解脱を目指す禅の修行として尺八を吹いた無宿の乞食僧や元敗残兵等を含む虚無僧たちが遺した作者不詳の伝承曲のことを本曲（ほんきょく）と云う。そして、百五十曲以上あるとされる本曲の中でも、最も重要な本曲とされた「虚鈴（きょれい）」「虚空（こくう）」「霧海箎」（むかいぢ）」を「古伝三曲（こでんさんきょく）」と云う。いずれも遠州浜松、現在の静岡県浜松市のJR浜松駅の近くにあった霊鐸山普大寺という虚無僧寺で生まれ伝承された本曲と云われている。かつて虚無僧が吹いていた本曲に通底して感じられる世界観。それは、諸行無常、盛者必衰、そして飢餓と戦乱の修羅の道の途上で死んでいった者たちへの鎮魂の祈りである。
「霧海箎」は、文字通り、深い霧の海の中を、煩悩にまみれた現世から解脱し、悟りの彼岸へと漂い行くような調べの本曲である。理不尽極まりない戦乱の中で死んでいった人たちの魂を弔い、そして虚飾に満ちた現世を生きる自らを、或いは自らの見果てぬ夢を弔い、虚無僧 流水が廃墟の地下で「霧海箎」を吹く。
Honkyoku are traditional pieces of unknown authorship left behind by komuso monks, including homeless beggar monks and former defeated soldiers who played the shakuhachi as a Zen training to attain enlightenment. Among the more than 150 honkyoku, the most important honkyoku are “Kyorei”, “Koku” and “Mukaiji”, which are called “Koden Sankyoku”. All of these honkyoku are said to have been born and passed down at the Komuso temple called Reitakuzan Fudaiji, located near JR Hamamatsu Station in Enshu Hamamatsu, now Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture. The worldview that can be felt throughout the honkyoku played by komuso monks in the past is the impermanence of all things, the sure fall of all who prosper, and a prayer for the repose of the souls of those who died on the road to hell, famine and war.
“Mukaiji” is a piece that literally depicts drifting through a deep sea of mist, liberating oneself from the earthly desires of this world and heading towards the other side of enlightenment. Komuso Ryusui blows “Mukaiji” in the basement of the ruins to mourn the souls of those who died in the extremely unreasonable war, and to mourn himself living in this world full of vanity, or perhaps to mourn his own unfulfilled dreams.
