The "Ascetic Shakuhachi" Historical Evidence Research Web Pages

2025: The Top Ascetic Shakuhachi History & Ideology
     Disinformation Sources in Public View, Online
     Texts Presented Primarily in the English Language:
     - Individual Writers Presented in Chronological Order
     - Websites Presented in The Order of The Alphabet

Web page updated on May 25, 2025.

Focusing especially on ages of serious disinformation about the term 'Suizen' and alleged
- only imagined! - Edo Period 'Komusō' "Zen Shakuhachi Meditation Life":

How a very early 1950s sincere and very well meant and understandable Japanese linguistic invention - namely that of 'Suizen'! - was transformed into a smart new brand expression, an exotic advertising slogan, a tag, for USA inspired New Age healing music commercialism - and extensive deception spread for financial profit and personal guru career.

Summary:
50+ years of 'Suizen' ideology propaganda and marketing efforts were, and continue to be, based on that obvious delusion and pretty "big lie" that Edo Period 'Komusō' were (affiliated?) Rinzai Zen monks and practiced 'Suizen' "Shakuhachi meditation" on a fixed daily and strictly regulated basis, and had that as their most important activity and only real honorable purpose and duty in their ex-samurai lives.

Nothing could be more mistaken, more misunderstood, more wrong!


You can pretend to be solemnly and ritualistically "meditating" with your 'Shakuhachi' bamboo flute as much as you please, but do not blame any of that on the historic(al) 'Komusō'!


When investigating the below listed sources, using these key words when searching is recommended:

'Komusō', 'Suizen', "Meditation", 'Rinzai', 'Zen', "Monk", "Priest",
"Fuke Sect", "Religious", "Spiritual(ity)", "Enlightenment", "Edo Period", "Scholar", "Dispute".


OBS: Do observe this questionable statement by a Western ethnomusicologist, writer (and shakuhachi player) before proceeding:

"The shakuhachi was used as a tool for spiritual practice by the komusō monks, the mendicant monks of the Fuke sect, which is regarded to have been loosely affiliated with Zen Buddhism (see Tsukitani 2008: 150–2; Deeg 2007: 20–2).

It is, however, also noteworthy that almost no written documentation of their spiritual practices remains today, indicating that the use of the shakuhachi as a meditation tool fell into oblivion after the sect was permanently abolished in 1871, although the awareness of the instrument’s spiritual background is high among players both in and outside Japan." Kiku Day, 2022.

Cutting through everything, this is and will for ever remain to be an indisputable fact:

Absolutely NO written documentation of their "spiritual practices" exists!!!

and, in fact: It's so much more the exact other way 'round:
The idea of the 'Shakuhachi' as a so-called "religious instrument for meditation" only appeared in Japan after World War 2, period!


INDIVIDUAL DISINFORMERS, Listed Chronologically acc. to Publication Years:


1973 & 2019:
Elliot Weisgarber: "Shakuhachi. The Voice of Nature."
External web page file.

1974:
Kamisangō Yūkō:
'Suizen' phonogram liner notes page, translated and interpreted by Torsten Olafsson:
"What is Suizen?" Internal web page.

1974:
Christopher Blasdel, 1988 & 2008, quoting Kamisangō Yūkō, 1974:
'Suizen' phonogram liner notes, adapted to, and retold in the English language by Christopher Blasdel:
"10: Komusō Reality - Suizen Life and Music Practice." Internal web page.

1977:
James H. Sanford: "Shakuhachi Zen. The Fukeshū and Komusō."
PDF file.

1977:
Norman Allen Stanfield: The "San koten Honkyoku" of the Kinko-ryū."
PDF file.

1984:
Christopher Blasdel, 1984: "The Shakuhachi: Aesthetics of a Single Tone."
PDF file.

1984:
Andreas B. Gutzwiller: "The Shakuhachi of the Fuke-Sect: Instrument of Zen."
PDF file.

1986:
Riley Kelly Lee: "Blowing Zen: Aspects of Performance Practices of the Chikuhō Ryū Honkyoku."

1993:
Riley Kelly Lee: "Yearning for the Bell: A Study of Transmission
in the Shakuhachi Honkyoku Tradition."
PDF file.

