In One Breath

Economic woes hit shakuhachidom

2011-12-16T14:11:00.000+09:00

It seems that the economic slump, or maybe more rightly the idea and fear of such a thing has hit the shakuhachi world.
I've been involved in buying, playing and selling second hand shakuhachi at what I consider below-market prices for a few years. Typically, when I put instruments up on my site and notify my mailing list members, they sell within a week or two. Recently, I posted 8 instrument that range all the way from rustic and cheap to stunning and expensive. Two chokan (2.7 and 3.1) sold right away as did a beautiful old quilted maple shakuhachi music stand. The rest, though mostly of excellent quality and under priced at that, haven't budged. Is the general world economy tightening people's purse strings or has the market just been satisfied? My hope is the latter.
The upshot is that it keeps these amazing instruments in my hands for a longer while allowing me to enjoy their wonders.
I wish you all a bright future and keep blowing.

あ。うん On Top of the Town

2011-12-02T14:14:00.000+09:00

あ。うん On Top of the Town at Matenrou, November 19th, 2011

The Dining Room at Matenrou

The Diners

The Pleasures

The Music

Izumi Fujikawa-koto, Jeff Cairns-shakuhachi, Yumiko Minoda-shamisen

Photos and Graphics by Robert Mortenson

A Flight of Fancy

あ。うん On Top of the Town

2011-11-25T11:36:00.000+09:00

あ。うん On Top of the Town
Greetings all, Hogaku trio あ。うん performed last Saturday evening (November 19th) at Restaurant Matenro high up Hanaokayama just behind Kumamoto's new Shinkansen terminal to a capacity crowd.

Two sets of modern hogaku music featuring Izumi Fujikawa on 21 string koto, Jeff Cairns on shakuhachi and Yumiko Minoda on 17 string koto and shamisen, were separated by a full course dinner prepared by the Matenro kitchen with an awe-inspiring panoramic night view of Kumamoto city.
Please check out the link above to see a video from that concert of あ。うん performing their rendition of Ryuichi Sakamoto's Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, along with audience percussive participation.

More photos will follow.

あ。うん Live! in November

2011-11-04T14:16:00.000+09:00

Greetings All,　　　The modern Hogaku trio あ。うん will be performing at a spectacular location overlooking Kumamoto city this month. We welcome you.

Date: November 19th, 2011

Time: 7:00 pm

Place: Matenrou (see above for map and address)

Price: 2,500 yen per person including a delicious light meal prepared by the restaurant and one drink

Tickets: call Jeff at 09049962680

Details: This is the second performance of あ。うん. This time we will be performing a selection of modern Hogaku with some interesting twists and turns along the way.

If you intend to enjoy alcoholic beverages, please make sure to either come by taxi, with a designated driver, or be prepared to take a daiko back home.

Collaboration

2011-10-02T22:11:00.000+09:00

Just finished this 'feel good' piece called 'Letter to my little Sophie'. The piece was conceived by Daniel Bozhich from Kharkov, Ukraine with collaboration from me on shakuhachi (Kumamoto, Japan); Chuck Mac from Portland, Maine, USA; and Ricardo Camara from Miami, Florida, USA.
The collaboration happened on a cool website Called

Have a listen. Your comments are welcome.

meditation

2011-09-14T09:45:00.000+09:00

I picked up my funky, sanskrit embellished 2.75 jinashi this morning for a bit of meditative blowing, and found another there before me.

First come, first serve.

It wailed.

Hogaku Street

2011-08-29T17:47:00.001+09:00

A.UN: Jeff Cairns, Yumiko Minoda, Izumi Fujikawa

Friday, August 19th saw the first public performance of my hogaku trio, A.UN at Gallery Kimura in Kumamoto city. A small venue on the underground level of a corner building on a side street to one of the main shopping arcades, Gallery Kimura, a sometimes art exhibition space, sometimes live show venue seating around 60 comfortably was surprisingly packed with patrons accepting a standing room invitation by the time the music got underway.

B'Pzy Dance Company's Mayumi Yoshida

Verbal communication throughout the show was in Japanese and English, much to the delight of the multi-cultural audience in attendance and the raison d'etre of the members of A.UN was to present Hogaku in its broader spectrum with a choice of numbers ranging from hogaku jazz, to a Spanish-flavored 17 string koto solo, to a piece that sprang out of the traditions of Nagauta, to individual solos part of which included the dance interpretation of Mayumi Yoshida
ending with an oft-times frenetic piece written my composer Marty Regan called Dragon Eyes. The evening was well received by the appreciative audience.

