religious" History & Context Matters
IF NOT THAT - The CATHOLIC MISSIONARY INVASION in JAPAN:
Jesuit Catholic Missionary Francis(co) Xavier landed in Japan in 1549 in company with profit seeking traders and began to preach Christianity there.
Hundreds of thousands in all social strata converted to some strange version of that alien European religion.
Painting by an unnamed Japanese artist, dated 1580.
- AND THAT - The CRUEL PERSECUTION of JAPANESE CHRISTIAN CONVERTS:
Since 1623, during the reign of the 3rd Tokugawa Shōgun named Iemitsu, 1604-1651,
Christians in Japan, foreign as native, were hunted down on a national scale,
cruelly inquistioned and executed if they did not
renounce their Christian faith, once and for all, utmost demonstrably,
like with treading on a picture of either Jesus on the Cross,
or the Virgin Maria.
- NEVER WOULD THIS HAVE EVER HAPPENED - The 'KOMUSŌ':
Begging 'Komusō' by Takehara Shinkei, 1791
Courtesy of the National Museum of Denmark, Ethnographic Collection
SELECTED WORDS by TORSTEN OLAFSSON as of November, 2024 - in random order:
• "If you have not, probably never, seen and quite eagerly and thoroughly looked into the numerous written classical Japanese historical sources,
the many old pictures, you really don't know what you self proclaimed "shakuhachi historians" are writing and talking about!
That applies to both Ethnomusicologists, Musicologists, Japanologists, Ethnologists, Anthropologists, Sociologists and their like,
who boast academic degrees/titles such as "M.A.", "Ph.D." - and/or even: "Doctor" ... ?
• "The Edo Period 'Komusō' never put anything down in writing about "meditating with a shakuhachi", 'Suizen', or the like. Period."
• "13th century Shinchi Kakushin did in no way contribute to anything at all in the history, ideology and practice of "the" shakuhachi."
Left: Shinchi Kakushin sculpture, Cleveland Museum of Art
Right: Kyochiku Zenji Statue, Kyōto Myōan-ji. In: Tomimori Kyozan, 1979
• "It goes without saying that Shinchi Kakushin of course did not return to Japan in 1254 accompanied
by four "Chinese Buddhist laymen", a Chinese 'shakuhachi', and the classical music piece 'Kyorei'."
• "Legendary 'Kyochiku Ryōen Zenji',
虚竹了円禅師, was simply invented, made up, out of whole cloth; he never lived.
Neither did he ever compose 'Mukaiji' and 'Kokū' - and he certainly did not "found" the Myōan Temple in Kyōto.
Kyochiku is first ever mentioned by "name" in a document dated as late as 1735."
• "If you do not understand Indian Advaita Vedanta and Chinese Taoism, you'll never understand Mahayana Buddhism and Zen Philosophy."
• "Claiming that 'Komusō' practiced 'Suizen', be it even "Shakuhachi Meditation" - for personal fame, gain and profit -
is not only without merit and wrong but bordering on deception and fraud, and deeply criticizable."
• "How many of you Western shakuhachi teachers are selling your New Age Mindfulness and Healing servíces as were it very "ancient tradition",
invented and practiced by 'Komusō' "religious & spiritual saviors"?"
• "At first, centuries of Japanese shakuhachi players, ideologists and "historians" have been lying excessively and continuously about Shakuhachi History,
Ideology and Practices ...
- then, first of all US American players and "historians", at least since the mid-1960s, and New Age Music, Mindfulness and Healing cultists have been doubling,
tripling down and made fabrication and falsification even more unreal, unimaginable, "otherworldly" - and deplorably misleading -
- especially by unqualified writers whose extensive misinformation and deception has been spreading like a wildfire on the WWW Internet for more than 20 years."
• "When will the Global Shakuhachi World Adherents ever realize and admit to the fact they have all been severely fooled and deceived regarding shakuhachi history?"
Some of the Never Asked, Never Answered Questions
... The "Academics" Utterly Failed You!
• Why was the thick root-end 'Madake Shakuhachi' flute first invented and displayed in Japanese pictures as late as during the very last two decades of the 1600s?
1690: 2 'Komusō' in the 'Jinrin kummo zu-i'
• How were the allegedly "numerous" 'Komusō's mid- to late Edo Period so-called "temples" financed?
• How did the masterless, outlawed, then widely despised 'Komusō' pseudo-monks make a living, from day to day, for the rest of their lives?
• Did some 'Komusō' in fact run public bath houses or other money-making businesses to survive,
like making tea whiskers out of bamboo, for instance?
• Who, what actually named persons, created the mid- to late Edo Period so-called 'Hon-kyoku' music pieces?
That answer is just: "Blowing in the wind" ...
• Have any Japanese and Western shakuhachi player or researcher ever investigated the many shakuhachi music notation collections
that are so carefully listed by Tsukitani Tsuneko in her remarkable 2000 publication on "classical shakuhachi honkyoku"?
I think not, sadly so ...
1974: Why Did the Nippon Columbia Label Ever Put Out the Album 'Suizen'?
The Most Recommendable Critical Japanese Shakuhachi Historians -
Their Fact Finding Researches -
Online Fact Resource Web Sites & Books
Believe it, or not: There actually exist, and continuously operate, Japanese shakuhachi players and more or less "amateur" historians
who do care seriously about what's actually to be observed in the very many ignored documents about shakuhachi history that we know of.
You can find them, online, right out there on the internet - here's an alphabetial list of names, an appetizer,
and a webpage link to an overview with links to webpages, for you to experience:
Iida Kyorei, Kishi Kiyokazu, Kunimi Masafumi, Makihara Ichiro,
Shakuhachi Kataha, Yamato Hōmei, Yatō Osamu.
In addition, recommmendable researcher-authors in books and articles:
Hosoka Hiro'oki, Ide Yukio, Mori Hikotarō, Nakatsuka Chikuzen, Ueno Katami,
Yamaguchi Masayoshi.
More may be added.
