Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-6192846-20151129184922/@comment-23.122.217.39-20151214153749

From his headgear it looks like Gakusha is a komusou monk. I could talk about it as though I actually know all about it, but I don't, so I'll just summarize what's on Wikipedia. It basically means he's taken a vow of poverty, is required to always be traveling, and plays structured music as he walks as a meditative practice.

Gakusha lifting the tengai from his head might be symbolic of him being ill-suited/dissatisfied with his role as a monk or it might just be so we can recognize him.

Also according to Wikipedia, spies, ninja, and masterless samurai were also known to disguise themselves in the guise of the komusou (some of the actual monks were spies apparently to appease the shogunate, who thought they were useless and wanted to purge them). Because of that they came under heavy scrutiny and would be required to play difficult pieces to prove they were really monks.

Allegedly they were abolished in the late 1800s.