A.UN Thanks all that were in attendance

A.UN

2011-08-09T12:36:00.000+09:00

Well, the trials of getting a new studio up and running, along with my teaching and performing schedules have kept me away from the keyboard for some time. The studio is now a viable entity BigFish Studio. We are nearing completion of our first project with Kumamoto-based rockers, The Bliss.
Within the past 6 months, I've also joined with two of Kumamoto's outstanding koto/shamisen players and formed the Hogaku group A.UN. We'll be doing our first performance on August 19th at 7:30 pm at Gallery Kimura in Kumamoto with a line up of tunes from a mash-up of Kumamoto's famous folk piece Soran Bushi and Paul Desmond's Take 5 we call Soran Five; a 17 string koto solo by Yumiko Minoda based on a Spanish theme; a shamisen/shakuhachi piece by Seiho Kinea called Meikyo featuring Yumiko Minoda and me; a five-part koto solo performed by Izumi Fujikawa entitled Yomigaeru Itsutsu no Uta by Hikaru Sawai with special guest dancer Mayumi Yamada from the B_P.zy! Dance Comany; an adaptation of the Kinko-ryu honkyoku Shika no tone performed by me and Dragon Eyes composed by Marty Regan.
From a shakuhachi player's point of view, Marty's piece Dragon Eyes has been the most challenging to bring to a performance level. Written for a 7 hole 1.6, but played on a 5 hole instrument, not to mention the speed of some of the phrasing with complex meri/kari alternation, plus being able to play the 14 minute + piece from memory has consumed a great deal of practice time, but I'm feeling good about it now and look forward to performing it. I'll write again after the show with a few photos or a video. Meanwhile, here's the poster for the show (pretty much in Japanese).

Yuri or '...but sensei...it's been three years!'

2011-01-21T14:19:00.000+09:00

There are often questions raised by beginner shakuhachi players with regard to technique and the production and use of yuri is no different.
To those unfamiliar with the term, it is the vibrato-like sound heard attached to shakuhachi notes when played. Non-Japanese unaccustomed to playing traditional wind instruments might suspect that this is accomplished by pulsing the diaphragm muscle similarly to some vocal vibrato techniques. In fact, that is one form of yuri found largely in modern music and known as ikiyuri, however this should not be confused with the more traditional type known as agoyuri where ago (pron. ahh-go)means chin.
There are typically three types of agoyuri:
1)tateyuri- produced by moving the head slightly up and down as if to nod 'yes'. This produces a distinct shift in pitch and is much easier to produce in the otsu and kan range than the dai-kan range.
2)yokoyuri- produced by moving the head from side to side as is to indicate 'no'. This produces a rising and lessening in intensity of sound with a slight pitch shift. Again, easier to produce in the lower two octaves than the highest. This is also the most typical yuri played when yuri isn't written into the score.
3)mawashiyuri- This is produced by moving the head in a repeated circular manner around the vertical plane. This less used type of yuri produces a dramatic effect of the two above types combined.
Attempts to play these techniques should be incorperated into your practice regime going from subtle to exaggerated and back to subtle. On both extremes, attempt to play yuri to the point that it breaks the sound. Develop the extremes.
There is a saying that all Japanese know: san nen kubi furi, which translates, three years neck waiving and refers to the ability to master the technique of yuri on the shakuhachi. I believe that one shouldn't accept that as a given. More properly it means that beyond the amount of time it takes to master getting a reasonable sound and being able to play all notes, flourishes like yuri can be attempted.
Good luck with it.

Monster shakuhachi

2011-01-09T17:03:00.008+09:00

I made this shakuhachi (I guess it can be called that) from very large root end madake as an experiment. I positioned the holes according to Nelson Zink's equation for ergonomic hole placement on large shakuhachi. The result (as expected) was a 3.0 that plays in E, but manages only one octave plus a bit. As expected, it takes a lot of air, but is manageable both from that point of view and from a handling point of view.

Here is the 3.0 next to a 2.0 for comparison.
Have a listen!