Read and learn more here:
2024: Most Recommendable Critical Japanese Shakuhachi -
Historians. Their Fact Finding Researches,
Online Fact Resource Web Sites & Books
The Sad and Deplorable Legacy of Ethnomusicology:
The "Academic" Field of Ethnomusicology has Never Succeeded
in Thoroughly Investigating the Full Scope and Depth
of Japanese Ascetic Shakuhachi History and Practice.
A Serious Academic Failure!
The Ethnomusicologists’ commitments and promises – links:
"About Ethnomusicology"
Selected quotations:
"1) Employing a global perspective on music (encompassing all geographic areas
and types of music).
2) Understanding music as social practice (viewing music as a human activity that is interrelated with its social and cultural contexts).
3) Engaging in ethnographic fieldwork (observing and participating in music-making and related activities) and in historical research."
Now, please pay special attention to those very last four quoted words:
"... and in historical research."
How can anyone possibly engage and succeed academically in researching the history of the Japanese shakuhachi if they, who ever they are,
know nothing at all about reading and interpreting the wealth of well known preserved available documentary evidence, written in classical Japanese,
be it in Japanese "pseudo-Chinese" 'kanbun' - as well as in classical Chinese, not least?
That's just impossible, plainly speaking, a fact.
Read more here:
The Failure of Ethnomusicology Regarding the Shakuhachi
- The Sad and Deplorable Legacy of post-WW2 Ethnomusicology
Bruno Nettl: "Reference Tools for Ethnomusicology."
Ethnomusicology, Vol. 4, No. 3
Sep., 1960, pp. 133-136.
Link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/924501
The Three Most "Problematic" Early Shakuhachi Vinyl Albums Ever Published
Problematic Vinyl #1: "Music for Zen Meditation".
That U.S. clarinet player Tony Scott & Japanese friends record has absolutely nothing to do with anything like "Zen"!
Made in the U.S.A., 1965.
Read more here:
Problematic Vinyl #2: "A Bell Ringing in the Empty Sky".
"Empty Sky" is a really poor, utterly New Age'ish "non-translation" of Japanese 'Ko-kū',
虚空, the very common, widely used and banal interpretation of which is meaningless "emptiness".
You see, in a supposed Zen philosophical context like this, 'Ko-kū' comes from Indian 'Sunyata': "Void" [cf. Nagarjuna, ed.],
i.e. "Non-Substantiality", i.e. "Absence of Duality". Period.
Also: Made in the U.S.A., 1969-1970.
Problematic Vinyl #3 - "Suizen", with questionable liner notes by the late Japanese musicologist, Prof. Kamisangō Yūkō.
This is, undoubtedly, the "worst" of these three highlighted early vinyl 'shakuhachi' albums.
Made in Japan, 1974.
1965: Clarinetist Tony Scott & "Music for Zen Meditation"
- How Japanese Music Became US "New Age" Music from Day One
The Modern Academic Shakuhachi Historian's Dilemma: Fact or Fiction?
Late September, 2024.
How are responsible shakuhachi history and practice researchers, academics, including certified ethnomusicologists,
supposed to conclude and act, orally as in writing, when observing stark discrepancies between preserved historical documentary evidence
- and what some of them, while also acting as shakuhachi students, are being differently informed by some of their teachers?
Read more here:
The Ethnomusicologists' Shakuhachi Historical Facts
Ethical Challenge and Dilemma
- Documentary Evidence or Just Hearsay?
"You can't have your cake and eat it (too)," can you - have it both ways? :-)
How Did 9th Century 'Fuke Zenji' Become the Dearly Worshipped Idol
for the Late 'Komosō' and Earliest 'Komusō' Outlaws?
Fuke Zenji' first appeared in a 'Komosō' related context during the mid-1500s - as much as 700 years after his death.
In 1628, he was prominently admired and idolized in a remarkable 'Komosō' credo, the Kaidō honsoku.
Not long after, eventually, the renowned Rinzai Zen monk and temple abbot Isshi Bunshu, 1608-1646 - a very close disciple of Takuan Sōhō, 1573-1645
- made Fuke Zenji the founder of the very early 'Komusō' 'Shakuhachi-rōnin' ex-samurai beggar outlaw "brotherhood" in early Tokugawa Japan.
How could that happen, possibly?
Where Are All the Fascinating, Long Awaited Illuminating Translations?
Throughout now 60 years (!), these are the only few responsible, comprehensive Western translations of central written historical Japanese source documents
that shed important light on the shakuhachi flute's past:
1977 - Tsuge Gen'ichi's English translation of the Kyotaku denki completely fabricated mid-18th century "shakuhachi history", with some comments.
1981 - James H. Sanford publishes translations of Ikkyū Sōjun 'shakuhachi' related poetry.
1983 - Andreas Gutzwiller presents translations in the German language of 3 early 19th century essays by Hisamatsu Fūyō, 1791-1871,
though without any particularly detailed Japanological annotations.
1987 - Torsten Olafsson presents a Danish university thesis with his full English language translation of the 1628 Kaidō honsoku 'Komosō' credo
with comprehensive annotations, comments and contextualization.
1990 - Takahashi Tone presents his Florida University thesis with many translations of the various different versions
of the mid-18th century Keichō no okitegaki [a nickname, ed.].
1990 - Robin Hartshorne & Kazuaki Tanahashi's translation of Hisamatsu Fūyō's 1818 Hitori mondō is published in the
Annals of the International Shakuhachi Society, Volume I, edited by the late, then president Dan E. Mayers, with no annotations.
A similar English translation of theirs is also featured on the www.komuso.com website, there with detailed comments.
2007 - Max Deeg translates at least part of one classical Japanese text to English.
Since the year 2000 - The only additional translations of classical texts of relevance that have appeared in public are those presented on this very website,
zen-shakuhachi.dk, the history of which goes back to 2003-2004.
Where then, might there still be any other important translations and renderings produced by modern, 21st century representatives of the academic fields of Ethnomusicology,
Musicology, Japanology and the like?
