37th Abbot of Meian-ji from 1949. Ten years after Kobayashi
Shizan’s death, the Myoan-kyokai, in association with the soke (the head person
of a Ryu) of different shakuhachi ryu, elected Tanikita Muchiku as
his successor. Born in Kyoto in the eleventh year of Meiji (1878), he was first
initiated into the Myoan Taizan style of shakuhachi by Takaya Yuchiku, a
student of Higuchi Taizan; later, in the forty-first year of Meiji(1908) ,
Tanikita began to study with Higuchi Taizan. It is well known that the bereaved
family of Higuchi Taizan claimed Tanikita Muchiku to be the true bearer of
Taizan’s style.