BigFish Studio

2010-12-17T14:13:00.000+09:00

Well, this post isn't exactly shakuhachi related, but it certainly is part of my world. For the past 1 1/2 years, I've been planning, researching, building, gearing-up and tweaking a small, pro level audio project studio along with my partner and good friend Richard Gilbert on Mt. Kinpo to the west of Kumamoto city. It's now at the point that we can start lining up clients for recording. We're putting the final touches to our website which should be done this weekend. Other work at the moment is concerned with building and installing bass traps and audio diffusion in the mix room and vocal booth. Our goal is to create an environment suitable to record the many traditional musicians living in this area and certainly from elsewhere as well, though we aren't adverse to recording modern musicians either. In fact, one of our initial clients is a local, 5 piece rock band called The Bliss.

We warmly invite any shakuhachi players interested in putting their sound down in a beautiful atmosphere to give us a shout.

More than a name.

2010-11-26T14:07:00.003+09:00

I mentioned that I recently played at Kumamoto Castle with my friends and co-members of our recently formed trio Izumi Fujikawa and Yumiko Minoda. Our trio doesn't have a name and we all feel that it would be good to have one, so I've been knocking around some ideas and came up with this: I like the Japanese word hibiki (響) which means echo. It in itself would be good but I thought of alternate kanji that might add more meaning to the name and came up with this: hi (斐) which means beautiful or patterned, bi (侎) which means to soothe, and ki (気 ) which means spirit. Therefore HIBIKI ( 斐侎気 )or beautiful soothing spirit. What do you think?

At the Castle, November 20th, 2010

2010-11-25T21:41:00.000+09:00

I had the pleasure of performing with my good friends Izumi Fujikawa on 21 string koto and Yumiko Minoka on shamisen at Kumamoto Castle's Honmaru Goten building last Saturday night to nice little crowd.

The evening started off with some Higo biwa which is a rarity in its own right. There are very few Higo biwa players anymore and it might well be that Shoko Goto is the only performing Higo Biwa player left.

We followed Goto-san's performance with three pieces. The first was a duet for shakuhachi and 21 string Koto written by American composer, Marty Regan entitled Song Poem of the Easter Clouds. Izumi and I recorded this piece as the first cut on our 2006 CD release Silent Letters, Secret Pens. This is a lyrical piece that suggest both an old and modern feel. Our second piece was another Marty Regan composition written 3 years after the first entitled Dragon Eyes. This piece, written for 2.4 and 1.6 shakuhachi, 21 string koto and shamisen depicts the story of a dragon waking from a slumber, taking off and expressing itself through it versatility of flight. It's a challenging piece to execute, but usually proves to be popular with audiences.

Our third piece entitled The Squall was originally written　as a koto solo, but we thought it would work with shamisen and shakuhachi, so we went there and it worked. As the name suggests, it's short, fast and hard. A treat to watch as well as hear.

My Interview on A Shakuhachi Journey

2010-11-05T13:10:00.000+09:00

I'd like to draw people's attention to another blog that I've had a great deal of pleasure to read. It's written by a shakuhachi player from Vancouver, Canada named Erin Riffel. She has been chronicling her journey learning the shakuhachi and has been of great help to many like her. She started to include monthly interviews with other shakuhachi players with the idea to give some insight to others beginning this oft times difficult journey. This month I have the honour of being the 'Player of the Month' on her blog. Please have a read.
http://ashakuhachijourney.blogspot.com/2010/11/featured-player-jeff-cairns.html

Up in the Trees

2010-10-29T14:07:00.002+09:00

I recently came into contact with a very interesting person. His name is

Thomas Allocca and he's a wooden architecture designer and journalist from Italy. The reason that I've come into contact with him is that he has taken an interest in cultivating many varieties of Madake (phyllostachys bambusoides bambusoides) in his homeland. To that end, he contacted by good friend Derek Van Choice, maker of Inga shakuhachi and me for information. An aritcle was published in an online magazine which can be found here . Aside from wanting to supply Europe with a local source of madake (largely for shakuhachi making) he has done some very interesting archetecture related to tree houses.

Check him out. He's an interesting guy!

What's in a name?

2010-10-22T14:00:00.000+09:00

It seems that koto player Izumi Fujikawa, shamisen Yumiko Minoda and I have formed something of a performance trio with the intention of spreading the sankyoku word. We will likely be leaning more heavily on modern music than traditional as can be heard in our second performance together on November 20th at Kumamoto Castle in Kumamoto City, Japan. We'll be doing two pieces by American composer Marty Regan called Shinonome no uta which appeared as the first track on my CD Silent Letters, Secret Pens that I did together with Izumi, and Dragon Eyes that we perfomed in October. The third piece is an adaptation of a koto solo piece that is quite frenetic. The koto part has been written, but the shakuhachi and shamisen parts will be largely improvised. I'll have more on that later.
That all being said and good, our trio still needs a name. I'm open to any suggestions you might have.

