Introduction
Sitemap - All Menu Items List
Newly Added Extra Web Page Menus
About this Research Project
Preliminary Realizations & Conclusions
The Chinese Ch'an Monk P'u-k'o, the Komosō Beggars
& the Imperialistic Catholic Christian Intruders
- the Rōnin Samurai, the Fuke-Komosō, the Komusō
& the Kyōto Myōan Temple - an Unbiased Narrative
The Amazing Fuke Zenji / Fuke Shakuhachi /
Fuke-shū Legend Fabrication Hoax
To be - or not to be: a "Zen Buddhist Priest"?
Highlighted Illustrations
1549 ... The Catholic Christian Century in Japan
& the Temple Patron Household System
Ascetic Shakuhachi Ideology
and the Realization of The Non-Dual
- Highlighted Quotations
Chronology of Ascetic Shakuhachi
Ideology-related Terms, Concepts & Names
Various Errors, Misconceptions & Loose Ends
Wikipedia: Inaccuracies & Misunderstandings
about 'Komusō', 'Fuke-shū', 'Suizen' et cetera
The Source Collections
The Japanese Written Sources - An Overview
Texts, Quotations & Illustrations
A Chronological Panorama
• INDIA - 1 web page
• CHINA - 2 web pages
• JAPAN - 8 web pages
• The WEST - 1 web page
Research Cases of Particular Significance,
Real Importance & Special Concern
ERA of the KOMOSŌ - The "Mat Monks"
c. 1450 to c. 1550
1470s?: The Dance-kyōgen Play Rakuami
1474: Tōyō Eichō and Ikkyū Sōjun at the
Inauguration of the Rebuilt Daitoku Temple, Kyōto
1494 & 1501: Two Enchanting Muromachi Period
Poetry Contest Picture Scrolls
1512: The Taigenshō Court Music Treatise
ERA of the FUKE-SŌ / FUKE-KOMOSŌ
c. 1550 to c. 1628?
The Komosō & Fuke-sō / Fuke-komosō Sources
1550-1560: The Early Setsuyō-shū Dictionaries
1614: The Keichō kenmon-shū Short Story Book:
The Fuke-komosō in Hachiō-ji, West of Edo City
1621-1625: The Neo-Confucian Scholar Hayashi Razan
on the Shakuhachi, Komosō and Related Matters
1623: Anrakuan Sakuden's Encounter
with a Wandering Fuke-komosō
1627-1629: Takuan Sōhō, the Purple Robe Affair, the
Concept of 'Mu-shin Mu-nen' and the Myōan sōsō-shū
1628: The Kaidō honsoku Fuke-komosō Credo
ERA of the KOMUSŌ
"Monks of the Non-Dual & None-ness"
c. 1628? to 1871
The Early Komusō-related Texts
- from c. 1628? to c. 1750
1628?: A "Fuke Shakuhachi" related Murder Case
in the Province of Tosa on the Island of Shikoku?
1637-1640: The Shimabara Uprising on Kyūshū,
the National "Sects Inspection Bureau", and the
Efficient Extinction of Catholic Christian Believers
c. 1640?: The Kaidō honsoku "Version 2"
Copy
1640?: Is a Very Early "Komusō Temple" built
in Nagasaki on the Island of Kyūshū?
