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"To the hermit
Sandō Mugetsu"

Ignored documents in Fuke Shakuhachi research

1 - Kaidō honsoku

The amazing Fuke Shakuhachi document Kaidō Honsoku was created by some anonymous komosō in 1628 (early Edo period) - well before the actual emergence of the komusō.
This reprint was published in the Nakatsuka Chikuzen (1887-1944) compilation "Kinkō-ryū Shakuhachi Shikan" in 1979, by the renowned Japanese publishing company Nihon Ongaku-sha:

View a reprint of the Kaidō Honsoku document (Nakatsuka Chikuzen, 1979) in PDF-format: 392 kb

My English translation of that document was published by Tai Hei Shakuhachi, California, in 2003.
Direct link to a presentation of the publication:
www.shakuhachi.com/PG-Olafsson.html

Read the complete English translation of the Kaidō Honsoku (Tai Hei Shakuhachi edition, 2003) in PDF-format: 296 kb

My own digital transcription of Kaidō Honsoku:

Digital transcription of Kaidō Honsoku presented as PDF file: 154 kb

2 - Abbot Isshi's Letter to the komusō Sandō Mugetsu

Isshi Bunshu, a renowned Rinzai Zen monk, lived from 1608 to 1646.
Here is a copy of the original hand-scroll, supplied to me in 1985 by the Kōkoku Temple in Yura, Wakayama.

View a full reproduction of Isshi's Letter (preserved Kōkokuji hand-scroll) as PDF file: 1 MB

Beside the Kaidō Honsoku, Isshi's Letter to Sandō Mugetsu represents an equally important source of mid-17th century Fuke Shakuhachi ideology. Here you can study a now fairly complete English translation of mine, of the document.

Updated English translation (2003-05 & 2010) of Isshi's Letter as PDF file: 295 kb

Digital transcription of Isshi's Letter:

The study of old, original Japanese manuscripts certainly represents a very special challenge:
One soon realizes that the Japanese writers of bygone days frequently expressed themselves in quite archaic - and obscure - language and wrote their texts with also 'non-standard' Japanese ideographs, the meanings of which may at first appear quite un-intelligible to present-day readers, be they native Japanese speakers, and - so much more - to any non-Japanese student of the language.

Hopefully, the digital transcription presented here may help you to appreciate Abbot Isshi's message to Sandō Mugetsu in a somewhat more easily comprehensible version:

Digital transcription of Isshi's Letter presented as PDF file: 320 kb

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