Kaoru Kakizakai playing a 3.0 shakuhachi
Late June 2018 renowned Shakuhachi player Kaoru Kakizakai visited for a week of lessons, a workshop and a house concert. The house concert was a real treat, very intimate, with a small number of shakuhachi aficionado’s. You were really able to watch a master at work.
What is interesting in this drawing is that the two shakuhachi players are an ordained Zen Monk — an unsui — on the left, and a Komuso on the right. The Komuso remained for the most part a lay order, which is why their robes are white and they don’t wear the kesa that a monk would wear, but a variant closer to the rakusu that can be worn by the laity. Later on in the history of the Fuke-Shu when they had their own temples and priests there must have been some type of ordination, but the details of temple operations within the Fuke-shu are minimal at best (at least in translation). So to see in this case that if one was ordained and practicing takuhatsu with the shakuhachi, one sticks with the traditional monks garb, including the wide flat hat used traditionally by monks for takuhatsu.
When Ch’an was transmitted to Japan the major school (Lin-ji) arrived first and evolved into the Rinzai school. Dōgen brought the Caodong school to Japan which through his genius became a new school known as Sōtō. In China Ch’an continued on and took on many of the the elements of Pure Land Buddhism. Eventually there was another transmission of Ch’an to Japan based on this later Ch’an which in Japan became the Ōbaku school. These would be the three largest zen sects in Japan all derived from Ch’an schools. But there is a fourth school, the Fuke sect, that all mythology aside, was developed in Japan.
There is a lot of mythology around the Fuke sect, which the sect itself promoted from it’s earliest records. But details around the founding aside, it does seem that the basic outlines of the sect can be pretty easily determined. The core feature of the Fuke-Shu is that their practice revolves around the playing of the shakuhachi, the Japanese bamboo end blown flute. The instrument itself seemed to have come to Japan from China, but in a somewhat different form. Over the years it was developed in Japan into it’s own instrument, primarily by the Komuso, who were the “monks” of the Fuke sect.
There has been a tradition of wandering musicians in Japan and they often could be religiously affiliated. One group of these were known as the Komoso or “mat monks” who played a proto-shakuhachi and carried a rolled up mat with them to sleep on. It was this group who started the basis of the religious aspects adopting Fuke (Puhua) from the Rinzai-roku (Lin-ji Yulu) as their patron. I personally find this rather striking as Fuke is probably amongst the wildest and most idiosyncratic individuals in the Ch’an literature. It seems very much like musicians to adopt such a figure.
During the Edo period in Japan, the samurai went into decline and there were increasing numbers of masterless samurai (ronin) attempting to survive in an increasingly peaceful culture. Becoming wandering mendicant musicians appealed to a number of them and thus the Fuke-Shu developed into a genuine religious sect. At this time it affiliated itself with the Rinzai sect and developed a set of structures for it’s adherents. Ronin were required to turn in their swords and they would wander playing shakuhachi with their identities obscured by a basket they wore over their heads. Alone in Japan they were granted the right to travel freely throughout the country.
The combination of anonymity and the ability to travel freely was rife for abuse and there are many legends of spies, assassins and corruption of myriad kinds. However the Fuke-Shu seemed to become increasingly religious from it’s more spurious roots and they really developed into a serious practice. And this practice is very interesting and unique. The sect was eventually disbanded by the government during the Meiji Restoration but in less than a decade the government was convinced to allow the shakuhachi to become a secular musical practice and much of the komuso repertoire was preserved.
It is this repertoire of music that is of primary interest to myself. These pieces have come to be known as honkyoku which means original music. That is the music originally composed for the instrument. These pieces, though their origin is lost and there is much mythology surrounded them, served the same purpose as different chants in traditional zen practice. That is that there are pieces that you would use for various ceremonial purposes, that a zen monk would undertake. Furthermore numerous pieces were played as zazen that is for the purposes of cultivating samadhi. The breathing techniques, the singleminded concentration required and the unstructured flow of these pieces really facilitates this. They may sound “meditative” to the listener at times (but some of these pieces, definitely do not!) but they functioned as meditation for the performer. There were ceremonial pieces used for mendicancy or ceremonies, which could be thought of as a performance repertoire, but the pieces used for meditation were, like zazen, an individual practice.