Back at It

2010-10-08T13:48:00.001+09:00

I've been away from this blog for quite some time, but back at it now.
Since I've been down, the Kumamoto Shakuhachi Festival has come and gone. Reprocussions have been many and one of note is that I've since joined together with my long time friend and kotoist extrodinaire Izumi Fujikawa and shamisen/kotoist Yumiko Minoda. Our first performace was on October 12th and Kumamoto's Honmaru goten. The concert was part of Kumamoto Castle's Festival series. We performed a piece written by American composer Marty Regan called Dragon Eyes. It was a difficult piece and took some time to work into, but we were happy with our first performance of it. Both Izumi and I will be performing in the same venue on November 20 in the evening. I'll write more about that later.

Some Video Performances from the Kumamoto Shakuhachi Festival

2010-03-02T21:49:00.001+09:00

Here are a couple of videos of performances from the first Kumamoto Shakuhachi Festival held on February 14th.

Tamuke performed by Obama Akihito, Daniel Ribble, Josh Smith, Justin Senryu, Jeff Cairns, Masahiro Touyama, Yamasaki Kouzan, Tsurugi Kodo

San'ya performed by Josh Smith

Sometimes it's like pulling teeth...

2010-01-18T15:58:00.000+09:00

I've been consumed with preparations for the upcoming Kumamoto Shakuhachi Festival. In fact, it's safe to say that I had no idea it would be so consuming. Most of the preparations I could conceive of, but there were some things that came up that I cound't.

For example, I had to meet with a particular shakuhachi group today called the Nihon Shakuhachi Ren Mei. They are a group of fairly old gentlemen who belond to the Tozan school. Though the Tozan style is a relatively modern style of shakuhachi playing, their ideas didn't quite reflect that.

The problem with shakuahchi in Kumamoto and probably elsewhere in Japan is that it doesn't attract young learners. Part of the problem is that most of the players are old, and though they might understand that the art needs young people to be involved, they don't see how to do it. They think that to simply continue with what they've always done is what they should do, but don't see that such thinking is causing the death of this art form.

I, along with others, think that this festival will reach out to young people in a way that usual shakuhachi presentations don't and can't. My difficulty is getting them to agree. And without their agreement and support, success seems tenuous at best.

I continue.......our poster image.

Covers

2009-12-21T15:34:00.000+09:00

I've had the opportunity to be on the cover of a prominant Kumamoto lifestyle magazine published by Kumamoto Keizai (an economics periodical) called Espresso.
To date, I've done 5 covers. Four for Kumamoto and one for Fukuoka.

It's taken me to some interesting places in the two prefectures and allowed me to meet equally interesting people. And it certainly has put my face into the public eye. These days, I often get looks of recognition from people I don't know, or people will actually stop me and ask me if I'm that guy on the cover of the magazine.
It's not that the magazine has such a huge readership, but one habit of Japanese people is to stand and read magazines in stores. Though that happens almost anywhere, it's really something of an institution here in Japan.

One of the up-sides of this work is that it allows me to promote the shakuhachi which I hope to continue doing.

Playing and Playing

2009-11-09T16:00:00.000+09:00

Last weekend I had what has become a usual bout with Autumn shakuhachi playing. It just seems to be the way of things here in Japan.

On Friday night, I joined my old friend and koto vituoso, Izumi Fujikawa for a concert in the new addition the Kumamoto Castle's re-building program, Honmaru Goten. We performed for the first time, a piece composed by Keiko Ueda called Mizu no Uta. It was a piece commissioned by Kumamoto City.
On Saturday, I performed in a cafe overlooking Kumamoto City called Lomi Lomi with haiku poet Shinjuku Rollingstone. I've done some of this kind of collaboration before with haiku poet Jim Kacean. It was an interesting afternoon in a nice location.

