Komusō

Wandering medicants recognized by their flute playing

The (虚無僧) ("priest of nothingness" or "monk of emptiness") were wandering non monastic lay Buddhists from the warrior class (samurai and rōnin) who were noted for wearing straw basket hats and playing the shakuhachi bamboo flute, nowadays called suizen ('Zen of blowing (the flute)'). During the Edo period (1600–1868) they obtained various rights and privileges from the bakufu, the ruling elite. The 18th and 19th century saw a popularization of shakuhachi playing among lay people, accompanied by the interpretation and legitimation of this laicization in spiritual and esthetical terms derived from the Zen tradition, to which the komusō nominally belonged. In the 19th century the komusō tradition became known as the Fuke shū ([[Japanese language) or Fuke Zen, after the publication of the Kyotaku denki (1795), which created a fictitious Rinzai Zen lineage starting with the eccentric Zen master Puhua (J. Fuke) of Tang China. This narrative legitimized the existence and rights of the komusō, but also ushered in the “bourgeoisization” of shakuhachi playing in the 18th century. The rights of the komusō were abolished in 1867, like other Buddhist organisations. Interest in their music style stayed alive in secular audiences, and a number of the pieces they composed and performed, called honkyoku, are preserved, played, and interpreted in the popular imagination as a token of Zen spirituality, continuing the narrative which developed in the 18th and 19th century.

Wandering musicians were known at first as komosō (薦僧; literally "straw mat monks"). By the mid 17th century, different characters were used for the same pronunciation, resulting in komusō as (虚無僧) (also romanized komusou or komuso), "priest of nothingness" or "monk of emptiness". The first two characters, (虚無) (or komu) mean "nothingness, emptiness", with (虚) (or ko) meaning "nothing, empty, false", and (無) meaning "nothing, without". The last character, (僧), means "priest, monk". Fuke shū ([[Japanese language), from Fuke (Ch. Puhua), an eccentric Zen master mentioned in the Record of Linji, and shū, meaning school or sect.

The understanding of the history of the komusō and the Fuke shu had long been dominated by the Keichô Okite Gaki (c.1680) and the Kyotaku denki Kokuti Kai (1795), a forged Governmental Decree and a fictional origin narrative, respectively. Historical research by Nakazuka Chikozan in the 1930s showed the spurious nature of these texts, and a revised history has emerged since then, as set out by and .

Predecessors of the komuso's were beggar monks with unshaved heads known as boro's, boroboro or boronji, mentioned in the Tsurezurega (c.1330). These boro merged in the late 15th century into the komosō ("straw mat monks," named after the straw sleeping mats which they carried along), which played the shakuhachi, and are depicted in paintings and texts from around 1500 onwards. The komosō came to be known as komusō. There is no evidence of any earlier tradition of shakuhachi playing monks, and it is recorded that in 1518 the shakuhachi was regarded by some as an instrument for court music (gagaku), not for religious music. The earliest komosō, predecessors of the later "priests of nothingness", were poor beggar monks without any social status in society. The later komusō, on the other hand, had to be of samurai family, even though the practice of teaching shakuhachi to townspeople had become very popular already in the early 18th century.

The komusō were initially a loose affiliation of monks and lay pilgrims, but solidified as an organized group in the 1600s. After the civil wars of the 15th 16th century masterless samurai (rōnin) joined the komusō. Several uprisings involving rōnin took place during the first half of the 17th century, and the Tokugawa Shogunate tightened its control of the rōnin and komusō and other deviant groups, "extending authority through the Buddhist institutions." In response, the komusō "banded together and formed a sect," members of which, by their own regulations had to be of samurai descent. Due to the temperaments of the rōnin, the sect gained the reputation of harbouring troublemakers. Simple lodges provided accommodation for the komoso, and the komoso lodge at Shirakata in Kyoto was chosen as its headquarters, calling it Myōan ji. A temple was needed to be regarded as a religious sect, and Myōan ji was recognized as a temple in the early 17th century, at the beginning of the Edo period. While first a subtemple of Reiho ji, in the 18th century a relation with Kōkoku ji, founded by Kakushin, was forged, and officially acknowledged in 1767; a move which was apologized in the Kuotaku Denki. At the request of the government, the headquarters of the komusō were transferred to two temples in Edo, where they could better be controlled. A directive from the government from 1677 marks this recognition, and control over, the komusō, as a distinct institution. The purportedly oldest document granting privileges to the komusō is the Keichō Okite Gaki (Governmental Decree of the Keichô Years, 1596–1615), a falsified decree signed 1614 but actually dated to around 1680, intended to lend legitimacy to already existing komusō practices. Presented with this forgery, the shogumate eventually accepted it, to provide refuge to ronin and gain control over them. Several versions of this document exist, which can be divided in short and long versions, reflecting the power struggle between the komusō and the government. The short versions show that the government designated the institutionalisation for the lodging of ronin, limiting and policing the komusō, and instructing them to act as spies. Travel around Japan was heavily restricted in the Edo period, but the longer versions gave the komusō a rare exemption from the Tokugawa shogunate, most likely for political reasons. To be given a free pass in these times was a highly unusual and very special exemption from travel restrictions, and rumors from the period held that in return for this privilege the komusō had to report back to the central government about conditions in the provinces, a practice which helped seal the group's demise when the government itself fell. The authenticity of this decree was in doubt, despite it being treated as legitimate and amended by future leaders within the shogunate. While there were over 120 komuso associated "temple lodges," early 17th century, their number decreased, as membership of the komuso was strictly restricted to the samurai.

