Komusō-Shakuhachi

  吾妻 Azuma  Azuma belongs to group of pieces known as hirukara 昼から ("afternoon pieces") which have a lighter atmosphere than the formal pieces which were played during religious ceremonies (mostly in the morning, I suppose). They are also known as hade  派手 ("flamboyant") as opposed to honte 本手 ("original pieces"). --- In the recording presented here it is played by myself on a 2.3 Shakuhachi made by Sakurai Muteki the teacher of Monden Tekikū who was my own teacher.  That Shakuhachi was often referred to as  k uro  黒 ("black") by Monden Tekikū because the color of the bamboo is very dark, nearly black.  

In the book   Komusō Tani Kyōchiku  (edited by Inagaki Ihaku, Komusō-kenkyū-kai 1986) Tani Kyōchiku  reports some popular beliefs about the Shakuhachi and the Komusō which I present here. That's what happend to Kyōchiku near Ōmuta City in Fukuoka Prefecture: At that place I was called to stop by a young lady. The contrast between her and the coarse Komusō must have been a peculiar sight. "Sorry Mr. Komusō, but I have a little request." Turning around after having been called, I noticed that she was heavily pregnant and started blinking my eyes with surprise. "Yes, what can I do for you?", I answered, unintentionally becoming a little formal. She approached me with her enormous belly and said: "If you please." That had never before happened to me, and I was completely clueless. So I confessed: "To be honest, I'm not from here but have come from far away knowing nothing. Is something the matter?" "No, I would only ask you to stroke my

"The Society for the Study of Classical Shakuhachi" Koten Shakuhachi Kenkyū Kai 古典尺八研究会 The society was founded by Sakurai Muteki 桜井無笛 (1893-1961) who had been asked by Tanikita Muchiku 谷北無竹 (1878-1957) to organize a group for Komusō-Shakuhachi in Osaka. Tanikita Muchiku was at that time the main Shakuhachi teacher ( kansu 看主) at Myōan-ji temple in Kyōto. After the death of Sakurai Muteki, Monden Tekikū was elected leader of the group. He retired in 2011 and Maeta Tekifū 前田笛風 officially became his successor. Our mission is to preserve and transmit the playing style and repertoire of Master Monden Tekikū (the repertoire of Myōan-ji) who passed away in August 2020 at the age of 94. The group meets once a month in Osaka and we are welcoming guests from different Shakuhachi traditions. To become an official member of the group one needs to become a student of one of the members (i.e. one of the students of Monden Tekikū), but we have a number of long time guests and are open to

The temple Myōan-ji is not always open to the public, even though the area of  Tōfuku-ji  temple within which it is located is a well known tourist location. If you come to Myōan-ji on a normal day, the gate may be closed and then you will only be able to catch a glimpse of the beautiful moss garden. The abbot of Myōan-ji who lives there with his family is not a Shakuhachi player himself and to take part in or to witness any Komusō activity there you need to know when to come. Some of those events are public and then everyone is free to enter and to listen.  Myōan-ji today is home of the  Myōan-dōshu-kai  明暗導主会 "Community of Myōan[-Shakuhachi] Teachers" and the Kyochiki-zenji-hōsan-kai 虚竹禅師奉賛会 "Zen-Master Kyochiku Appreciation Society". The Myōan-dōshu-kai dates back to the time when Higuchi Taizan came to Kyōto in 1885 to engage himself in reestablishing the Komusō-Shakuhachi tradition and compiling the present repertoire of  koten-honkykoku . The group is organisi

  Prohibition and revival of the Fuke-sect On October 28, 1872, the Fuke-sect and the Komusō were forbidden by the Meiji government. In the justification of the prohibition, it was said that the Komusō, by wearing the Buddhist robe ( kesa  袈裟) and the characteristic basket-shaped hat ( tengai  天蓋), gave themselves the appearance of Buddhist priests. But in reality they lived in laity because they had neither taken the Buddhist priest's vows nor did they spread the doctrine of Buddhism. They also did not carry out Buddhist ceremonies like burials. Nevertheless, they regularly went through the cities and towns to receive alms ( takuhatsu  托鉢) what was - and still is - one of the privilege of the Buddhist clergy. One other point of criticism was that, although in the Edo period only Samurai were allowed to become members of the Fuke-sect (which is a slightly disturbing rule for a Buddhist sect anyway), they had given out Komusō license against payment irrespective of social status. Th

