Honkyoku
The Komusō (虚無僧) ("priest of nothingness" or "monk of emptiness") were wandering non-monastic lay Buddhists from the warrior-class (samurai and rōnin) who were noted for wearing straw basket hats and playing the shakuhachi bamboo flute, nowadays called suizen ('Zen of blowing (the flute)'). During the Edo period (1600–1868) they obtained various rights and privileges from the bakufu, the ruling el…