Shumisen is the Japanese name for the sacred mountain more widely known as Sumeru or Meru. According to Buddhist and Hindu cosmology, Sumeru sits at the center of the cosmos, is the seat of the Gods and the source of all waters that feed the various world-realms surrounding the mountain. This concept — that the universe has a mountain at its center from which all things flow — was symbolized in gardens in Japan from the earliest times. In fact, the first written record of a gardener in Japan describes his making an image of Shumisen for the Empress Suiko. That ancient form was a carved sculpture — in later eras a natural boulder was set upright to symbolize the sacred mountain.
Modern physical cosmology (astrophysics) describes the universe as having emanated from a primordial condition in which all matter and energy was immensely hot and dense — a physical state called a singularity. This is the basic foundation of the Big Bang theory, that the universe is unfolding from singularity into complexity (and then back again?).
Although the two explanations — one ancient, one modern — differ greatly in their specifics they seem to jibe nicely in their impetus.
Shumisen...... Singularity.
