Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Just finished reading the transcript. I feel that this was a very nice radio program giving a broad and precise overview of the whole Shakuhachi movement to the general public. There is only two things that came to my attention one of them being some imprecision/inaccuracy and the other could be a typo since I did not hear the audio file.


From Jim Franklin’s side
((They were the only class apart from the samurai who were permitted to carry a weapon, …)))

This is inaccurate.

In Edo period The Samurai/Bushi class were allowed to wear the Daisho (Full set of  Katana/Long Sword and Wakisashi/short sword)

Chonin commoners were allowed to wear and use the Wakisashi or Tanto for protection as long as it was shorter than 45.54cm of cutting edge.

So this statement is very inaccurate and misleading. For more accurate info on weapon and sword rules in Edo era Japan you can read the following article.

http://www2.una.edu/Takeuchi/DrT_Jpn_Cu … _sword.htm

From the part of
((Ronnie Nyogetsu Seldin: What my teacher taught me about Sanya is, if a komuso is helping a new mother to be with a safe and easy childbirth, the first thing that he does is pour rice through the shakuhachi.))

Is it not Sanan/産安 ? Am I mistaken?  The piece quoted seems to be the wrong one or maybe Sanya is also used in the same fashion.


Now as far the program goes I was expecting more info coming out of the head priest of the Myoanji but it’s not very surprising since he is usually not very talkative and does not seem to care much in general. It actually took me 4 years of multiple visits before being able to get any real meeting/info out of him. I guess being another young Rinzai monk this was his way to give me some of his Rinzai medicine. On my last trip he was quite talkative and got to talk and ask many question maybe it was because I was with a very cute Chinese girl this time and not just me and my shaved head

Gishin wrote:

From the part of
((Ronnie Nyogetsu Seldin: What my teacher taught me about Sanya is, if a komuso is helping a new mother to be with a safe and easy childbirth, the first thing that he does is pour rice through the shakuhachi.))

Is it not Sanan/産安 ? Am I mistaken?  The piece quoted seems to be the wrong one or maybe Sanya is also used in the same fashion.

The folk tradition Ronnie talks of refers to Sanya pieces in general, of which San'an is a modern example. San'an seems to be an improvisational reworking by Watazumi of Jinbo Masanosuke's version (Jinbo Sanya), with the name changed to make the childbirth connection clearer. Ronnie's teacher (Yodo Kurahashi) may not even have known of the existence of San'an.

Hey guys,

I've only heard of San An being the birthing piece.  We happened to be in Japan both times during my wife's two pregnancies. Kinya played San An for us both times, including the pouring of the rice through the bore. We cooked and ate the rice later on as instructed. The midwives of both deliveries commented on how fast and amazingly easy the births were (my wife disagreed though).

Namaste, Perry

Well, if I ever go to Myoanji I better take about 5 or 6 pretty ladies so I can get all the info straight away.