How To Make a Zen Kotsu: Video instruction by Sojun Mel Weitsman

 

 

A kotsu is a type of stick or scepter used by Zen Buddhist priests while officiating formal services. Its use is similar to that of the nyoi and hossu.

Some kotsu are store-bought (Matsumotoya sells traditional, high quality ones online from Japan), but making them by hand is a wonderful practice. It takes some time but is not so difficult.

In 2019, wanting to learn this art from someone who had mastered it, and who has made many of the kotsu that are used around San Francisco Zen Center, we invited our Zen teacher Sojun Mel Weitsman to spend a day with us at Green Gulch teaching us this craft.

We shot some video of our time together and have made it available here so that others might also feel and learn from Sojun’s wonderful Zen and kotsu-making spirit.

(Some kotsu are used with tassels, so at the end of the video there is a short demonstration from Tommy Yabushita of Matsumotoya on how to properly tie the tassel to a kotsu.)