The oldest documentation of any named honkyoku piece is in the Shichiku shoshin shū (Collection of Pieces for beginners on Strings and Bamboo, 1664). This text mentions Kyō Renbo, Goro, Yoshino and other pieces, but it does not mention any of the pieces considered to be the "three classics" (Mukaiji/Mukaiji reibo, Kokū/Kokū Reibo, Kyorei/Shin no Kyorei).

The name Fuke shū does not appear before the 19th century, and the sect has never been officially acknowledged as a distinct Zen school. The name is derived from the Kyotaku denki, a text in classical Chinese that was published in 1795 together with a Japanese translation and commentary,the Kokuji Kai, "to create a legitimate affiliation between the komusō and the Rinzai shu." It was published at a time when the komusō faced difficulties and started to lose privileges, and its publication may have been an attempt to strengthen their position. The legend itself seems to be older, already mentioned in the Boro no Techô (1628) and the Shichiku Shoshin shû (1664). The Kyotaku denki pictured a lineage back to the eccentric Zen master Puhua (J. Fuke) of Tang China, a clowneske figure from the Record of Linji. According to legend, Puhua roamed the streets ringing a bell while preaching. A man named Zhang Bai asked to become Puhua's student, but was rejected. He then made an instrument of bamboo to imitate the bell. According to the Kyotaku denki, Fuke Zen was brought to Japan by 心地覚心 (心地覚心) (1207–1298), also known as Muhon Kakushin (無本覺心) and posthumously as Hotto Kokushi (法燈國師). Kakushin had travelled in China for six years and studied with the famous Chinese Chan master Wumen (無門) of the Linji lineage. Kakushin became a disciple of the lay teacher Chôsan, who claimed to be a 16th generation dharma heir of Puhua. Yet, no mention is made in Kakushin's diaries of the shakuhachi, and the four "disciples" who purportedly returned with him to Japan were just servants. No Fuke school is known from China, and the Fuke shū seems to have been a Japanese creation. Typically, its "members" had no doctrines or scriptures, nor any parishioners, and Fuke adherents rarely chanted sutras or other Buddhist texts.

Initiay, membership was restricted to the samurai, but after the mid 18th century restrictions watered down, and non samurai who could pay the entrance fee were also admitted. Discipline laxed, and members joined who were only attracted by the privileges of the komuso. By the late 18th century, the komuso had lost their usefulness as spies, due to the peaceful life circumstances created by the Tokugawa shogunate, which no longer tolerated their privileges. Playing the shakuhachi lost its distinguishing feature, as lay people from the richer classes learned to play the instrument, a development accompanied by the development of a Zen derived spiritual narrative, building on the Zen narrative of the komuso.

Historically, approximately forty komuso temples across Japan nurtured their unique collections of Honkyoku. In the 18th century, the master Kurosawa Kinko (1710–71), the founder of the Kinko ryu, embarked on a journey to these temples, seeking out local compositions. He meticulously 'arranged' or 'composed' over 30 pieces, shaping the cornerstone of the Kinko school's Honkyoku repertoire today. According to Deeg, "the systematisation of certainly already existing elements legitimising Fuke shu in the Denki, probably originated in the proto organisation of the Kinko ryu which was itself starting towards the end of the 18th century. This proto organisation, with its legend and related musical tradition, consolidated the Fuke sh as a Zen denomination in its own right." Kinko's influence extended beyond musical creation; he played a pivotal role in introducing Fuke shakuhachi teachings to lay practitioners, fostering the ascent of Fuke shakuhachi in the Japanese cultural landscape while supplanting its precursor, the hitoyogiri shakuhachi. Kinko was also instrumental in the spiritualization of the shakuhachi.

