Komuso

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A komusō (Japanese kanji: 虚無僧; Hiragana こむそう) was a mendicant priest of the Fuke sect of Zen Buddhism. They were characterised by their wearing of a straw basket hiding their head (a sedge or reed hood named a tengai), as a manifest of the absence of specific ego, and playing of a shakuhachi (the Japanese bamboo flute) for meditation (the suizen). Another purpose for their playing was to wander around and look for spaces with ills (like houses with problems occurring in them) where the music they played "redeemed" the spaces as the monks, by playing and perhaps meditating, "took the ills of the space upon themselves".^{[citation needed]}

Komusō practiced suizen ("blowing Zen") meditation, playing solo shakuhachi pieces called honkyoku ("original pieces") for alms and enlightenment.

[edit] Etymology

• 虚無僧 (komusō or komusou) means "priest of nothingness" or "monk of emptiness"
  • 虚無 (kyomu or komu) means "nothingness, emptiness"
    • 虚 (kyo or ko) means "nothing, empty, false"
    • 無 (mu) means "nothing, nil, zero"
  • 僧 (sō or sou) means "priest, monk"