c. 1640?: The Strange Butsu-gen Komusō Document
1646: Abbot Isshi Bunshu's Letter to a
"Proto-Komusō" named Sandō Mugetsu
1646 ... The Hottō Kokushi / Kakushin Legend:
"The Four Buddhist Laymen" & the "disciple" Kichiku
1650s?: The Kaidō honsoku "Version 3" Copy
The Kyōto/Kansai Sources
1659?: A Falsely Dated Myōan-ji Document Revealed
1664: The Shichiku shoshinshū Music Treatise
c, 1665-1675?: The Kyotaku denki Fairy Tale:
Shinchi Kakushin, Kichiku & Kyōto Myōan-ji
The Edo/Kantō/Tōkyō Sources
1677: The Enpō 5, 6th Month
Reihō-ji Komusō Set of Rules
1678: The Enpō 5, 12th Month Komusō-ha Oboe
Bakufu Memorandum of January 11th, 1678
1687: The Jōkyō 4, 6th Month
Reihō-ji Komusō Set of Rules
c. 1685-1690: The Yōshū fu-shi
& Jinrin kinmō zu-i - Evidence of Kyōto Myōan-ji
1694: Myōan-ji Founder Engetsu Ryōgen's
23 Rules for his Komusō Disciples
1703 & 1705: The Kyōto Myōan-ji
c/o Kōkoku-ji & Myōshin-ji Interrelationship
1722: The Kyōhō 7, 6th Month,
Reihō-ji Komusō Memorandum
1730: The Kyōhō 15, 7th Month, Ichigetsu-ji
& Reihō-ji Komusō Memorandum
1732: The Shakuhachi denrai-ki
and Early 'Honkyoku' History
1735: Kyōto Myōan-ji Temple Chief Administrator
Kandō Ichiyū's Letter about 'Sankyorei-fu',
the "Three Non-Dual Spirit Music Pieces"
1751: The Keichō 19/1614 Komusō Certificate
The Many Different All Fabricated Versions
1752: Kyōto Myōan-ji Founder Engetsu
Ryōgen's 23 Fixed Rules for the Komusō
1795: The Kyotaku denki kokujikai Source Book
1816: Miyaji Ikkan's Shakuhachi hikki Book
1823: Hisamatsu Fūyō's Hitori mondō a.o. texts
The Kiyū shōran Encyclopedia
on 'Komosō' & 'Shakuhachi'
Post-Edo & Post-WW2 Period History Sources & Matters
The Re-Writing & Re-Falsification
of "Fuke Shakuhachi" Narratives
1 - MEIJI PERIOD till the mid-20th CENTURY
1868-1945
1871? (1843-44): The Komusō zakki
Source Collection
From 1879 ... 1896-1914:
The Koji ruien Historical Encyclopedia
1890: Higuchi Taizan - Teaching, the "Myōan Society",
and the Taizan-ha Tradition of Shakuhachi Asceticism
1902: Mikami Sanji's Critical Article
'Fuke-shū ni tsuite', "About the Fuke Sect"
Early 20th Century Historians & Musicians, Japan:
Kurihara Kōta, Uramoto Setchō,
Nakatsuka Chikuzen, Tanikita Mujiku,
Tomimori Kyozan, Ikeda Jūzan a.o.
1931-1932: Tokugawa kinreikō - A Source Collection
of Tokugawa Period Prohibition Laws
2 - POST-WW2 till TODAY: JAPAN
1945 ...
1950: "The Myōan Temple of the True Fuke Sect"
Inauguration at Tōfuku Temple in SE Kyōto
1950s: Yasuda Tenzan, Hirazumi Taizan & 'Suizen'
1960: Uramoto Setchō's Essay about
'Gyō no ongaku': "Music of Asceticism"
Shakuhachi Historianship in Japan Today?:
The "Traditionalists" and the "Truth Tellers"
The Legacy of the Late Myōan Taizan-ha Teachers
Yoshimura Fuan Sōshin & Ozawa Seizan
3 - POST-WW2 till TODAY: The WEST
1945 ...
1945 ... : Some Early Post-WW2 Shakuhachi Narratives
Written and Published in Western Languages
Translations of Shakuhachi Source Texts
published in the West / Outside of Japan
including the Internet / WWW
- The Translators
Literature / References
Links
Profile / Bio / CV
Contact Info
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1474: Tōyō Eichō and Ikkyū Sōjun at the Inauguration
of the Partly Rebuilt Daitoku Temple, Kyōto
1474 - IKKYŪ SŌJUN is appointed ABBOT of DAITOKU-JI
明頭来 明頭打 - MYŌTŌ RAI - MYŌTŌ DA
暗頭来 暗頭打 - ANTŌ RAI - ANTŌ DA

Ikkyū Sōjun. Appointed abbot of Daitoku-ji in 1474.
Artist so far unidentified. 15th century.
"IN THE ABBOT'S QUARTERS -
'If a bright-head comes, strike the bright-head;
If a dark-head comes, strike the dark-head.
Whatever direction it comes from
Strike it like a whirlwind.
And if it comes from emptiness, cut it down with a scythe.'
