It’s Hard Out There for a Monk

The relationship between mythology, folklore, and history can be a real snake pit, especially for cultures that rely on oral tradition when they are being observed by academics from outside those cultures. With the shakuhachi, so much of its history is left open to speculation, interpretation, and in the worst cases, projection and wish-fulfillment. Take for example, my cause célèbre of the shakuhachi’s popularity as a weapon.

yeah, probably not.

For all of human history, people have romanticized dueling, fighters, warriors, and great battles. From tales of ancient Greece to John Wick: Chapter 4, from Excalibur to Star Wars, we love this stuff. Whether grim historical, sci-fi, fantasy, or gritty realism, it seems we can’t get enough. But we don’t think of John Wick or Darth Vader as based on real people, or someone to look up to, or emulate (one hopes). So when you read about komuso-warrior-monk-spies, it’s great imagery, but it’s no less mythological than Robin Hood.

In the innumerable tales of Edo Japan that were handed down through the generations and told to me, the samurai who chose to become monks did so out of disillusionment with war and killing. Why are these not the stories we idolize? Less exciting to be sure, which is why I don’t think they’ve taken off as movies, television shows, manga and anime.

There are more verifiable examples of samurai whiling away their time on calligraphy and tea ceremony than there are of komuso spies, but which one sounds cooler? I’ll admit, komuso spies all the way, but that doesn’t make them part of history any more than Zatoichi.

Zatoich: The Blind Swordsman (not real)

Historically speaking, there is an account in The Proceedings of the Old Bailey that on the 15th of April, 1751 (the time of Kurosawa Kinko I): David Mills was indicted for the murder of Elizabeth Jackson by striking her at the temples with a German flute. I noticed there isn’t a rush to make Self-Defense’s Best Kept Secret: The Gemeinhardt! or Were the Komuso German? videos.

Could someone defend themselves with a shakuhachi? Sure…but by that rationale, with enough determination, a beautician could defend themselves with a curling iron. I’ve used the example of a baker and a rolling pin, or a mechanic and a spanner. Both could be lethal; either could be wielded by the other if the situation called for it. But if someone was murdered with a rolling pin or a monkey wrench it wouldn’t necessarily require the killer to be a baker or a mechanic.

Look at the fight scenes in the Bourne franchise. They make a point of using found objects as implements of doom; a book, a ballpoint pen, a rolled up magazine. These films did not lead us to rewrite the history of librarians. The Bourne Identity shows us that historically, librarians could have carried books and pens to fight off bandits. Even if some unlucky librarian in history was forced to use their book or pen to defend their honor, it wouldn’t (hopefully) warrant a how-to video.

I stand corrected.

While we’re on the subject, why were so many bandits in feudal Japan attacking monks? If this happened often enough to justify the number of “shakuhachi-as-weapon" videos and essays, it seems “playing for alms” would have naturally evolved to something a little less hazardous.

Put another way, let’s say the monk could successfully fend off packs of bandits even 75% of the time with their flute; wouldn’t at least some of these former samurai have gone the “smarter not harder” route? Ignoring that, why wouldn’t a monk on a path to enlightenment just give the money over anyway? Why engage in a potentially life-threatening exercise?

just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Just to reiterate, I’m not against romanticized depictions of komuso spies, and I’m not saying that no one ever brained their brethren in a fit of pique with their flute. What I am speaking out against is the leap of logic to go from “monks were [often] former samurai,” to “they used their flutes as a weapon.” It’s especially irresponsible to then put out martial arts videos showing how it could’ve happened without the caveat that there is no logical justification or historical example of such a thing actually happening. And it’s downright unforgivable to publish this if you’re in the academic world.

More anon,

Hanz

p.s. William P. Malm—who is credited with “shaping the study of ethnomusicology in the United States”—studied shamisen and nagauta in relation to its use in kabuki theater. The famous kabuki character Gennojo Norizuki, a secret agent of the Shogun, would wander the countryside, adventuring and playing the shakuhachi. From this fantasy, Malm has extrapolated the concept of warrior shakuhachi-playing ruffians, and remains the most frequently cited source on the subject from his book Japanese Music and Musical Instruments.