On Sunday, I performed in a very big production at Sojo University Citizens Hall. It was primarily a Nihon Buyou production with dances covering a huge variety of styles from classical pieces to folk dances. I was one of the accompanying musicians.
The first piece I played in was the second on the program: Tsuru no sugomori. This is a honkyoku piece with two parts, those of the male crane and the female crane. My teacher, Tsurugi Kodo played the male crane part and son n Kawase Junsuke III, Yousuke, played the female part. I and four other members of my local group played in the chorus. The piece was choreographed for 20 cranes with lead parts played by two prominant dancers from Tokyo.
I thought it was an interesting attempt, but in the end, I don't think it succeeded. The nature of a honkyoku piece is very difficult to choreograph to, especially for so many dancers.
Next, I was asked to improvise on a 2.8 for a demonstration of Ni ten ichi ryu which is the two handed sword style made famous by the samurai Miyamoto Musashi. The fact is, I wasn't supposed to play during this demonstration. The sword teacher, a man small in stature but big in aura, said that the BGM wasn't needed. The head Nihon Buyou teacher thought otherwise. I hadn't prepared anything for the piece, but when I was in the change room getting into my montsuki, my teacher informed me that it was on. Moral of the story: always be prepared. Nobody in the audience had a clue that it was thrown together at the last moment.
The last three pieces I played were folk tunes from Kumamoto. They were the finale of the 4 hour show with many dancers ranging in age from 4 to 75. There was also a large contingent of musicians including my daughter Sophie playing koto.

The Wabi Sabi Brothers

2009-10-22T22:19:00.006+09:00

Last August I had the pleasure of performing in an intimate concert in Guelph, Ontario with an old friend and bassist for the renowned Canadian band, The Cowboy Junkies, Jeff Bird.
After spending the morning rehashing memories and rediscovering each other's musical identity, we put together a set of crafted and improvised pieces for shakuhachi, wood bass and octave mandoline.
Here are a couple of sound bites, the first being a rendition of the classic shakuhachi piece Choshi performed on shakuhachi and wood bass. The second being and improvisation with shakuhachi and octave mandoline called Is It To Be. And lastly, another improv based on a cross-over of an Okinawan mode and an Indonesian mode called Indonawa.
We appropriately refer to ourselves as The Wabi Sabi Brothers and have entitled the collection 'Dangerous Beauty.'

Kumamoto Shakuhachi Festival

2009-10-12T21:35:00.000+09:00

I've been working on the production of the first Kumamoto Shakuhachi Festival for the past year. Along with my shakuhachi student Naomi Yamaguchi, who has been indispensable in many of the official dealings, we are nearing completion of preparations.
The festival is intended to increase public awareness of the shakuhachi in Kumamoto with respect to its past, present and future. This will be accomplished primarily through a performance that will portray the chronology of the shakuhachi as told to a group of young children by their grandfather who was a practicing Komuso. Performances by leading players from the Kumamoto area and elsewhere, in each of the styles presented in the workshops during the day will be encorporated in the performance. Also, a new piece for 5 shakuhachi, string quartet, horns, percussion and keyboard by Kumamoto-based composer Keiko Ueda will be debuted.
The festival is also intended to allow players of a variety of schools to learn pieces from other schools. This is not commonly done otherwise.
The festival will have five different workshops, one each in Myoan ryu, Kinko ryu, Tozan ryu, modern classical and cross-genre. Each workshop will be taught by a leading proponent of that style from the Kumamoto area. There will also be a symposium paneled by leading teachers of a variety of styles discussing the future of shakuhachi in Kumamoto.
Finally, there will be an ongoing beginner's workshop put on by members of Wakanakai giving anybody a hands-on opportunity to try the shakuhachi. There will be various shakuhachi related services and vendors also present. Finally, there will be an open microphone for any players to present their talent.

Immortality is around the next corner!

2009-02-06T16:49:00.000+09:00

I spent some time a week ago in the takeyabu (bamboo grove) with my shakuhachi teacher, Kodo Tsurugi and a few fellow members of Tsurugi sensei's shakuhachi group, Wakanakai. It was a warm, sunny day in the grove on the west side of Kumamoto in central Kyushu, Japan. We didn't really need to search very far as this is a well known grove to us and we knew where to look. Basically, we were looking for bamboo suitable for 1.8 or 1.6 jiari shakuhachi. We found about 20 pieces in a couple of hours. The unusual thing was that Tsurugi sensei encouraged me to dig some pieces that were much bigger in diameter than those that he usually uses. After pulling them from the ground, he would pick each one up and study it. The larger diameter ones would inspire a resounding 'Rrrrramos!' from his mouth. I immediately picked up on the reference to Alcvin Ramos from Vancouver, Canada who comes here every couple of years with his group to experience bamboo gathering with us. Al and many of his group seemed to love the bigger diameter pieces which always brought a smile from Tsurugi sensei. Thus, big diameter bamboo has come to be known as Ramos to him. One of the many roads to immortality.

