Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

If the funeral is Buddhist and is in any way traditional the whole Koto/Shakuhachi thing would be a bit leaning towards bad taste if its done directly near the altar or at the funeral itself. If done when playing afterwards at the reception then its all ok.

As far as playing at the funeral itself I would suggest shakuahchi as solo and Tamuke would be the perfect piece. I have played Tamuke on a couple of funerals I did and in one of them while we were walking bringing the casket to the crematorium and I played later on while they burned the body until all familly left.


This is not a easy task and this is not a performance also you need to be mentally prepared to do this.

Gishin wrote:

Tairaku wrote:

"Tamuke', "Ekoh"  and "Banshiki" are all memorial pieces.

Ekoh can be played at memorial but in reality it just means transferring merits and is not directly linked or connected with memorials. Ekoh /Ekohmon/Ekoge is the last part of any Buddhist ritual in Japan/China or Korea and is used to make the final dedication/transferance of merits at the end of a ceremony.


If you dont have much time allowed for playing this one would be better than Tamuke.

Here's the Ekoh liner notes from Taniguchi Sensei's CD.

"This song was transmitted from Ichigetsuji, a temple in the Kanto region of Japan. Ekoh's meaning may be found in Buddhist concepts such as kusho, tamuke, fuse and kishi. All of these ideas pertain to offering prayers or chanting sutras for the benefit of souls who have passed from this world (shujo ekoh) as well as for one's own personal benefit (bodai ekoh). One should play this piece with an appropriate attitude and purity of intention."

As with many shakuhachi pieces there are several different songs with this name.

Taniguchi Sensei's Liner says....

"This song was transmitted from Ichigetsuji, a temple in the Kanto region of Japan. Ekoh's meaning may be found in Buddhist concepts such as kusho, tamuke, fuse and kishi. All of these ideas pertain to offering prayers or chanting sutras for the benefit of souls who have passed from this world (shujo ekoh) as well as for one's own personal benefit (bodai ekoh). One should play this piece with an appropriate attitude and purity of intention."

As with many Shakuhachi pieces there are several different songs with this name
*****

Of course this is what is written on the CD liner but it does not mean it is totally right and is leading people in thinking that Eko is a funeral thing or is linked with the dead exclusively this is wrong Eko is also a daily act for the living as well even before the dead.

Eko is just Eko it is just what I have stated in my previous post. If Taniguchi sensei wants to associate a feeling or contextual connection with Tamuke its all good and does make sense because those concepts do work for the given situation.

But the fact of the matter remains that Eko is just the verse for transferring merits at the end of a Buddhist ceremony. What is a Buddhist ceremony??? Well it goes from a daily service that any lay person can do at home way up to a Fire ceremony, yearly festival like Urabon etc.... but it does not mean that it is directly connected with funerals only.

It is and was never said in Buddhism that the concept Eko was a funeral thing exclusively. It can be used at funeral but the concept Eko to begin with is just to transfer merits. So to explain more clearly it means just to give the merits of any action you have done reading sutras / copying them /playing Shakuhachi etc. to other sentient being alive or dead so that they may reach happiness well being etc... (To put others before you mainly).

Here is a straight definition of Eko

Eko 回向 also廻向 is the same thing.

1-    To transfer one’s merit to another.
2-    To transfer one’s merit to Buddhahood in order to attain it.
3-    To transfer the merit of chanting of a sutra, etc., to a dead person so that he may rest in peace and happiness.
4-    To transfer one’s merit to the attainment of birth in the Amida’s land.
5-    Refers to Ekomon

Ekomon 回向文
1-    A verse expressing the intention of transferring one’s merit to other beings so that they too may attain Buddhahood.
2-    A passage glorifying the virtue of a Buddha, etc.


So in the end you can see that the funeral connection with Eko is just one of the usage this concept and not the exclusive one.

As for the other words Taniguchi sensei is mentioning they are also contextual and not Buddhist oriented or funeral related only.

Tamuke means to pray with hands together so this can be Buddhist or Shinto as well and even Christian later on in Japanese history.

Kusho means to chant.

Fuse actually means gift given to a priest the Sanskrit equivalent is Dana

Kishi not sure of that one maybe was abbreviated etc.. will need to se the exact kanji but the main possibility is Kishi or with different kanji Kishin or Kisho.

Kishi as is means a beach/shore bank and in Buddhism links to reaching the other shore like enounced in the Hannya Shingyou/Heart Sutra.

Kishin is a donation to a temple

Kisho can be either a supplication or invocation

Hope this helped.

Gishin wrote:

If the funeral is Buddhist and is in any way traditional the whole Koto/Shakuhachi thing would be a bit leaning towards bad taste if its done directly near the altar or at the funeral itself. If done when playing afterwards at the reception then its all ok.

Is this true of all Buddhist funerals? Here in Taiwan, where the older generations follow a mixture of Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism, terribly bad music (in my own opinion, of course) is traditionally played at funerals. For me, it has the effect of making me want to cry even though I don't know the person who died -- the music is so loud, piercing and stomach-turning.

Zakarius

thank You Guys.
I appriciated!

rpowers wrote:

Tairaku wrote:

This is why we have a professional Buddhist on staff at the Shakuhachi Forum.

A "professional Buddhist," you say? Smile when call somebody that, partner.

.[/i]

What the hell, if someone goes to school for many years and studies law, medicine, music, photography, business or whatever you can call them a professional but not if it's religion or philosophy? He's not a lay priest. The dude is ordained! Party all the time!

rpowers wrote:

Tairaku wrote:

This is why we have a professional Buddhist on staff at the Shakuhachi Forum.

A "professional Buddhist," you say? Smile when call somebody that, partner.

I think you were intending to be supportive, but that doesn't sound very complimentary. Maybe I'm still under Ikkyu's influence:

A purple robe and high title that impoverish our line.
An imperial appointment is just so much cash in hand.
A clear counterfeit, this master from the Daiyo Hermitage.
Come and see him, a real West China highwayman.

And what am I supposed to respond to this?

All I can do is let you figure this one out !

解虎之錫　sounds about right for this situation.

Gishin wrote:

?????sounds about right for this situation.

I just ran it through the translator and it said:


Solution tiger ? tin

I don't understand. Did I give you a headache and the solution is a tin of Tiger Balm? Is this a koan?

Sorry, no harm meant!

I think everybody's just having a good laugh at shakuhachiforum.com Central.

In fact I just got a call from Conan O'Briens folks who want me to host a live shakuhachiforum.com event because it's such a yukfest!

Please forgive my attempt to hijack this thread back to its origin. :-)
But the question, and the responses so far, were enough to prompt me to join the forum.

Where might one best begin to learn about Japanese laments played on the shakuhachi? The limited reading I've done seems to suggest that such laments were the most common songs played on the instrument. Any recommendations of recordings, specific traditions, articles?

Many thanks in advance for your kind response,
Lin

lin wrote:

Please forgive my attempt to hijack this thread back to its origin. :-)

Good idea--let me try, too.

Catfights and Jingle Bells aside, the issue arose when Tairaku defined Ekoh as a memorial piece.

Gishin called that a misinterpretation, but I don't think he said that Ekoh would be out of place at a funeral. If (reciting or chanting) Ekoh is part of all Buddhist ritual, playing Ekoh should be appropriate in this situation--just realize that it serves a different intention than the memorial offering represented by Tamuke.

Does that interpretation pass?