The "Zen Shakuhachi" Historical Evidence Research Web Pages

Shakuhachi Historianship in Japan Today?:
     The "Traditionalists" and the "Truth Tellers"

This new web page is under continuous expansion ...

On this web page you will find the names and selected published studies by the most prominent Japanese shakuhachi scholars of the post-WW2 Era.


The "traditionalists" among Japanese shakuhachi history writers, both formerly and at present, are those who do not at all question the reliablity of old documents like those that claim that, for example:

 • the Shingon and Zen monk Shinchi Kakushin, 13th century, a.k.a. Hottō Kokushi, transmitted ascetic shakuhachi practice to Japan from China in 1254, including the "sacred" solo music piece 'Kyorei' -

 • the Kyōto Myōan Temple was founded at the very close of the 13th century by a certain "Zen monk" named Kyochiku Ryōen who was originally named Kichiku, Kakushin's alleged most prominent (never-existing) Japanese student -

 • the first 'komusō' was a samurai whose famous warlord general father died in a famous battle in the early 14th century -

 • early 17th century komusō were granted special privileges by the very new national dictator shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu (1614) -

 • a so called "Fuke Sect" would really have been officially recognized and given special privileges very late in the 5th year of the Enpō Period -

 • and so and so on ...

The "Truth Tellers" among the shakuhachi historians are those, contrarily, who do at least make honest attempts at being critical, maybe even "academic", and include a changing variety of some more of all those many surviving documents that do actually represent really truthful and credible testimonies of how and when the 'komusō' did actually "enter history".


NISHIYAMA MATSUNOSUKE - 1912-2012

西山松之助

1956, 1971, 1975, 1982 & 1997 publications:

Nishiyama Matsunosuke: Iemoto no kenkyū.
     Azekura Shobō, Tokyo, 1956.

Nishiyama Matsunosuke: Iemoto monogatari.
     Chūō Kōronsha, Tokyo, 1971, 1976.

Nishiyama Matsunosuke: 'Komusō no ura-omote'.
     In: Kikan hōgaku 5, Ongaku no Tomo-sha, Tokyo, 1975, pp. 26-30.

Nishiyama Matsunosuke: Iemoto no kenkyū.
     Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, Tokyo, 1982.

Nishiyama Matsunosuke; Gerald Groemer, translator & editor:
     Edo culture, daily life and diversions in urban Japan, 1600-1868.
     University of Hawai'i Press, Honlulu, 1997.

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NISHIMURA KOKŪ - 1915-2002

西村虚空

1965 publication:

Nishimura Kokū: 'Kyotaku - Fuke-shū honkyoku.'
     Cover notes for the LP album.
     Toshiba Records TH-7010, Tokyo, 1965.

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TSUKITANI TSUNEKO - Died in 2010

月溪恒子

1969, 2000 & 2008 publications:

Tsukitani Tsuneko: 'Shakuhachi koten honkyoku no kenkyū.'
     "A Study of Classical Shakuhachi Honkyoku."
     M.A. thesis, Osaka University of Fine Arts, 1969.

Tsukitani Tsuneko: 'Shakuhachi koten honkyoku no kenkyū.'
     "A Study of Classical Shakuhachi Honkyoku."
     Shuppan Geijutsu-sha, Tokyo, 2000.

Tsukitani Tsuneko: 'The Shakuhachi and its music.' Pages 145-168
     in: The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music.
     SOAS Musicology Series. 466 pages.
     Publ. by Ashgate Publishing Group, England & USA, 2008.

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KAMISANGŌ YŪKŌ - Born in 1935

上参郷祐康

1974 publication:

Kamisangō Yūkō: 'Shakuhachi gaku ryakushi:
     suizen no rikai no tame ni.' In descriptive notes for
     'Suizen: Chikuhō ryū ni miru fuke shakuhachi no keifu.'
     Nippon Columbia LP recording KX 7001-3: pp. 9-22, Tokyo, 1974.

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KIKKAWA EISHI - 1909-2006

吉川英史

1975 publication:

Kikkawa Eishi: 'Hyōtan namazu to shakuhachi. Shakuhachi ni miru bigaku.'
     In: Kikan hōgaku 5, pp. 52-59, Tokyo, 1975.