Deeg notes that in the 19th century there was a process of laicization, spiritualization and aesthatization of the distinguishing feature of the komuso, the playing of the shakuhachi. According to Deeg, "The only extant writing which really has Zen inspired content was composed by Hisamatsu Masagoro Fuyo (1790 1845)," namely Hitori gotoba (獨言, "Monologue," before 1830), Hitori mondo(獨問答, "Monologous dialogues," 1823) and Kaisei hogo (海靜法語, "Dharma words of the silent sea," 1838). Hisamatsu Fuyo frequently uses expressions like ichion jobutsu (一音成仏(佛), "to achieve enlightenment by one sound," chikuzen ichinyo (竹禅一如), and "bamboo [the shakuhachi] and Zen are one and the same"; theshakuhachi is called hoki (法器), "instrument of the dharma." Nevertheless, according to Deeg, "Hisamatsu’s texts contain amazingly few “Zenist” expressions and instead focus on the actual practice of the playing of the instrument." According to Deeg, Hisamatsu's "spiritualisation and aesthetization" has to be understood in the context of the laicization of shakuhachi practice, with all the teachers of the Kinko ryu, who were not fully ordained komuso but shuen josui, "assistant flutists related to the (Fuke )shu," mainly training lay people. Deeg concludes that the spiritalization is not a development from within the kosumo, but "a strategy of legitimation for a more and more bourgeois musical tradition of the late Tokugawa period," harking back to an (imagined) glorious Zen past. According to Deeg, the Denki served also as a legitimation of this laicization, or “bourgoisization,” which explains why householders have such a prominent place in its fabricated lineage.

The Tokugawa government revoked all formal privileges for the komusō in 1847. In 1871, after the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the start of the Meiji Restoration, the komusō ceased to exist as a semi religious institute. It was prohibited by the Meiji administration during its persecution of Buddhist institutions. The Meiji government attempted to continue the Danka system, but the komusō were outlawed as they were not a part of this system. Practice of the shakuhachi was banned entirely for four years by the Meiji government, after which it was decreed that secular playing was permitted, and practitioners went on to teach the shakuhachi as a secular instrument. No attempts were made by the Buddhist mainstream to re establish the sect, possibly due to its marginal position and the loose connection to the Rinzai shu, and the laicization of shakuhachi practice.

The Kinko Ryu Grandmasters Araki Kodo II (Chikuo I) and Yoshida Ittcho successfully petitioned the new government to allow secular shakuhachi music to continue. Practice of the shakuhachi survived thanks to these efforts, and documentation of the musical repertoire of the performers survived through the period.

The (虚無僧/こむそう) were characterized by a straw basket (a sedge or reed hood known as a tengai) worn on the head, manifesting the absence of specific ego but also useful for traveling incognito. Komusō wore a (天蓋), a type of woven straw hat or [[Kasa (hat), which completely covered their head like an overturned basket. The idea was that the wearing of such a hat removed the ego of the wearer, whilst also concealing their identity. Further, the government granted the komusō the rare privilege to freely travel the country without hindrance; one reason doing so may have been an interest on behalf of the shogunate to receive first hand information about conditions in the provinces, the collection of such information made possible by the concealed nature of the komusō. Komusō wore kimono – especially of a five crested, formal mon tsuki style – and [[obi (sash), as well as an o kuwara, a rakusu like garment worn over the shoulders. Komusō would wear a secondary shakuhachi to accompany their primary flute, possibly as a replacement for the samurai's wakizashi; their primary shakuhachi, usually a 1.8 size instrument (I shaku ha sun), would be pitched in rough equivalence to the D or D flat in the twelve tone scale. Komusō wore inro from their belt – a container for medicine, tobacco and other items – kyahan shin coverings above their tabi socks and waraji sandals, and a hachimaki headband, covered by the tengai. They wore tekou, hand and forearm covers, a fusa tassel, and carried a gebako, a box used for collecting alms and holding documents.

Honkyoku (本曲, "original pieces") comprises a repertoire of solo compositions for the shakuhachi, rooted in the heritage of the Fuke Sect of Zen Buddhism. They were initially cultivated for the solicitation of alms by solitary wandering mendicants.