The komuso, in their formal, monk like attire and with the striking basket on their heads became a figure of popular legend in Japan. Sometimes thought of as scary, usually as mysterious, often with the veneration that clergy can be granted. Their name translates as “monks of nothingness” and there is I think a very appealing romanticism to their striking anonymous images. There are many pictorial representations of the komuso in the Japanese arts, including photographs once that technology arrived on the island.
As I explore the honkyoku repertoire and the aspects of practice therein, it will be interesting to investigate it in terms of traditional Rinzai practice. This will be an occasional focus of this blog over the upcoming years. But learning these pieces is slow going — they are complicated and intricate and the shakuhachi has a very demanding technique, especially in the honkyoku tradition — so occasionally we will look at what we can find on the Fuke-shu and it’s traditions as well as publish images that I have collected of the komuso in Japanese artist representation.
A very good and succinct overview of what seems historically accurate about the komuso can be read on Jon Kypros Shakuhachi site here: Komuso shakuhachi monks of Japan.
The best text that I have encountered on a general history of the shakuhachi and it’s performances practices is:
Shakuhachi: Roots and Routes
by Henry Johnson
Brill Academic Pub; Lam edition, 2014
ISBN-10: 9004243399
The Seattle Shakuhachi Study Group has for the last four years held a weekend long Shakuhachi Matsuri with workshops and performances. This year, for the first time, they held a separate performance at the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park. This concert was a mix of contemporary and traditional pieces, both solo and in trio. There was also one duo piece with Mitsuki Dazai playing koto. I attending the performance part of the last two Shakuhachi Matsuri and I was particularly looking forward to seeing this expanded performance in a more concert oriented venue.
Ikebana at SAAM
SAAM has a small hall which they primarily use for lectures that was used for this performance. Its acoustics are perhaps not ideal but since it wasn’t too packed most people could sit close enough that you would hear the musicians directly as opposed to within the space. The concert primarily featured the three shakuhachi players visiting from Japan but also Larry Tyrrell (shakuhachi) and Mitsuki Dazai (koto) both from Oregon.
The first set consisted of:
Tabibito no Uta (composed by Rando Fukuda) performed by Kaoru Kakizaki
Takiochi (traditional) performed by Kazushi Matama
Yumeji MODAN 1 & 3 (composed by Keisuke Doi) performed by Teruo Furuya and Mitsuki Dazai
Mushi Zuki Yo (composed by Rando Fukuda) performed by Larry Tyrrell
The Mountains Remain (composed by Larry Terrell) performed by KSK Trio
My primary interest in shakuhachi is the Zen influenced Honkyoku repertory of which Takiochi was the only example performed in this set. While definitely the highlight of this set, I greatly admired the duet with the koto and found the contemporary Rando solo piece that Larry Tyrrell performed spellbinding. All of the performances were spectacular and I learned a lot watching each of the different performers.
KSK Trio: Furuya Teruo, Kakizaka Kaoru, Matama Kazushi
After a short break the second set commenced:
Kikyou Gensou Kyoku (composed by Rando Fukuda) performed by Teruo Furuya
San’An (traditional) performed by Kaoru Kakizaki
Wadatsumi no Iroko no Miya (composed by Rando Fukuda arr. Tomiko Kojiba) performed by KSK Trio
As with the last set, this one contained one piece of Honkyoku which again was absolutely absorbing. I’ve seen Kaoru Kakizaki play Honkyoku at the last two Matsuri and I love his playing. I’d been unfamiliar with Rando Fukuda prior to this concert (though I had heard a few of his pieces here and there) and this was a good introduction to his music. He studied traditional shakuhachi music as well as contemporary western composition. He composed many pieces for television and thus would utilize both modern and traditional styles. I really appreciated getting this introduction to his music and the trio in this set along with the solo piece that Larry played in the last set were really highlights for me of his compositions.
drafty mountain hut 