Here I would like to highlight these two contributions, in particular - by Westerners who read and translated from only 100 years of "modern" language Japanese texts:
Philip Flavin, translator:
Izumi Takeo: Paintings of Bamboo Flutes. A History
and Genealogy of Shakuhachi Performance.
Translated from Japanese by Philip Flavin.
Tōhoku University Press, Sendai, 2016.
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.
Link:
"Sankyoku Magazine and the Invention of the Shakuhachi
as Religious Instrument in Early 20th-Century Japan."
However, obviously otherwise, neither Ethnomusicologists - nor Japanologists, for that matter - have found it worth the necessary quite demanding effort and linguistic,
philological dedication to attempt to translate anything substantial, at all, that might possibly contribute further to a desired deeper and wider appreciation
of actual ascetic shakuhachi history - without any bias, partisanship, "rallying around the flag", mere wishful thinking,
or just: downright history fabrication and falsification fraud.
All the while 'Suizen' Was Not "An Edo Period Term", Then What Term
Might "IT" Have Been?
Yes, it has been convincingly established online, on Facebook, that 'Suizen' was "not an Edo Period Term" [Kiku Day, ed.]!
In a most authoritative 2000 book of hers, the late, renowned Japanese Prof. Tsukitani Tsuneko stated that she knew nothing (at that time) regarding the origin of the term 'Suizen'.
Seven years later, in 2007, Prof. Tsukitani is reported to have stated that 'Suizen' is a "post-Edo period creation" [Kiku Day, ed.].
Then, in his 2014 thesis, SOAS PhD Christian T. Mau quoted the then 41st Kyōto Myōan-ji 'Kansu', Kojima Hōan, for explaining that
it was Yasuda Tenzan, 1909-1994, who "coined", invented, created, the new term 'Suizen' while he served as the first chief Zen monk of that newly revived temple in the period 1950-1953.
So, what possibly did Edo Period 'Komusō' use as a Japanese term for their very frequently and fiercefully claimed "shakuhachi meditation practice"
- if anything, ever at all, actually?
A short history of 'Suizen' in Japan that was first publicized here on this website quite many years ago:
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.
Torsten Olafsson, September 24, 2024.
Ethnomusicology in the West has a Serious Problem:
The so-called "academic" field of Ethnomusicology
is suffering from a serious problem,
with regard to Japanese music history research,
not least that of ascetic shakuhachi history.
How can anyone acquire a Masters degree, a PhD: a Doctor of Philosophy degree, in Ethnomusicology, specializing in Japanese music,
including 'shakuhachi' history, without actually knowing pretty well how to read and interpret classical Japanese
- and classical Chinese - documentary evidence material?
That, of course, should not be possible!
Learn more about official modern, present-day Western "Ethnomusicology" here:
"Ethnomusicology Definition, History & Theories"
How "Old" is "Ancient"? Are So-called 'Shakuhachi Honkyoku' "Ancient"?
The answer is very straightforward and simple:
No, 'shakuhachi (hon)kyoku' music pieces are in no way "ancient"!
So-called "Shakuhachi Honkyoku" - NB: only referred to once in 1694,
and first again in 1847! -
are certainly not in any way "ancient".
Here's a definition according to Wikipedia - anything "ancient" ends before the year 500 CE,
in 476 CE, in fact, with the fall of the Roman Empire in Southern Europe:
"Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity.
The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script.
Ancient history covers all continents inhabited by humans in the period 3000 BC – AD 500,
ending with the expansion of Islam in late antiquity."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_history
The first time that Edo Period 'shakuhachi kyoku' music titles were ever recorded in print was in 1732, in a document titled Shakuhachi denrai-ki.
1732: The Fascinating Shakuhachi denrai-ki Document.
Early Edo Period 'Shakuhachi' Music History.
The Oldest Known List of 'Komusō' Melody Titles
However, the first ever known piece of shakuhachi music presented and preserved in actual notation is dated 1769 (Tsukitani, 2000, page 61).
2000: Tsukitani Tsuneko, Overview of Titles and Notations
- Never Were There Any 'Honkyoku' in the Edo Period, only 'Kyoku'!
Only thereafter do many more titles of 'shakuhachi kyoku' suddenly appear in writing.
That means, logically, that the whole repertory of preserved pieces of Edo Period 'shakuhachi kyoku' is not any older
than that of "The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America" that was agreed upon, adopoted and signed on July 4, 1776.
That was only a quarter of a millenium ago - about 250 years at the most, so:
Not "ancient" at all •
What is "History"? What is "A Historian" - What is: "A Scholar" ... ?
"Historians who study non-English speaking regions must learn and use foreign languages."
"Historians who write history emphasize the value of primary sources, that is those sources actually dating from a particular time period,
while understanding the limitations of such sources."
Source: www.valdosta.edu - see link below
According to the website www.valdosta.edu - highlighted statements, see link below:
"What is History? How do Historians study the past as contrasted with Non-historians?
History is the study of change over time, and it covers all aspects of human society.
Political, social, economic, scientific, technological, medical, cultural, intellectual,
religious and military developments are all part of history.
Usually professional historians specialize in a particular aspect of
history, a specific time period, a certain approach to history or a specific geographic region.
- - -
History is an intellectual discipline practiced by historians who try to make sense of the past.
- - -
Historians who write history emphasize the value of primary sources, that is those sources actually dating from a particular time period,
while understanding the limitations of such sources.
Non-historians read books or watch documentaries, while historians do that plus go to archives in search of original records.
[Historians who study non-English speaking regions must learn and use foreign languages.]
- - -
Historians who write list all the sources that they have used in footnotes and bibliographies in their works.
This helps other scholars who are interested to find those sources, and it shows that the writer is careful,
thorough, and honestly giving credit for the origin of the writer’s information.
Providing footnotes and a bibliography is how historians demonstrate their methodology and support their conclusions.
- - -
Historians must work to recognize the difference between facts and interpretations in their field.
Historiography refers to the history, philosophy and methodology of history.
Historians must be familiar with the historiography of their particular area of study.