1994:
Tukitani Tuneko, Seyama Tōru & Simura Satosi.
Contributed by Riley Kelly Lee:
"The Shakuhachi: The Instrument and its Music, Change and Diversification."
PDF file.

1998:
Preston L. Houser: "Shakuhachi: Music of Myth and Memory."
External web page.


From about this time and on, around the turn of the millenium, the WWW Internet took over heading quickly towards the ever more increasing and intensifying widespread disinformation and "history" fabrication menace of 'Komusō', "Zen Shakuhachi Meditation", and 'Suizen' non-truths.


2001:
Bruno Deschênes: "Japanese Traditional Instrumental Music.
An overview of solo and ensemble development." Web article, December 27, 2001.
External web article.

2004:
Ronnie Seldin & Barbara le Krooss: "SUI ZEN: Blowing Meditation on the Shakuhachi."
External web page.

2007:
Max Deeg: "Komusō and “Shakuhachi-Zen”.
From Historical Legitimation to the Spiritualisation
of a Buddhist denomination in the Edo Period."
PDF file.

2012:
Zachary Wallmark: "Sacred Abjection in Zen Shakuhachi."
External web page.

2012:
Gunnar Linder: "Deconstructing Tradition in Japanese Music. A Study of Shakuhachi,
Historical Authenticity and Transmission of Tradition."
PDF file.

2014:
Kiku Day: "Mindful playing, mindful practice:
The shakuhachi as a modern meditation tool."
PDF file.

2014:
Dr. WONG Wah-Sang: "The Music of Buddha Nature - Blowing Zen on the Shakuhachi."
PDF file.

2022:
Kiku Day: "Folk is Cool: The Dissemmination of Min'yō Shakuhachi Outside Japan."
PDF file.

2022:
Kiku Day: "Mindful playing: a practice research investigation
into shakuhachi playing and meditation."
PDF file.

2024:
Christopher Blasdel: "The Shakuhachi: A Manual for Learning.
E-publication without the 1988 & 2008 "History" section."
Link to E-publication c/o Amazon.com.


DISINFORMERS & MISLEADERS on the INTERNET, on WEBSITES, Listed Alphabetically:


Kiku Day: "The instrument and its history."

The European Shakuhachi Society/ESS: "Shakuhachi - History and Origins",
c/o Thorsten Knaub with Kiku Day, Gunnar Linder a.o.

Ikigai Tribe: "Kiku Day on Mindful Shakuhachi Playing" - an interview, no date.

The International Shakuhachi Society/ISS c/o Elliot Kallen with Ron Nelson a.o.:
"History of the Komusō."

The Itchō-ken temple in Hakata, Fukuoka, Kyūshū:
"Icchoken - Fuke sect - Komuso."

Japan House, Illinois: "Shakuhachi: The History and Practice of Suizen."
Online article by Ben Macke, Japan House Intern and Senior in Music; no date given.

Sébastien Mouton: "Myoan Shakuhachi, the sacred sound."

Myōan Dōshukai/Myōan-ji c/o Sakai Sei'an Genshin Kansu a.o.:
"Myoan Shakuhachi - Suizen."

Ōno Ranzan: "History. The Monks of Emptiness."

Ōno Ranzan: "Fuke Shakuhachi."

Alcvin Ramos: "Hon-kyoku. The Meaningslessness of Zen in Shakuhachi:
Suizen and Hon-kyoku."

Shakuhachi Atelier c/o Thorsten Knaub: "A Brief History."

Suizen - 吹禅 - Meditation through flute music (a Facebook group).

Cesar Viana, Walking Suizen website:
"The Shakuhachi - Suizen."


Wikipedia, English: "Kinko Kurosawa"

Wikipedia, English: "Komuso"

Wikipedia, English: "Myōan-ji" Wikipedia, English: "Puhua" (Fuke Zenji)"

Wikipedia, English: "Shakuhachi"


Zenbu Shakuhachi, Holland: "About shakuhachi"


Danish Language Sources of Disinformation:

Japanoholic: "Shakuhachi"

Japanoholic: "Komuso"

Resonator.dk: "Mere end et instrument: Shakuhachi"


Recommended Readings, Online, Internal Web Pages:

To be - or not to be: a "Zen Buddhist Priest"?
     Clarifications by Shakuhachi Player and Researcher
     Makihara Ichiro and others

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"

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.