Religion The conch is used by
Buddhist monks for religious purposes. Its use goes back at least 1,000 years, and it is still used today for some rituals, such as the
omizutori (water drawing) portion of the
Shuni-e rites at the
Tōdai-ji in
Nara. Each Shugendō school has his own conch shell melodies. The
hora is especially associated with the
Yamabushi,
ascetic monks of the
Shugendō tradition. The
yamabushi used the trumpet to signal their presence (or movements) to one another across mountains and to accompany the chanting of
sutras.
Military In war, the shell, called
jinkai, or "war shell", was one of several
signal devices used by Japanese feudal warriors known as
samurai. A large conch would be used and fitted with a bronze (or wooden) mouthpiece. It would be held in an
openwork basket and blown with a different combination of "notes" to signal troops to attack, withdraw, or change strategies, in the same way a
bugle or
flugelhorn was used in the west. The trumpeter was called a
kai yaku (
貝役). The
jinkai served a similar function to
drums and bells in signaling troop formations, setting a rhythm for marching, providing something of a heroic accompaniment to encourage the troops and confusing the enemy by inferring that the troop numbers were large enough to require such trumpeters. Many
daimyōs (feudal lords) enlisted
yamabushi to serve as
kai yaku, due to their experience with the instrument. The sound of
jinkai is often used in motion pictures and television dramas as a symbolic sound effect indicating an impending battle, e.g.,
The Last Samurai or the 2007
Taiga drama Fūrinkazan, but both of these screen renditions use deep, resonating monotones, not the melodic tones that
yamabushi used for relaying messages. ==See also==