Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Dear Forum,

first of all my thanks to the interest in my article - I feel rather flattered since normally you do not get such a forum as a dry academic. At the moment I am working through your comments at a very slow pre-Christmas and post-term-stressed pace, but will try to answer all questions (as far as I can). As a start let me first ascertain you that my article was by no means meant to question any spiritual self-consciousness of shakuhachi-players. As some of you already stated, this is a personal matter achieved as soon as someone considers himself or herself spiritually enhanced by any kind of practice. The point I wanted to make - and again: some of you have noticed this - was to trace some of the highly interesting (at least for a historian of religions) and complex patterns of self-legitimation and "invention of tradition" which is a quite common feature of religious and cultural institutions. Just think about the national "myths" of almost every European country which were mostly products of the 19th century political and social climate. For me as a Religious Studies person "spiritual" is not descriptive metaterm which can be used to describe historical, social or cultural processes but an object-level term. Spirituality is certainly not something which can be measured and therefore claiming that just playing an Eastern instrument like the Shakuhachi or the Sitar is more spiritual than playing a piece of Bach on an organ is just repeating the myth of Western desacralisation versus an Ex-oriente-lux myth - it just does not pay credit to the complex processes which form culture and - as one of its subsystems - religion in any regional and historical setting. Now I can already imaging some of you guys jumping up and down and thinking (or maybe not): "What kind of intellectual bullshit is this he is talking about. He has no idea what he is dealing with." Fair enough - even though I do not subscribe to the implying notion that only the inside (pacticioner) position enables you to speak about a certain topic, I just want to mention that I have been practicing Zazen for several years (although I have not become a monk, as someone has suggested) and studied several years Tozan-ryu Shakuhachi under the guidance of an excellent teacher in Nagoya. I guess, writing this article was a way to cope with my curiosity in the history of the practical engagement of playing the Shakuhachi - and with my earlier, now resolved frustration about the mystification of Japanese culture which I was guilty as a young studend as well. As Rick Riekert has mentioned I will try to answer some of the other questions as soon as I can but this will have to wait after the following quiet days of family retreat. mina-san go-kuro-sama deshita! Max deeg

MDeeg wrote:

I guess, writing this article was a way to cope with my curiosity in the history of the practical engagement of playing the Shakuhachi - and with my earlier, now resolved frustration about the mystification of Japanese culture which I was guilty as a young studend as well. As Rick Riekert has mentioned I will try to answer some of the other questions as soon as I can but this will have to wait after the following quiet days of family retreat. mina-san go-kuro-sama deshita! Max deeg

Dear Max.

This is excellent! Thank you for taking your time to come onto this forum. (And thank you to Rick for getting hold of Max). Many people on the forum are certainly excited about this as - I am sure you have read - most of us agreed that your article is the best so far single writing on this aspect of the Fuke shakuhachi. So, please do also ensure you have this in mind when you read the questions raised as you go through the posts. It would be extremely interesting to have a discussion about the article and your help in demystification of the Japanese culture would be very welcome.

I would, as a shakuhachi researcher at SOAS, like to share the vast world of academic shakuhachi research with you in the future. It is extremely exciting how many shakuhachi academics are popping up here and there. Just at SOAS we will have from next year 3 shakuhachi PhDs (subjects: spirituality in the Myōan group, shakuhachi in new compositions, and shakuhachi and environment. Unfortunately the woman who was doing research on shakuhachi and women dropped out).

But for now, enjoy the holidays!

Last edited by Kiku Day (2009-12-22 03:12:16)

Tairaku wrote:

Kiku Day wrote:

. Unfortunately the woman who was doing research on shakuhachi and women dropped out).

What's up with that?!?!?!?!?!?

Not enough subjects?

Max Deeg has returned from Nepal and is closing out a very busy academic year. He plans to join us here in a few weeks to continue the discussion of his paper and whatever else we throw his way.

He sends his regards to all.