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UENO KATAMI

上野堅実

1984 and 2002 publications:

Ueno Katami: Shakuhachi no rekishi.
     Shimada Ongaku Shuppan, Tokyo, 3rd impr., 1984.

Ueno Katami: Shakuhachi no rekishi. Revised and expanded edition.
     Shuppan Geijutsu-sha, Tokyo, 2002.

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IDE YUKIO

泉武夫

1992 publication:

Ide Yukio: 'Chūse shakuhachi tsuikō'.
     In: Research reports of the Kōchi University. Humanities.
     Vol. 41, 1-10, Kōchi, 1992-12-27.
     The article may be downloaded from this location:
     Kōchi University

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TUKITANI TUNEKO (d. 2010) and others

月溪恒子

1994 publication:

TUNEKO TUKITANI, Tōru Seyama & Satosi Simura, authors
and Riley Kelly Lee, translator:
     'The Shakuhachi: The Instrument and its Music,
     Change and Diversification.'
     In: 'Contemporary Music Review', 1994, Vol. 8, Issue 2,
     pp. 103-129. Translated by Riley Kelly Lee.
     Link to free download: www.informaworld.com

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HOSAKA HIRO'OKI

保坂裕興

1990 and 1994 publications:

Hosaka Hiro'oki: 'Jūhasseiki ni okeru komusō no mibun keisei.'
     Buraku mondai kenkyō no. 105, pp. 46-67, Kyoto, 1990.

Hosaka Hiro'oki: 'Jūshichi seiki ni okeru komusō no seisei: boroboro,
     komosō to no idō to 'kou' kōi no arikata.'
     Printed in: Mibunteki shūen.
     Publ. by Buraku mondai kenkyō shuppan-bu,
     pp. 161-216, Kyoto, 1994.

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TAKEDA KYŌSON

武田鏡村

1997 publication:

Takeda Kyōson: Komusō - sei to zoku no igyōsha-tachi.
     "Komusō: Odd People of the Sacred and the Worldly."
     Sanitsu Shobō, Tokyo, 1997.

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OKADA FUJIO

岡田富士雄

2001 publication:

Okada Fujio: Komusō no nazo - Suizen no kokoro.
     Tankobon, 2001.

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YAMAGUCHI MASAYOSHI

山口正義

2005 publication:

Yamaguchi Masayoshi: Shakuhachi-shi gaisetsu.
     Shiryō to tomo ni tadoru shakuhachi no rekishi.
     Shuppan Geijutsu-sha, Tokyo, 2005.

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MIZUKAMI TSUTOMU

水上勉

2006 publication:

Mizukami Tsutomu: Kyochiku no fue. Shakuhachi shikō.
     Tokyo, 2006.

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IZUMI TAKEO

泉武夫

2013 and 2016 publications:

Izumi Takeo: Take o fuku hitobito.
     Kakareta shakuhachi suisō no rekishi to keifu.
     "Pictures of People who Blow the Bamboo.
     History and Genealogy of People Blowing the Shakuhachi."
     Tōhoku University Publishing Society, Sendai, 2013.

Izumi Takeo: Paintings of Bamboo Flutes. A History
     and Genealogy of Shakuhachi Performance.
     Translated from Japanese by Philip Flavin.
     Tōhoku University Press, Sendai, 2016.

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IIZUKA ERIHITO

飯塚恵理人

2015 publication:

Iizuka Erihito: 'Meiji ikō no Myōan-ji no shiryō shōkai.'
     "Materials about the Meian Temple since the Meiji Era."
     In: Bulletin of Culture Informatics, Sugiyama Jogakuen University,
     Nagoya, 2015, Volume 14, pp. 139-151.
     Link: https://lib.sugiyama-u.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=pages_view_main&active_action=repository_view_main_item_detail&item_id=2110&item_no=1&page_id=13&block_id=21

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KANDA KAYŪ

神田可遊

2019 publication:

Kanda Kayū: Komusō to shakuhachi hikki.
     Hōgaku Journal Anthology Series no. 5659, Tokyu, 2019.