Shakuhachi man

There were these monks in feudal times - Komusō (こむそう) or 'monks of nothingness' - You can still occasionally see them around, begging for alms, as it were, about as passively as you could possibly beg. They just stand there with - yes - a basket on their heads. Sometimes (as pictured) they wear a basket on their heads AND play a shakuhachi.

In feudal times at least, the particular Fuke Zen Buddhist sect that these guys belonged to was keen on pilgrimages, apparently, so this was where I came up with the idea that a wandering musician could tie the 12 tracks of Setsu together nicely, as an observer of all the other 11 characters in the months/tunes. While the idea of the basket is to 'remove' ones ego, this also made them ideal candidates for acting as spies for the Shogunate, since they were granted the ability to cross feudal borders freely. Apparently no-one thought to be suspicious of the guy who kept hanging around WITH A BASKET ON HIS HEAD.

Next post: musical notes on Shakuhachi Man.