Re: Komuso Characters

From: Jeffrey Angles and Drew Banbury (angles.2@osu.edu)
Date: Tue Sep 07 1999 - 17:33:46 PDT


Mr. Rodriguez's question interested me since I am studying Chinese right
now. In Mandarin, the characters "Komuso" ($B5uL5AN!K(Bwould be read
"xu1wu2seng1," though Chinese does not have this word.

For "xu1" ("ko" or "kyo" in Japanese, also the root of "munashii" $B5u(B), my
Chinese dictionary lists the following meanings:
(1) emptiness, void (as in $B5uL5(B meaning nihility, nothingness)
(2) empty, unoccupied (as in $B5u88(B meaning visionary, illusory, delusive)
(3) timid, diffident, unconfident (as in $B5u?4(B meaning modest, unpretentious)
(4) in vain (as in $B5u1I(B meaning vanity)
(5) in name only (as in $B5uD%@<@*(B meaning to make a pompous but empty show of
power and influence$B!K(B
(6) weak constitution, sapless (as in $B5u4@(B meaning abnormal sweating due to
a weak constitution)
(7) false (as in $B5u56(B meaning falsehood, fiction, fantasy)

Perhaps the person who saw Mr. Rodriguez's shirt came up with the meaning
"nonsense" from meaning (7), or maybe in Cantonese or other dialects this
character has that meaning. All of the meanings listed above are present in
Japanese except for (6). Also, as an interesting aside, the word nihilism
in Japanese is "kyomushugi" ($B5uL5<g5A(B). The first two characters are the
same as the "komu" in "komuso", though they are pronounced differently. As
a matter of fact, the first time I saw the word komuso, I thought it was
referring solely to the monk's philosophy, not realizing that this was a
specific term for a shakuhachi-playing mendicant.

The second character "mu2" ("mu" $BL5(B) has basically the same meanings in both
Chinese and Japanese. This character was used frequently in classical
Chinese as a simple negation though modern Chinese just uses it primarily in
compounds. The meaning is "nothing, nil, negation, if not, be gone,
absent," etc.

The third character "seng1" ("so" $BAN!K(Bhas the same meaning in both
languages, namely "monk."

All of this is not too illuminating really, but I hope it helps answer the
question!

Jeffrey Angles

P.S. The Japanese words above should come through clearly if your computers
support JIS.
------------------------------
Jeffrey Angles

Ph.D. Candidate, Modern Japanese Literature
Dept. of East Asian Languages and Literatures
The Ohio State University
angles.2@osu.edu

----- Original Message -----
From: Herb Rodriguez <Herb.Rodriguez@Colorado.edu>
To: <shakuhachi@weber.ucsd.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 1999 6:22 PM
Subject: Komuso Characters

> Hello Everyone,
>
> I'm wearing my Komuso t-shirt to work today. Someone asked about it and I
> described the chinese characters as meaning "Priests or Monks of
> nothingness or emptiness".
>
> I was reminded that when I bought the t-shirt at the festival, last year,
I
> went to a fast food chinese place for lunch and the wait person tried to
> read the shirt. He had a hard time and said one of the characters meant
> "nonsense". Monks of nonsense???
>
> Now, I can certainly see how some of our family and friends might think
our
> devotion to shakuhachi is nonsense after hearing some of the music. And
> that the only emptiness we achieve is between our ears and pocketbooks.
But
> I was wondering if the characters mean different things in Japanese vs
> Chinese. Anybody know? Also, what is the range of the various different
> meanings to the Komuso characters?
>
> Herb



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