Abstract
The early 20th century was a period in which understandings of music, religion, and the nation-state underwent rapid change in Japan. In this article I examine Japanese cultural discourse from the first decades of the 20th century in which the shakuhachi, a Japanese bamboo flute, was frequently portrayed as a religious instrument. In some cases, this discourse referenced pre-20th century historical affiliations of the shakuhachi with the Fuke-sect, an organization that was loosely affiliated to Rinzai Zen Buddhism. But the article also explores how religio-musical discourse surrounding the shakuhachi intersected with developments in modern Japanese religious life, as well as pre-WWII developments in the political life of Japan and Asia. Drawing primarily on articles from Sankyoku, one of the most important music magazines in early 20th century Japan, I show how public discourse contained in the media and other forms of writing is an important way to understand the rapid developments taking place in music and religion in Japan at this time.
Highlights
Follow this and additional works at: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/yjmr Part of the Buddhist Studies Commons, Ethnomusicology Commons, and the Musicology Commons
Prior to the widespread social changes that accompanied the Meiji restoration of 1868, the shakuhachi had been played predominantly by members of the Fuke sect, an organization loosely affiliated to Rinzai Zen Buddhism, who used the instrument as part of their mendicant practices
Taira describes how discourses function in the construction of power relations both within religious groups themselves, as well as between religious groups and wider society. To my knowledge this kind of approach has not been applied to the study of the music of Japanese religions, but I have found it useful in understanding the religious discourse surrounding the shakuhachi in early twentieth-century Japan, which was both contested and, at least in the period that I consider here, embedded within a much larger sociopolitical movement in Japan and the rest of the world concerning religion and modernity
Summary
Much the shakuhachi descends into the realm of popular culture, it will always retain an irresistible charm, with a religious flavor [shūkyōteki no fūmi] grounded in a samurai atmosphere, and it has surely brought spiritual rewards [kudoku] to the world of mortals. Despite the disappearance of the Fuke sect itself, there was a vigorous discourse within Japan concerning the spirituality of the shakuhachi, and how it could or should be used as a ritual or religious instrument in Japan’s new modernized society. Taira describes how discourses function in the construction of power relations both within religious groups themselves, as well as between religious groups and wider society To my knowledge this kind of approach has not been applied to the study of the music of Japanese religions, but I have found it useful in understanding the religious discourse surrounding the shakuhachi in early twentieth-century Japan, which was both contested and, at least in the period that I consider here, embedded within a much larger sociopolitical movement in Japan and the rest of the world concerning religion and modernity. I hope to show that, whatever the situation may have been in the Edo period, the religious meanings of the shakuhachi were an important part of early twentieth-century Japanese cultural discourse, and that this discourse was crucial in establishing the modern image outside Japan of the shakuhachi as Buddhist instrument
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