- - -
Historians try to understand their topics in the context of how and why people of that era thought and behaved,
and not how people think and act today."
Read more here, about "non-historians", also: www.valdista.edu
吹笛修行 - 吹簫禅 - 吹禅 - 尺八禅 - 禅尺八
When and How Were 'Suiteki shugyō', 'Suishōzen', 'Suizen',
"Shakuhachi Zen", and "Zen Shakuhachi", Degraded and Ridiculized Into
New Age Shakuhachi Theosophism, Holism, Healing, Mindfulness
- and Now: Just Downright Utter Western Style Meaninglessness?
2000: Tsukitani Tsuneko - There Were No 'Honkyoku' in Edo Times
Are "Scholars" Known to be Questioning 'Komusō Suizen'?
Upcoming Web Page Now in the Making:
"The 'Komusō' Brotherhood Century in Japan, 1763-1871"
It Won't be Long - Stay Tuned :-)
1763-1871: If Anything Like a "Fuke Sect" Ever Existed,
It Would Only Have Lasted a Single Century, or So
Were There Ever Really Numerous So-called "Fuke Temples" in Japan?
普化宗
In order to deserve and enjoy any status as an "actual sect" more than just one or a few "temples" are required,
just as followers of such a movement should also recognize themselves as being declared and registered members of such an organization.
As for the early mid-to late 1600s' 'Komusō' that certainly does not appear to have been the case.
The earliest surviving documents only witness the existence of Reihō-ji, Myōan-ji, and Ichigetsu-ji.
That is the case, the reality, all until to mid-1700s, or even later.
Then it is as everything suddenly "exploded" with regard to the number of listed 'Komusō' hide-outs
that should probably not be called "genuine temples", at all.
All of those listed disappeared forever after 1871, with the snap of a finger, a stroke of a writing brush!
It is still so, if not "a mystery" as such, it has not so far been explained why there would suddenly have been such a dramatic boom and influx
of fresh ex-samurai 'shakuhachi-rōnin' in the ranks of active 'Komusō' shakuhachi playing beggars.
Do remember: 'Komusō' were never ever genuine, formally ordained Zen Buddhist monks, only "half lay, half monk" beggars
who kept their hair long, not shaving their heads like all Buddhist monks do.
In 2000, the late Prof. Tsukitani Tsuneko presented the following numbers of "Fuke Temples"
evidenced and named in preserved Japanese documents (selected examples):
1763 - Kyōto Myōan Temple scroll: 72 entries
1795 - Kyotaku denki kokujikai: 55 entries
1797 - Dōshō denrai: 75 entries
1813/1816 - Shakuhachi hikki: 87 entries (or possibly, rather: only 67 entries?)
Early 1800s - Kinko techō: 64 entries
However, of course: This recorded alleged network of "Fuke temples" never covered all of Japan, entirely.
So, just forget it - 'Komusō' really never "flourished all over the whole of Japan"!
With but two or maybe three possible exceptions in Kyūshū in the South, the listed localities are only placed
in the Central and Northern parts of Honshū, the main island of Japan.
This map illustration designed by Steve Weiss in collaboration with Kurahashi Yoshio
shows only 26 so-called "Suizen Temples of Japan".
Of course, as you should be well aware of by now, if not before, there has only been one "Suizen temple" in Japan, ever,
namely the Kyōto Myōan Temple, and that was indeed only since the year 1950. Period!
WARNING! When It Comes to Any Matter Regarding Shakuhachi History,
Ideology, and Practice Facts, East and West
- Do Stay the Farthest Away Possible
From These Particular Wikipedia.org Web Pages and Their Like:
Origin of the 'Komusō'?
Had There Not Been an Invasion of Christian Catholic Missionaries Since 1549,
and Those Hundreds of Thousands of Their Fanatically Devoted Japanese Christian Converts
in Early 17th Century Deeply Xenophobic Japan,
There Would Never Have Existed a Single 'Komusō' on the Isles of Japan:
No Distorting Falsification of History; No Long, Thick "Root-end" Bamboo Flutes ...
No Invented "Fuke Temples" & "Fuke Sect" - No 'Fuke Shakuhachi' ...
No So-called 'Honkyoku' "Music" Pieces - No 'Hōki' - No "Shakuhachi Zen" ...
No So-called 'Suizen'!
That is the Story to be Told and Clarified Right Here.
The 1795 'Rōnin Komusō' Kyotaku denki Legitimization Conspiracy
Rendered in Extraordinarily Seductive Illustrations:
The Kyotaku denku kokujikai
Kyotaku denki kokujikai Illustrations
To the left you see 9th century Fuke Zenji ringing his hand bell -
to the right: Fuke's alleged, invented Chinese townsman who is claimed to have composed
the music piece titled 'Kyorei' - but the 'shakuhachi' shown there
is certainly not a 9th century Chinese flute
but a typical Japanese root-end flute that only appeared toward the end of the 1600s.
Did an Edo Period 'Komusō' Ever Sit Down and Rest?
Did He Ever Remove His 'Tengai' and Show His Face?
Not Least: Did He Ever Really "Meditate"?
1851-1852:
Two 'Komusō' crossing the treacherous river Tenryū at the locality Mitsuke.
From the series "Fifty-three Stations of Tōkaidō".
Wood-cut print by Utagawa Hiroshige, produced in 1851-52.
1810:
By Katsushika Hokusai, "The 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō", Number 49: 'Saka-no-shita'.
This is actually the one and only known image of an Edo Period 'Komusō'
pictured as seated, resting on a veranda, during a stopover, while his 'tengai'
is placed on the veranda, not covering his head
as we otherwise always see in all the numerous known published pictures.
Four Historical Shakuhachi Pictures That You Should Not Trust in
as Reliable Documentary Evidence of 'Komo-sō' and 'Komu-sō' Reality
1795, Kyotaku denki kokujikai: Early 9th century Fuke, ringing his bell, and alleged
'Kyorei' "composer", Chōhaku, with his supposed "Chinese shakuhachi".