'Hey, Mr. Abbot, dirtiest monk in the world,
Give me a Katsu!'
'No one came to ask after Hsiang-ju's thirst [katsu],
So he broke a plum branch and drank frozen dew,'
I struck back."
Inauguration poem recited by Ikkyū Sōjun when he took the seat
as abbot of the Daitoku-ji in Kyōto in 1474,
on the 16th day of the second lunar month (trad. calendar).
Preserved in the 'Kyōun-shū'.
Trsl. by James H. Sanford, 1981.
少林無孔笛 - SHŌRIN MUKUTEKI
Late 15th century: TŌYŌ EICHŌ & 'SHŌRIN MUKUTEKI'
Portrait of Tōyō Eichō, 1428-1504
Anonymous. Owned by Daisen-ji, Gifu Prefecture
無孔笛最難吹
(むくてきもっともふきがたし)
Mukuteki mottomo fukigatashi.
"A Flute with No Holes is the most difficult to blow."
Trsl. by Torsten Olafsson.
Source: Hori, 2003, p. 72 & p. 252.
The renowned Zen monk of the Myōshin-ji line of Rinzai Zen Tōyō Eichō,
東陽英朝, 1428-1504,
was among the first to collect socalled "capping phrases" for kōan study.
The above cited phrase is but one among numerous such capping phrases presented in the Zenrin kushū collection by Ijūshi (n.d.), published in 1688.
It remains so far undetermined whether that particular capping phrase may actually have been contained in Tōyō Eichō's capping phrase collection Kuzōshi
dating from the late 15th century.
In any case, Tōyō Eichō was the author of a most impressive literary work entitled Shōrin mukuteki, "The Shōrin Flute Without Holes",
which was, eventually, published in 1709 (Hōei 6) in 6 volumes, edited by Ueda Shōshin.
A copy of that work is preserved at the Komazawa University Library.
The term mukuteki does in fact appear in quite a number of old Chinese & Japanese Buddhist texts - link to the
SAT Daizōkyō Text Database
By the way, in Volume 1 of the Shōrin mukuteki, one finds a very interesting passage that mentions both Ikkyū Sōjun playing the shakuhachi - and: the grandeur of Priest Fuke whose Myō-An poem Ikkyū is known to have recited at the inauguration ceremony at Daitoku-ji in 1474.
Acc. to Tōyō Eichō, he actually witnessed Ikkyū Sōjun playing the (hitoyogiri?) shakuhachi in the Zen temple Daitoku-ji in Kyōto
on that very day, in late 1474, when Ikkyū entered the Abbot's Quarters of the temple to become its rebuilder and restorer.
Tōyō Eichō recorded as follows,
不寒臘後
看一休和尚
入牌祖堂正宗滅却。
- - -
狂雲吹起寶山巓。
"In the not cold Winter,
after the offering ceremony held on the third Day of the Dog after the Winter solstice [12th month, 1474],
I saw Abbot Ikkyū as he entered beneath the sign board of
the Founder's Hall [of Daitoku Temple in Kyōto]
after its destruction [in the Ōnin War, 1467-1477].
- - -
Kyōun [Ikkyū's literary name] blew forth [the tune] Hōsanten, "Summit of the Treasure Mountain"."
Link to the full text in question:
Shōrin mukuteki, Chapter 1.
That particular passage is so far awaiting a complete, final and fulfilling translation and commentary.

The Zen temple Ryūkyōzan Shōrin-ji in Kakamigahara, Gifu Prefecture
Tōyō Eichō who founded the temple in 1493 (Meiō 2)
lies buried here. Meiji Period drawing
By the way, the term mukuteki also appears in a literary work entitled Shakuhachi mei narabi ni jo, date 1505,
"Shakuhachi Makers' Seals and Introduction", by the Rinzai Zen monk Kōrin (died 1536, Tenmon 5, 6th month, 14th day).
The text is reproduced in Nakatsuka, 1979, pp. 204-206.
1481 - IKKYŪ SŌJUN DIES
Tōyō Eichō, 1428-1504, is appointed jū-ji,
住持, or "chief administrator" of the Zen temple Daitoku-ji i Kyōto.
Source: Louis Frédéric, 2005, p. 170.
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