The "Zen Shakuhachi" Historical Evidence Research Web Pages

1950s: Yasuda Tenzan, Hirazumi Taizan & 'Suizen'

吹禅 - SUIZEN

"Blowing a Flute Non-dualistic Contemplation Practice"

This very new term was most certainly invented and introduced into modern ascetic shakuhachi ideology by Yasuda Tenzan, 安田天山, 1909-1994, while he was serving as the first head monk of the new, present-day Kyōto Myōan Temple during the years 1950 to 1952.

On Saturday August 8, 2009, US citizen and longtime Myōan Taizan-ha shakuhachi player Dean Seicho Delbene posted this illustration on his "Myoan Shakuhachi Blogspot" Website:



Tomimori Kyozan's Statement regarding the origin of the terms suizen/suishouzen, no date

Do note, by the way, that it can not be true at all, what Kyozan is quoted for stating, namely that,

" - - - 吹簫禅 (SuiShouZen) is right, that word was in old China."

Looking up under 'sui' in the main index of the Dai Kanwa Jiten encyclopedia of classical Chinese and Japanese literature and history you will find neither 'Sui-shō-zen' nor 'Suizen' there.

The very same goes for the great multi-volume collection of Buddhist scrptures, the Tripitaka,
c/o the online searchable SAT Daizōkyō Text Database:
Neither there do you find even one single appearance of the terms 'Sui-shō-zen', 吹簫禅, and 'Suizen', 吹禅 - simple as that.

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Certainly only beginning in the early 1950s, various Suizen gyōka shō, 吹禅行化証, or "Ascetic Shakuhachi Travel Authorization Certificates", were issued by the Myōan Temple, replacing the former Komusō gyōka shō, 虚無僧行化証, of the latter part of the Edo Period.



'Suizen gyōka seiganbun', 吹禅行化誓願文,
"Ascetic Shakuhachi Written Travel Pledge" No prior to 1950.


The 'Suizen' Certificate Reads and Translates as follows:

吹禅行化誓願文
'Suizen gyōka suigammon'
"'Suizen' Travel Authorization Pledge"


一吹
為断一切悪
いっすい
いだん いっさい あく

'Issui i-dan issai aku'
"First breath cuts away All Evil"


二吹
為修一切善
にすい
いしゅ いっさい ぜん

'Nisui isshū issai zen'
"Second breath leads towards All Goodness"


三吹
為度諸衆生
さんすい
いど しょ しゅう じょう

'Sansui ido sho shū jō'
"Third breath benefits Mankind and All Livings Things"


皆共成仏道
かいぐ じょうぶつ どう

'Kaigu jōbutsu dō'
"The Way for Everyone to Attain Buddhahood"


嘘霊山明暗寺

'Kyoreizan Myōanji
"Non-dual Spirit Mountain Myōanji"


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

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'MU-KU-TEKI SUI-ZEN'
"No Hole Flute - Blowing a Flute Non-dualistic Contemplation Practice"

Calligraphy signed 'Myōan Taizan', the 2nd present times
Myōan Temple chief monk Hirazumi Taizan, 平住台山, (a.k.a. Myōan Taizan),
inaugurated in 1952, died in 1984 (Shōwa 59).

Signature and stamps deciphered by Kosuge Daisetsu (Komusō kenkyūkai/Hosshin-ji),
and Sato Nakazato, Japan. A present to Torsten Olafsson
given by his teacher Ozawa Seizan in Summer, 1978

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1985



Opening pages of a honkyoku folding book (ori-hon)
written by Matsumoto Kyozan, dated 1985.

To the right: 'Suizen godō':
"Suizen Way of Buddhist Enlightenment".

To the left the Sanskrit seed syllable 'A' (Jap.: 'A')
of the Buddha Mahāvairocana, or
Dainichi Nyorai, residing in the center of the
Taizō-kai (Womb Realm) mandala (Skt.: Garbhadātu)
of Japanese Tantric Buddhism (Shingon)
Trsl. by Torsten Olafsson