The "Zen Shakuhachi" Reality Research Web Pages

1890: Higuchi Taizan - Teaching, the "Myōan Society",
     and the Taizan-ha Tradition of Shakuhachi Asceticism

明暗寺三十五世　樋口対山

MYŌAN-JI SANJŪGO-SE HIGUCHI TAIZAN

The official 35th "Caretaker In Charge" of the shakuhachi music
of the Myōan Temple in Kyōto



Higuchi Taizan - 1856-1914



The honkyoku Chōshi, calligraphed by Higuchi Taizan.
A treasure of the Higuchi Family.
In: Ikeda Juzan shū. Taizan-fu shūi, 1985, p. 62.

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尺八指南 - 鈴木治助

SHAKUHACHI SHINAN "Shakuhachi Instruction" by Suzuki Jisuke,
alias Suzuki Taizan & Higuchi Taizan

Learn to play the shakuhachi with Higuchi Taizan, 1892




'Shakuhachi shinan': Front page



'Shakuhachi shinan': Fingering chart



'Shakuhachi shinan': Song no. 1, 'Kyōka', 唱歌

Direct link to the digital online publication c/o The National Diet Library in Tōkyō


RE-ARRANGED and ORDERED SONG-by-SONG VERSION:

Link to a specially re-arranged "page-by-page song-by-song" presentation of the NDL melody book scans - preliminary PDF file version sized c. 16 MBs

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1890 - THE MYŌAN SOCIETY is FOUNDED

In 1883 (1881?), the 1871 government's ban on religious mendicancy was lifted and then eventually, in July, 1890 (Meiji 23), a new shakuhachi society, the Myōan kyōkai, 明暗教会, was established - with the purpose of the preservation and continued practice of original komusō shakuhachi music.
A comprehensive repertory of carefully chosen shakuhachi pieces, the socalled honkyoku, had been compiled by Higuchi Taizan, 1856-1914, who became the first head instructor of a new line of ascetic shakuhachi practice, the Myōan Taizan-ha, 明暗対山派,

According to Machida Kashō, 1956, p. 375, however, the information is given somewhat differently,

"The Fuke sect had been outlawed in 1871, and the following year the regimen of the mendicant had been proscribed. This led to great difficulties in the propagation of Buddhism, however, and in 1878 the various sects jointly petitioned the government for permission to revive mendicancy.

In 1881 the request was granted by the Ministry of the Interior.

In 1883 the Meian Kyōkai (Meian Society) was founded with Prince Kujō as its head, its purpose being to preserve the komusō system, even if The Fuke Sect itself could not be revived. - - - "

Much later, probably beginning in the early 1950s, various Suizen gyōka shō, 吹禅行化証, or "Ascetic Shakuhachi Practice Certificates", were issued, replacing the former Komusō gyōka shō 虚無僧行化証, of the Edo Period.



Suizen gyōka seiganbun, 吹禅行化誓願文,
"Ascetic Shakuhachi Practice Oath", issued after 1950.

The source of the above given information, it should be noted, is the website named
Myōan dōshukai, 明暗導主会: Myōan dōshukai

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This web page is under continuous editing & hopeful intended improvement ...