  Kyotaku  虚鐸 is synonymous with Shakuhachi. The "Legend of the Kyotaku"  Kyotaku-denki  虚鐸伝記 provides a myth of origin for the Komusō tradition by placing the Chinese Zen master Puhua 普化 (Japanese pronunciation Fuke, thus Fuke-sect and Fuke-Shakuhachi) at the very beging of its lineage. Puhua was a contemporary of the famous Zen-master Linji 臨濟, (jap. Rinzai) who lived in the 7th century. Puhua is said to always have chimed a little bell in the streets, reciting the following mysterious verse, which has become a kind of motto of the Japanese Fuke-sect until today. Here is the Japanese pronunciation with a rough English translation: Myōtō rai ya myōtō da.  Antō rai ya antō da. Shihō hachimen rai ya senpū da. Kokū rai ya renga da. "When one comes in the light, I strike in the light. "When one comes in the dark, I strike in the dark. When one comes from everywhere, I strike like the whirlwind. "When one comes out of the void, I strike with the flail." Photo:

This is an early picture showing my teacher Monden Tekikū and myself  playing at Hosshin-ji temple in Tōkyō in 2004.   Practical issues The traditional  honkyoku -pieces of the Komusō-Shakuhachi are transmitted in direct encounter between teacher and student. In the old days the teacher would have known all his pieces by heart, he would not have used any notation when showing how to play. The student then played what he had heard and took notes. Here is what Nishimura Kokū 西村虚空 (1915-2002) writes about his Shakuhachi lessons with Tani Kyōchiku 谷狂竹 (1882-1950) in 1943: I took lessons three times a week, but for half a year the master made play only Ro - that one single note. And whenever my lesson on the single tone Ro was finished, he would play the piece Ajikan for me. And thus, before I even noticed it, Ajikan had become deeply engraved into my heart, and after half a year I was able to hum along. After half a year of taking lessons on the tone Ro, to my great surprise he told me: &q

About Honkyoku Sometimes the term  koten-honkyoku  古典本曲 "classical honkyoku" is also used to distinguish the traditional  honkyoku  that were played by the Komusō, i.e. within the Fuke-sect, from the core repertoire of the modern Shakuhachi (Kinko-ryū, Tozan-ryū) which is referred to as   honkyoku  as well. The word  honkyoku  本曲 is composed of the two Chinese characters  hon  and  kyoku .  Hon  is used in a number of meanings, but here means something like "original", "origin", "true" or "root".  Kyoku  simply means "musical piece" oder "song". Thus an obvious translation would be "original pieces", but it is possible to read a little bit more out of the word  honkyoku . There is a Japanese saying:  Honkyoku wa hon'nin no kyoku 本曲は本人の曲 "The Original Pieces are the Music of the Original Person / of each player himself." What is meant by that Zen- kōan -like saying is not a question I can answe

The Basics The Komusō-Shakuhachi is not a musical instrument  per se  but rather a tool for  meditation . That is important to keep in mind to avoid misunderstandings. More traditional names for the instrument are "vessel for the Buddhist teaching ( dharma )" ( hōki  法器) or "dharma-bamboo" ( hotchiku  法竹). Every aspect of the Shakuhachi relates to its playing-purpose: Its tuning it is not strictly adjusted to the pitch of the Western musical scale and this kind of Shakuhachi is only played alone - or sometimes unison during ceremonies. The length of the Shakuhachi is not standardised but only depends on the natural growth of the bamboo used. In contrast to that, modern Shakuhachi are thoroughly tuned and their length is in most cases adjusted to one  shaku  and eight  sun  (about 54.5 cm). Jinashi 地無し and Jiari 地有り Shakuhachi Ji  is a mixture of the natural Japanese lacquer  urushi  漆 and  tonoko  との粉 that is a kind of grindig powder.  Ji  is used within the bore of