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Moosoo-biwa

[Genre]Shomyo
[Also Known As]The Lute of the Blind Monks

Moosoo-biwa appears on the following albums

Album Artist
Play ButtonMusical Anthology of the Orient, Unesco Collection Vol 4
MOSO-BIWA, "The lute of the blind monk". As a spiritual exercise blind monks used to sing passages from the sutras to the accompaniment of the bass-lute. Today this obsolescent tradition is only to be found in the Genseiho-guild of the Tendai Sect on Kyushu. There are still two schools, the Myouon-in school and the Sei-rei school. The recorded example is performed in the style of the Sei-rei school. It is a passage from the Suvarna-prabhasa-sutra, in Japanese Konkomyo-kyo.

Performer: The Rev. Gyoshun Ogawa
Recorded by Eta Harich-Schneider in the Kwanze-on-ji, an old temple on Kyushu, on August 7th 1957