A Brief History of the Shakuhachi

Muromachi Period – Tokugawa (Edo) Period

Increasingly during the seventeenth century, the shakuhachi came into the possession of beggar monks called komusō 虚無僧. The word is derived from three characters ko虚 (emptiness), mu無 (nothingness), and sō僧 (monk) and is often translated as “monks of emptiness/nothingness.” Many of these early monks were originally rōnin 浪人, master-less samurai without a lord to serve or a home to take refuge in. Many of these rōnin began seeking refuge in Fuke temples, and some of them were allowed to become komusō.  Beginning in 1614, the Tokugawa government issued the Ordinance of the Keichō Era, allowing the komusō monks the freedom to travel anywhere, exclusive rights to playing the shakuhachi, the right to wear the garbs of a komusō monk (which included hiding their face with a tengai basket; see fig. 2), and to take refuge at other Fuke temples (Koto and Tanaka 2016.) In 1677, the Tokugawa government acknowledged their legitimacy as a religious order (Blasdel 2015).

While komusō were allowed to occasionally leave the boundaries of their specific temples to beg for alms, or to teach shakuhachi to laypeople in temple-sanctioned schools in towns, the monks were, at least on paper, forbidden to play music outside of the Fuke sect. The pieces the Fuke monks practiced were referred to as honkyoku 本曲 (literally, “original music”) and were considered sacred works. Works outside of this tradition are gaikyoku 外曲 (outside music.) Compositions in the Fuke sect varied in terms of function and meaning:

As within the temple, the monks played certain pieces outside according to the situation. Like the urban ice cream truck that plays its distinctive melody when entering a neighborhood, the komusō monks informed the locals of their presence in the area by performing a piece called “Tōri” as they walked along the paths or “Kadozuke” at street corners. “Hachigaeshi” (“Returning the Bowl”) was performed as a kind of thank-you piece when the monk was given alms. When two komusō met while begging, it was customary to begin playing “Yobi Take” (“Bamboo Call”) or “Uke Take” (“Bamboo Answer”). When on the road and wishing to stay in a komusō temple, they played “Hirakimon” or “Monbiraki” (“Open the gate”) to gain entrance. Practice and etiquette probably differed from temple to temple but were basically the same. (Blasdel 2015)

There were over 120 temples affiliated with the Fuke Sect at the height of its influence and there were over 180 solo compositions. In addition to standard compositions that served specific functions, other pieces were unique to individual temples and helped to identify where a certain komusō hailed from.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the hitoyogiri (a short bamboo flute made from a thin piece of bamboo with one node) decreased in popularity amongst players due to its relatively inflexible pitch, and lost out to the more reliable and easier to play Fuke shakuhachi (the immediate predecessor to the modern shakuhachi). This was most likely due the to the rising importance of the shamisen 三味線, a three stringed spiked lute that arrived in southern Japan in the fifteenth century and quickly became the favored instrument to accompany vocal music. Around the same time, the koto琴 (thirteen string tube zither), another instrument that arrived in Japan in the seventh century as part of the gagaku ensemble, became increasingly popular as an instrument for musicians, and individuals like Yatsuhashi Kengyō 八橋検校 (1614-1685) composed masterworks for the koto like “Rokudan no Shirabe” 六段の調and “Hachidan”八段.

By the end of the seventeenth century, shamisen and koto began performing together in public and formed two thirds of the sankyoku 三曲 ensemble, a three person ensemble consisting of shamisen, koto, and kokyū 胡弓 (three stringed bowed spiked lute.) By the end of the nineteenth century, the kokyū was almost entirely replaced by the shakuhachi. The Tokugawa government did not approve of the shakuhachi performing as a member of sankyoku ensemble since it meant laypeople were learning how to practice and worse, perform the instrument for the sake of creating music instead of seeking enlightenment by playing shakuhachi. In some cases, laypeople were given permission by their Fuke sect teachers to even teach komusō repertoire despite not having official licenses, something explicitly forbidden by the government. Despite repeated complaints from the Tokugawa government, laypeople continued to perform in public.

One of the seminal figures in shakuhachi history is the komusō monk Kurosawa Kinko I 黒沢琴古(1710-1771) a head teacher at major temples in Edo (modern day Tokyo). His followers would later identify as Kinko-ryū 琴古流 (Kinko Style/School) players. This style of playing continues to be practiced today and is the second most common school (the most common is Tozan-ryū 都山流). Kinko I was instrumental as a teacher of the shakuhachi and during his lifetime traveled to all known Fuke Sect temples in Japan, and transcribed and notated many different honkyoku compositions from around Japan. He eventually established a set repertoire of thirty-six solo pieces that make up the core of the Kinko style of playing.

Rising complaints that non-Fuke monks were not only playing and teaching honkyoku, but also gaikyoku, led to an increasing distrust of the monks by government officials. By 1847 the government began rolling back certain liberties granted to the komusō, including the right to beg for alms, essentially damning the Fuke sect, which was officially abolished in 1871 (Blasdel and Kamisango 2008).