How come that the illustration shows a typical late 18th century root-end 'shakuhachi',
not some original 9th century Chinese vertical flute with 6 fingerholes?
Left:1799: Incorrectly and misleadingly executed rendering of a supposed 15th century 'Komosō'
"mat monk", by Ban Kōkei, in his book 'Kanden kōhitsu'.
Right: 13th century?: Extremely incorrectly dated copy of an actual early 1660s 'Komusō'
illustration seriously misleadingly published by Wong Wah-sang in a 2014 article of his.
1795, Kyotaku denki kokujikai: Completely out of proper chronological context 'Komusō' picture.
Left: Fabricated 14th century 'Kyomu' figure however pictured
as a late 18th century 'Komusō' beggar "monk".
Right: 'Kyōfū', another of 'Kyotaku denki kokujikai's
completely fabricated, non-historical persons.
"The Persecution of the Catholic Christians in Japan
During the Middle Years of the Seventeenth Century."
穴吊るし
ANA-TSURUSHI - "Hole Hanging"
The 'ana-tsurushi' method of inquisitioning and torturing stubborn and resisting Japanese Christian converts,
intensifying in the 1630s and 1640s
Image sources: Facebook and Wikipedia
Quoted from the opening section of a 1942 article by Edward Hagemann:
“About three hundred years ago, in 1640, Japan took the last and most effectual step to eradicate all Western influence from her people.
The year before, 1639, the last definite decree had been enforced forbidding all commercial intercourse to the Portuguese.
By this means all further contact with the Western world had been stopped, and no more Christian missionaries could be sent to Japan.
But in Japan itself, despite the ban on Christianity, there were still some hundreds of thousands of Christians.
These had to be exterminated, and everything that savored of foreign influence removed.
In 1640 the office of the inquisition was erected to carry out this policy.”
Source:
Edward Hagemann: "The Persecution of the Christians in Japan
in the Middle of the Seventeenth Century."
Publ. in Pacific Historical Review
Vol. 11, No. 2, June, 1942, pp. 151-160 (10 pages)
Made available byy: University of California Press
Link to online PDF file: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3633765
Excerpt from a book review by K.S. Latourette, 1941:
" - - - The attempt of the Tokugawa to rid the realm of the obnoxious foreign faith led not merely to drastic measures which drove Christianity underground,
but was the major cause as well for the prolonged segregation of the empire from intercourse from the West except for the limited trade through the Dutch at Deshima. - - - "
The book reviewed:
Gustav Voss & Hubert Cieslik (trsls.): Kirishito-ki und Sayo-yoroku:
Japanische Dokumente zur Missionsgeschichte
des 17. Jahrhunderts (English).
Sophia University, Tokyo, 1940, 229 pages.
Link to the review:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-asian-studies/article/abs/kirishitoki-und-sayoyoroku-japanische-dokumente-zur-missionsgeschichte-des-17-jahrhunderts-by-gustav-voss-and-hubert-cieslik-tr-tokyo-sophia-university-1940-viii-229-p-275-750/F61F3E46BED9A5D2116C89A6210A307E
1614 to 1664: From 'Ko-MO-sō' to 'Ko-MU-sō'
薦僧/菰僧 - 虚無僧
1614 to 1664: From 'Ko-MO-sō' to 'Ko-MU-sō' - When That Actually Happened
The Broader Context - Essential Documentary Evidence Observed & Recognized
The very last sincerely practicing pseudo Buddhistic 'Fuke Komo-sō' expressed themselves utterly comprehensively
in a unique 'shakuhachi rōnin' credo dated 1628, the Kaidō honsoku.
The very first credibly recorded and named, also pseudo Buddhistic 'shakuhachi rōnin' 'Komu-sō', ever was so addressed only just after 1640, and not later than 1646.
His name was given as 'Sandō Mugetsu', in a letter composed by distinguished Rinzai Zen abbot and artist Isshi Bunshu, 1608-1646.
Whatever else you are being told, over and over, and yet again? Ignore it!
Chronology of Texts, Quotations, and Illustrations
India, China, Japan, and the West - 2004 to 2024
When, now 20 years ago, in 2004, the present website project was first launched online,
the skeleton that it was build on was a timeline, a chronology for ascetic shakuhachi history related facts, events,
and references to be added and presented, as they materialized during the many years of ongoing research.
Editing and reworking the original 12 web pages, they have now been reloaded with new file names.
There are likely still to be links to external internet web places that do no longer work anymore, after so many years.
That's the reality on today's internet.
Countless Shakuhachi Players & Fantasy "History" Tellers
Are Still Lying to You, Non-stop. Period.
The Kyotaku denki Debunked, Again, Again - and Again!
This declaration will be updated continuously. Torsten Olafsson, June 25, 2024.
No – Early 9th century Buddhist monk Fuke Zenji never inspired any Chinese flute player to create any melody imitating his beggar’s bell. Period.
No – Neither, of course, was Fuke Zenji a "shakuhachi teacher", himself. Period.
No – The invented "tune", later referred to as 'Kyorei', never survived for twelve generations till the mid-13th century. Period.
No - Shinchi Kakushin, a.k.a. Hottō Kokushi, never learned 'Kyorei' during his Zen studies in China. Period.
No – Shinchi Kakushin is never ever reported to have played any type of 'shakuhachi'. Period.
No – 'Shi-koji', "Four Buddhist Laymen", never accompanied Kakushin on his return to Japan in 1354. Period.
No – Never existed "Four Buddhist Laymen" ever had any followers. Period.
No – Shinchi Kakushin never had a devoted Japanese disciple named 'Kichiku'. Period.
No – Shinchi Kakushin never "established" 'Sui-shō-zen' nor 'Sui-zen' practices
in the 13th century. Period.
No - Never existed 'Kichiku' ever composed neither 'Mukaiji' nor 'Kokū'. Period.
No – Never existed "disciple" 'Kichiku' ever had any disciples, no followers. Period.
No – None of Kakushin or Kichiku’s never existed "disciples" ever founded the Myōan Temple in Kyōto. Period.
