Argumentum ad Ignorantiam
“...whatever has not been proved false must be true, and vice versa. This impatience with ambiguity can be criticized in the phrase: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”
The legend of the Utsurobune, (The Hollow Ship) tells the tale of a mysterious, unidentified circular object that drifted into the waters off Hitachi Provence (which we now call Ibaraki Prefecture) in Japan in 1803. On board was a young woman carrying a box. She was brought to shore by local fishermen, but since she couldn’t speak Japanese, they brought her back to her vessel and it floated away, never to be seen again.
As you can see, this legend leaves much to the imagination and presents many questions including: did it ever happen in the first place (pics or it didn’t happen, y’all). Rather than speaking only of what we can reasonably accept—that a foreign vessel with a single, female, non-Japanese occupant floated into Japanese waters—we can instead use this legend to propound all manner of dubious claims, as has been the case in certain internet forums. For instance, UFO enthusiasts claim this to be an early example of extra terrestrial visitation.
Because there’s no mention of shakuhachi in the Utsurobune legend, a reasonable person is unlikely to assume that it is part of shakuhachi history. Not every person is reasonable.
This method of argument is referred to as argumentum ad ignorantiam, or the “argument from ignorance,” or the “appeal to ignorance”. It is a logical fallacy that asserts a proposition is true because it has not yet been proven false, or conversely, a proposition is false because it has not yet been proven true.
The Utsurobune doesn’t mention shakuhachi at all, so we can’t assume that shakuhachi isn’t part of the legend! Why else would the komuso* wear tengai*? Isn’t it possible they were hiding their appearance BECAUSE THEY WERE ACTUALLY LIZARD PEOPLE FROM OUTER SPACE?
The argument of ignorance is still part of modern discourse (e.g. D. Rumsfeld re: WMDs). I’m bringing it up because of a real oddball theory that was brought to my attention (I sincerely wish it hadn’t been). It’s a theory that’s being spread by people with a much larger platform than any I might have (nearly 175k followers on YouTube). That in itself doesn’t give the authors of my pain any real credibility, but it’s a kind of megaphone that’s not available to me.
In a video that was shared with me, historical grey areas that admittedly do exist in the story of shakuhachi in Japan are used as a Trojan Horse to interpolate unsubstantiated claims of Christianity’s influence on—specifically of all things—the Fuke sect* of Buddhism. They go as far as proselytizing the idea that the Fuke sect was created as a cover for persecuted Christians in hiding. According to the video, it was these Christians that were actually the founders of Myōan-ji in Kyoto, one of the most important sites of the Fuke sect and the shakuhachi’s connection to Japan as a whole. These statements are made adding no supporting evidence beyond the anecdotal; anything that does support the more fringe theories comes exclusively from White scholars.
The ethnocentrism on display here is so outrageous, so excessive, that I have been told I should just laugh it off. That it’s so beyond the bounds of common sense that I shouldn’t let it bother me. Is it though? Some of the material cited as evidence comes from similarly minded sectarians, but there are respected historical figures and people from within the modern shakuhachi and Buddhist study community quoted to shore up actual historical accounts.
The video in its entirety drips with the uniquely American Evangelical zeal that has seeped into seemingly every facet of discourse in this country. America’s history and its treatment of cultures outside of Christendom makes the undercurrent of the down-trodden and oppressed Christian disconcerting to listen to coming from American voices.
At the time of this writing, the video has over 200,000 views. There are 300 comments (I know, I know…don’t read the comments), all of them favorable—at least what I was able to read before I gouged out my own eyeballs.
As I said last week when I wrote about AI and the impact it can have on the arts, the internet is forever. This video, absurd as it may be, is now fodder for the AI bots that can not, will not, and do not distinguish between the dark and fetid corners of the internet and peer-reviewed research. AI doesn’t have an opinion and it isn’t discerning. It doesn’t care about motives or morals. It simply trawls for as many words as it can on a given search term, blunges them together and rearranges its findings.
Like I said, there are plenty of examples of so-called documented history of Japan and Japanese music contradicting itself. Contrary to online opinion, the space between those contradictions is not an invitation to shoehorn in Christian idealism any more than it is Lizard Men Conspiracies, Santa Claus, or the Easter Bunny.
The need to assert Christianity’s influence in every aspect of life and culture is not research or education, nor is it an honest expression of faith; it is zealotry. Attempting to destabilize the long-held oral traditions of a country like Japan, treating a curated selection of documents like scripture and exploiting vagaries is not following in the footsteps of Christ; it’s a crusade. Masking one’s own insecurity with a persecution complex may make for a compelling narrative, but it is as specious as it is irresponsible.
There’s no escaping the fact that shakuhachi is a niche of a niche genre of music. As such, every misinterpretation and every example of willful ignorance, whether for personal gain or notoriety, erodes the actual value of an art form like this one. Especially one where the oral tradition was and is so central to its continuation.
I’m not going to provide a link to the video that sparked this post because I refuse to give it air. Content that draws a fervid connection between shakuhachi and Christianity while rejecting the historical connection between shakuhachi and Zen Buddhism may seem farcical on its face; but at its heart is a message far more insidious. That of hapless Oriental barbarians once again being shown the way of beauty and civility by their White, Christian betters.
To one who is a direct descendant of these monks—and of White Christians—it matters.
More anon,
Hanz
p.s. If you do want to search for the video in question to see it for yourself, it won’t be hard to find. I would strongly urge you to use the duckduckgo search engine which does not geolocate, track, or share search results. Using the search terms komuso + christians and looking at the video results led me right to it, sadly.
* the mendicant monks who traveled all around Japan playing shakuhachi
* the woven basket-like head covering worn by the komuso
* the Fuke sect was a branch of Zen Buddhism central to the history of shakuhachi.