Suizen
Suizen (吹禅) (“blowing Zen”) is a Zen practice consisting of playing the traditional Japanese shakuhachi bamboo flute as a means of attaining self-realization. Suizen is often considered a traditional practice by the Komusō (“monks of emptiness”), the Zen Buddhist monks of the Fuke sect of Japan who flourished during the Edo period, however scholars report suizen is in fact modern, noting no explicit contemporary accounts. The first explicit use of the term occurred in Kyoto in the early 1950s by the first abbot of the newly-established Myōan-ji temple, Yasuda Tenzan. It was then popularized by music historian Kamisangō Yūkō in 1974, in the sleeve notes of a Columbia Records Japan triple-LP set entitled 'Suizen' (KX-7001-03), where the practice is (without substantiation) attributed to the original komusō monks of the 1600s. Instrumental music is rare in all Buddhist practice where instruments usually accompany ritual chants if they are used at all. With suizen, the playing of the shakuhachi as a spiritual exercise is at the core of the religious practice, making it unique in the world of Buddhism. The practice of suizen may be understood in the context of both ancient Buddhist and Chinese classics which exerted a profound influence on