ABSTRACT
As for men, the most dramatic example in medieval Japan was the Zen sectrelated komusiJ. KomusiJ were, at least in the beginning, itinerant Zen monks who played a Japanese bamboo flute known as a shakuhachi as part of their religious practice. However, because they wore a conical wicket basket over their head, it was possible to completely disguise their identity, a fact that gradually attracted an assortment of shady characters who found it advantageous to disguise themselves. This latter practice became so widespread during the Edo period (1600-1867) that the government outlawed komusiJaltogether.