No – The samurai leader Kusunoki Masakatsu was definitely not Japan’s first 'Komusō'. Period.
No – 'Kichiku' - who "miraculously" turned 'Kyochiku Ryōen Zenji' - did not found the Kyōto Myōan Temple. Period.
Besides: No - Historical 'Komusō' are nowhere at all reported to have practiced any form of "shakuhachi meditation".
No - 'Suizen' was not practiced by historical 'Komusō', whatsoever.
Period!
NEWS BOARD - EARLY JUNE 2024
New Translation by Shawn Renzoh Head: "THE TRUE KOMUSO"
"Historical Truth" - According to Edgard W. Pope, 2000:
" ... the business of historians is to construct
the truest versions [of history] possible."
"The existence of different versions of history, then, does not show that all versions are
equally valid, or equally biased. What it shows is that there is an ongoing tension between
historical evidence and the biases of historians, and that the writing of history requires a
constant effort to set aside one's biases when looking at the evidence.
While "absolute" historical truth may be an unattainable (indeed indefinable) ideal, it is clear that some versions
of history are more true than others, and that the business of historians is to construct the truest versions possible."
Quoted from:
Edgar W. Pope: "The Shakuhachi, the Fuke-shū, and the Scholars : a historical controversy."
In: Journal of Hokusei Gakuen Women's Junior College 36, 31-44,
Hokusei Gakuen University, Sapporo, 2000.
Link:
"The Shakuhachi, the Fuke-shū, and the Scholars : a historical controversy"
Hottō Kokushi a.k.a. Kakushin Did Not "Invent" 'Suizen',
Nor Did He "Invent" 'Suishō-zen!
2024: Overall Conclusion that has Manifested Itself
as a Result of the Present now 55+ Year Long Lasting Research Endeavour
The asserted history and alleged characteristics of Ascetic Shakuhachi Practices in Japan have been most purposefully constructed,
fabricated, falsified, ever since the earliest beginnings.
This constantly ongoing activity of deliberate source falsification, forging and fanciful "history" 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, "history" writers, ethnomusicologists,
book editors and publishers - besides a wide variety of enough so sincerely devoted - though deeply ignorant - shakuhachi "admirers", generally speaking.
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
- the multitude, comprehensiveness and complexity, inapproachability and degree of difficulty of which
is not only awe-inspiring but verily challenging and even terrifying.
Carried by and on the Internet, especially, lies and untruths have been spreading like wildfire over the last 10 to 20 years,
in particular, and even more increasingly so.
In words attributed to Mark Twain a.o., paraphrasing the Roman poet-philosopher Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro)
who lived about 2.000 years ago, and many others since then:
"A Lie Is Halfway Round the World Before the Truth Has Got Its Boots On."
Virgil's original saying: "Fama, malum qua non aliud velocius ullum."
In Book IV of the Aeneid, a worldfamous Roman work in Latin created between 19 BCE and 29 CE.
Suggested link: https://interestingliterature.com/2021/06/lie-halfway-round-world-before-truth-boots-on-quote-origin-meaning/#
The Financial Times' "loose" translation: "Rumour — no other evil travels more quickly."
Link: https://www.ft.com/content/52770ebe-2393-11e8-add1-0e8958b189ea
Re-edited, expanded and reposted statement -
Torsten Olafsson, Elsinore, Denmark, November 17, 2024
'Shakuhachi Rōnin', 'Komosō', 'Fumi-e' - and 'Komusō' "life" only after 1640
尺八浪人 - 薦僧 - 踏み絵 - 虚無僧
Shakuhachi playing masterless samurai, then 'shakuhachi-rōnin' 'komosō' mat monks,
the trambling on a Christian image to reject Christianity,
and the very first "Pseudo-monks of the Non-Dual & None-ness" in mid-1600s century Japan.
Like all other Japanese natives without exception, beginning in 1629 shakuhachi-playing 'Fuke'komosō',
masterless 'rōnin' samurai, had to confirm every year that they were not Christian converts in hiding.
All Japanese were not only "required", but forced, to be registered members of one particular established Japanese Buddhist sect.
That is the subject of yet a new more intensified, ongoing research, fact-finding and information endeavour.
Painting of a 'fumi-e' inquisitional ceremony by Keiga Kawahara, 1786–1860?, a citizen of Nagasaki,
created sometime around 1826.
Source: National Library of the Netherlands.
"Shakuhachi Zen" & "Zen Shakuhachi"?
- These Expressions are Quite Simply Only Western Post-WW2 Inventions!
禅
と
尺八
:
関係
が
全然無
い。
'Zen to shakuhachi: Kankei ga zenzen nai!'
- "Zen and Shakuhachi?: There Is No Connection at All!"
- Yoshida Mitsukuni, 1921-1991.
Former professor at Kyōto University, Japan: Dept. of Japanese Arts & Aesthetics.
Private conversation, Kyōto, March, 1977.
'Zen' & "Shakuhachi" - and 'Suizen' - acc. to Bob Berlin-Grous & Monty H. Levenson, 2019:
"If viewed only in terms of the political, sociological, and even musical history,
the connection between shakuhachi and Zen may indeed seem rather superficial.”
Source: Bob Berlin-Grous & Monty H. Levenson:
The Sound of Bamboo: Blowing Zen & The Spirit of Shakuhachi.
Tai Hei shakuhachi, Willits, CA, USA, 2019.
'Zen' & "Shakuhachi Meditation" – and 'Suizen' - acc. to Oliver Aumann, Japanologist & Itchōken Tradition player:
“There are no traditional texts in the Fuke-sect that would systematically explain how to meditate.”
“The term seems to be relatively modern, but has become a kind of motto for the modern Komusō.”
“In many cases suizen refers to nothing more than a ceremonial playing within a temple, with certain strict formalities.”
Source: Former Oliver Aumann 'Komusō'/Shakuhachi website, last visited in 2021.
