Seeking a calming, meditative sound? This wooden fish-decorated wooden drum, known also as mokugyo in Japan, is an ancient instrument with a deep spiritual significance in Buddhism used in ceremonies and rituals. They are used by Buddhist ceremonies in China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam and other Asian countries. Repeated strikes of the drum, at just over one per second are seen as the perfect pace, and the fish, whose eyes are open underwater, is a creature seen as one symbolising concentration.
According to Wikipedia, this is the most common interpretation of the fish symbol:
Buddhist legend says that a monk went to India to acquire sutras but on his way he found the way blocked by a wide, flooded river. A fish offered to carry the monk across the river because it wanted to atone for a crime it had committed when it was a human. Its simple request was that on the monk's way to obtain sutras, he should ask the Buddha to guide the fish on a method to attain Bodhisattvahood. The monk agreed to the fish's request and continued his quest. On his return to China after 17 years with the scriptures, he came upon the flooded river. The same fish asked the monk if he had made the request to Buddha but the monk said he had forgotten. The furious fish splashed him into the river. A passing fisherman saved the drowning monk but all the sutras had been lost in the river. Filled with anger at the fish, the monk made a wooden effigy of a fish head which he beat with a wooden hammer. To his surprise, each time he hit the wooden fish, it made the sound of a Chinese character. He became so happy that he beat the wooden fish regularly. After a few years the monk had got back the lost scriptures he had lost to the flood from the mouth of the wooden fish.
An original type of wooden fish at Manpuku-ji, Uji, Japan
A mendicant with a "wooden fish", in middle with big wide hat, drawn by Johan Nieuhof (1665)
Here are some examples of the sound in action:
A Vietnamese Buddhist monk chanting and medidating as he strikes the muyu.
More about the muyu can also be seen here.
So then, anything to share in relation to sounds of muyu, in music or wider culture? Feel free to suggest examples, or even from film, art, or other contexts in comments below.
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