Original URL/link to web page, now apparently closed:
On "Meditation"
“For the historical Komusō, a substantive relationship with the Zen school is scarcely verifiable, and for the modern Komusō,
the term "Zen-Buddhist" is simply inaccurate."
Source: Former Oliver Aumann 'Komusō'/Shakuhachi website, last visited in 2021.
Original URL/link to web page, now apparently closed:
On "Zen Shakuhachi"
'Zen' & "Shakuhachi" - and 'Suizen' - acc. to Christian T. Mau, PhD, 2014:
- - - “Thus, suizen, very fundamentally means blowing (the shakuhachi) meditation."
"As an activity and concept, it is not only inextricably linked to the shakuhachi in general, but especially to Myōan Temple,
as the large stone marker on the grounds bears testimony to.”
"As surprising as it may sound to those already familiar with the expression, however, the word's coinage is less than a century old,
thus often rendering its usage somewhat anachronistic when applying it in connection with pre-20th century practice."
“Thus it is frequently used indiscriminately — apparently without knowledge of its origins” — leading De Ferranti, as one example,
to report that "[b]y the seventeenth century the Fuke sect of Zen had institutionalized the practice of suizen.
(De Ferranti 2000:71; see also Kamisangō 1988:97,125; Lee 1998:149–150)."
“The problem here is that, while the manner of using the shakuhachi may well have been institutionalised and identified with the Komusō of the Fuke sect,
there certainly does not seem to have been a dedicated term applied to the instrument's usage in this context."
Source: Christian T. Mau PhD thesis, 2014, p. 115.
Link:
Christian T. Mau 2014 SOAS thesis, PDF file
1977 & 1978: The Legacy of the Late Myōan Taizan-ha
'Suizen' Players/Teachers Yoshimura 'Fuan' Sōshin
& Ozawa 'Zetsugai' Seizan - and Hisamatsu Fūyō's
Sincere Ascetic Shakuhachi Credo 200 Years Ago
禅尺八 - 吹禅 - 'ZEN SHAKUHACHI' & 'SUIZEN'
修養の尺八 - 'SHŪYŌ no SHAKUHACHI'
"The Shakuhachi of Self-cultivation/Self-discipline/Mental Training"
The Myōan Taizan-ha Way of Authentic Shakuhachi 'Suizen' Asceticism
represented by Yoshimura Fuan Sōshin, 40th 'Kansu' of Kyōto Myōan-ji.
明暗寺四十世 芳村普庵宗心
MYŌAN-JI YONJŪ-SE YOSHIMURA FUAN SŌSHIN
Yoshimura Fuan Sōshin - 1904-1998
1977, August 9 - YOSHIMURA FUAN SŌSHIN:
Yoshimura Fuan Sōshin's letter to Torsten Olafsson, August 9, 1977, page 2
此れは明暗尺八吹奏と言ふ物でわ有りません。
決定された吹奏法と言ふ物は御在いません。
唯、私の言えまするは素直な心で、
唯、一心に吹くるが私の心です。
技功を弄して、上手に吹くとか、
大いにならして、人に聞かせ様等
と言ふ我の心を持って吹くるは
一番悪い人間の心だと
私は考えて居ります。
技功によって変わった音を出す人も有りますが、
明暗寺尺八吹奏は自分の心に音を聞かせて
自分がその音によって、心を修めるるが
私の禅尺八の有り方と考えて居ります。
なかなか言葉では表現出来ませんが、
つまり禅尺八としての尺八は唯々
心を素直に持って, 我の心による
技功に成らない様、修養の尺八です。
此の修養の毎日の積み重ねが
自分と言ふ人間の心に成ります。
何るも、自然にさからうるは悪いるです。
自然に副って、道をあやまらぬ様にと
私は日々心がけて居ります。
"Myōan Shakuhachi can not be likened to the playing of an ordinary wind instrument.
Such thing as a fixed way of playing does not exist.
What I can say is, plainly, that I am only concerned with directing my blowing
towards my own Self - with a gentle mind.
It is my opinion that people who trifle with skill of playing and "play well"
- who exercise exceedingly intending to impress the listener and the like -
that way of blowing with an egocentric mind represents the worst of human attitudes (that I can think of).
There are people who produce changing sounds depending on technical skill,
but as for the shakuhachi practice of the Myōan Temple,
I believe that the ideal way of Zen Shakuhachi
is to let one's true Mind listen to the sounds and to cultivate one's own Self
in accordance with those sounds.
I can not easily express this in words but to practice the shakuhachi of 'Zen Shakuhachi' is indeed a way of mental training and self-cultivation that is practiced
with an open and humble mind and does not develop into technical skill with a selfish attitude.
The accumulation of this daily practice will, eventually,
bring about the realization of the true Self of one's Human Nature.
It is, in any case, wrong to act against Nature.
I am devoting myself every day to follow Nature and not to be mistaken about the Way."
Yoshimura Fuan Sōshin, Myōan-ji, August 9, 1977.
Private correspondance. Trsl. by Torsten Olafsson.
Read more about Yoshimura Sōshin at www.komuso.com, link:
https://www.komuso.com/people/people.pl?person=982
明暗尺八 - MYŌAN SHAKUHACHI
明暗雙雙 - MYŌAN SŌSŌ - "The Myōan Pair"
法器 - HŌKI - "Instrument of the Buddhist Law"
小沢絶外盛山
1978 - OZAWA ZETSUGAI SEIZAN
Detail of a letter of recommendation for T.O.
written by Ozawa Seizan in Spring, 1978
See translation below ...
当明暗尺八は、普化宗に属じ日本古耒の伝承されじ
尺八お法器として、明暗双々円通無碍の実力を修得じ、虚に帰して、精神の修養を高めんとするしので有る。
これを吹禅と稱する。
"Myōan Shakuhachi is related to the Fuke Sect of Shakuhachi and it has as its purpose to employ the ancient Japanese shakuhachi flute as a Dharma instrument [hō-ki]
in order that one understands the Ultimately Adual Nature of the 'Bright' and the 'Dark' [Myō-An] and experiences the Essence of Non-substantiality
[kyo] through Self-Cultivation.
This [practice] is called 'Suizen'."
By Ozawa Seizan, 1939-2012, Myōan-ji, 1978, in a letter
of recommendation to the author. Trsl. by Torsten Olafsson.
Ozawa Seizan Sensei, 1939-2012
Photo: Torsten Olafsson, Spring, 1978
Read more about Ozawa Sensei at www.komuso.com, link:
https://www.komuso.com/people/people.pl?person=1617
An INTERESTING BACKGROUND PERSPECTIVE:
In a publication dated 1818, titled Hitori-goto,
独言,
Hisamatsu Fūyō, 1791-1871, a renowned representative of the early Kinko-ryū Shakuhachi tradition,
expressed the following:
「初心より美敷音のむまみを修行すべからず、
音艶むまみは出来るを好んで出かすを嫌ふ。」
'Shoshin yori, utsukushiki oto no mumami o shugyō subekarazu.
Ne-en mumami wa dekiru kononde, dekasu o kirau.'
"From the beginning (lit. with a beginner's intention), do not (ascetically) practice
the "tastefulness of a beautiful sound".
I dislike it when people please themselves with putting out tasteful "sound gloss"."
Trsl. by T.O.
That is what Hisamatsu Fūyō expressed in humble writing at the time when the ‘Kinko-ryū’ tradition of shakuhachi asceticism had not yet changed,
metamorphosed, into a sophisticated, technically demanding "shakuhachi 'honkyoku' concert performance art form".
In 1983, Andreas Gutzwiller published this translation in German, in his book "Die Shakuhachi der Kinko-Schule”:
"Man darf nicht von Anfang an danach streben, einen schönen Ton zu erlangen,
und es ist verdammenswert, wenn jemand es liebt, einen glanzvollen Ton hervorzubringen."
Wolfgang Fuyūgen Heßler presented his English translation like this:
"One must not deliberately strive from the beginning to achieve a beautiful tone.
It is disgraceful when someone loves to produce a splendid tone."
Source: http://komuso.ch/?page_id=313&lang=en
And, in 2010/8, Matt Treyvaud contributed with this rendering of his in English:
"As a beginner, do not strive for the (m)umami of beautiful sound.
It is pleasing when polish and (m)umami emerge from (dekiru) the sound;
to force them out (dekasu) is disagreeable."
Source: http://no-sword.jp/blog/2010/08/umami.html
By the way, Matt Treyvaud also cited Hisamatsu-san for this exchange of his
in the 1823 Hitori-mondō,
独問答:
問 普化禅師はいかなる人ぞ
答 知らず禅家の知識に問へ
"Q: What kind of person was Master P'ǔ-huà [Fuke] ?
普化?
A: I don't know. Ask a scholar at a zen temple."
In other words, we should probably surmise that Hisamatsu-san was not himself a Zen monk.
Nor, that he was himself a wandering mendicant 'Komusō'.
Editorial note as of February 3, 2024 - Approved as of October 30, 2024:
No Field, no Chapter nor Aspect of All Time Recorded World Wide Music "History"
has Ever been More Fabricated, Falsified, Forged, Utterly Distorted
and Misrepresented than that of "the" Japanese 'Shakuhachi' Flute,
the 'Komusō' Pseudo "Monks", and the Fully Fancified Practice
of So Called "Zen Shakuhachi Meditation".
The term, concept and whole idea of 'Suizen',
吹禅,
that was only defined and presented as late as in or soon after 1950 by Kyōto Myōan-ji abbot Yasuda Tenzan,
has now, since 1974,
been reduced and completely distorted to being nothing but a simple banal and meaningless promotional
New Age & Mindfulness business slogan
exploited by countless self declared Western "romantic bamboo flute meditation therapy actors"
- or even academically approved ethnomusicology M.A.s & Ph.D.s, for that matter -
who do not even know how to read neither modern nor classical Japanese texts, including 'kanbun',
and cannot relate to and quote from any of the actual very many existing available documentary evidence sources, at all.
PICTURES on the WEBSITE FRONT PAGE:
1951: "Forget (about) Dualistic Light & Dark Oppositeness" -
- A Calligraphic Statement by Tanikita Rōan Muchiku, 1875-1957
明暗双忘 - MYŌ AN SŌ BŌ
LIGHT DARK PAIR FORGET
In 1949, Tanikita Muchiku, 1878-1957, was appointed new 'kansu', "guardian", and "37th head",
of the Kyōto Taizan-ha Shakuhachi Tradition at the new,
soon afterwards to be restored Myōan temple in SE Kyōto, in 1950.
This four character calligraphy of his, dated Autumn, 1951, Shōwa 26, 'Aki',
(to the left of the four characters), reads in Japanese,
'Myō An Sō Bō', literally "Light Dark Pair Forget(fulness)".
An interpretive English translation could very well read as this:
"Forget (about) Dualistic Light & Dark Oppositeness".
To the left of the dating you read 'Kyorei-zan Myōan-ji' and 'San-jū-nana-se Rōan Muchiku'.
Source:
Inagaki Ihaku, Izui Seizan & Takahashi Ryochiku, editors:
Myōan sanjūnana-sei Tanikita Muchiku-shū.
Taizan-fu shūi. Tanikita Renzō, Kyoto, 1981.
Interestingly so, on Myōan-ji's official website, Tanikita Muchiku is in fact being presented as
琅庵無竹居士, 'Rōan Muchiku Koji'.
A 'koji' is only a "devoted Buddhist lay practitioner", simple as that.
Not an "abbot", not a "Zen priest" - just a very sincere Buddhist commoner!
Direct link to web page:
Myōan-ji's Traditional Genealogy
Tanikita Muchiku
Left: 'Suizen' calligraphy by Yasuda Tenzan, 1950 or very early 1950s
Right: Yoshimura Fuan Sōshin's 'Suizen ichi-nyo' CD front cover, released 1995
'Suizen ichi-nyo' cover calligraphy written by Yasuda Tenzan, n.d.
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