The Economics of It All

2009-01-30T17:06:00.000+09:00

I've been involved in collecting shakuhachi for some time here in Japan. It's generally had many rewards. For example, I've been able to pass some of my collection on to eager learners who otherwise don't have access to well-made instruments and reasonable prices. I've also had the great advantage of being able to play many instruments of varying quality and age. I decided to do this as a means to an end. That end is to build a recording studio and chronicle the many traditional musicians that live in these parts of Japan and who would otherwise live and die without being heard from or of. As a musician and specifically a shakuhachi player and teacher, I considered this to be a pity. I quickly realized that my unique situation would in effect kill four birds with one stone. Get the studio built and outfitted, record these living treasures and add an aspect of recognition to their lives and those of their families outside of their work-a-day lives, supply qulaity instruments to folks who didn't have reliable access to them, thus giving some happiness to them and finally, having the chance to play and increase my own collection through the avenues that I travel in order to get the shakuhachis in the first place. However, this, like many pursuits these days is taking a back seat to the world economic crisis. Movement of instruments has slowed down somewhat and that means that everything connected must also slow down. That's okay. I can wait. And in the mean time, I play.

Of Old and New

2009-01-23T16:49:00.000+09:00

I'll have the opportunity to do something quite unusual on March 16th on the main stage of the Kumamoto Prefectural Theater in Kumamoto, Japan. I was invited to perform along with members of Pro Musica Nipponia, a professional Japanese traditional instrument performance group. It's an honour for me to do that, though it isn't the first time for me. I also had the chance and honour about 5 years ago when we performed Taketori Monogatari (The Legend of the Bamboo Cutter) which is a story put to music much like the larger Heike Monogatari. Though I'm thrilled to be doing it again, that isn't the point I want to make here. It has more to do with the choice of music for us to perform and a couple of the players who will be joining in.
As for the piece of music, we will be performing a well known composition by jazz pianist Chick Corea, entitled Spain. I'm not at all sure what possessed the organizer of this performance to go that route (I must ask them), but something tells me that it was an attempt to validate traditional instruments to some degree (I hope that's not the case). Of course attempts have and continue to be made using Japanese traditional instruemnts in the performance of a variety of modern works outside of the genre, so that in itself isn't new. But certainly, in the local area of Kumamoto, Japan, it hasn't been done on a large stage for a large audience. None-the-less, it will be interesting to see what comes of it.
Now the second point of interest is that I and PMN will also be joined on stage by an upcoming koto player who has only been learning the koto for 6 years. That person's name is Sophie Cairns and she is my daughter. Though she has played on many stages locally with local players, and in fact did her first solo performance of the very difficult piece Tori No Yo Ni (Like a Bird) by Sawai Tadao last December, this will be her first chance to play with such an elite group of professional players on a big stage. I'm excited for her and the other Kumamoto players who will be performing in the show. I'm also looking forward to it very much.
At this point, I don't know exactly who the other players will be, but the instrumentation will be piano, koto, shamisen, biwa (I understand that the very gifted Satsuma Biwa virtuoso Kumiko Shutoh will be playing), shakuhachi and wadaiko. I'll report again after the performance.

Isolation and Change

2008-12-19T16:36:00.000+09:00

The realities of shakuhachi practice in Japan are such that cells or pockets of players have developed as a means of self-identification/justification and/or a way of continuing the peculiarities of a teacher.
The reasons that these cells (ryuha) have developed are many, but probably were inspired by the relative imobility of Japanese in history. Being an agrarian society by-in-large promotes stationary life. Crops need tending to, animals need care, land needs maintaining. The concept of distant travel was relegated to those with the luxury of time, which often equated to disposable money. Domestic travel with shakuhachi in hand was, for many years, was the mainstay of wandering itinerate monks known as Komuso or Monks of Emptiness. Theirs was not a teaching excersise, but rather a response to the call of the universe and a means of setting themselves in it. It wasn't until the post-WWII era that Japanese in general started to search out new things with their newly found disposable wealth. Along with this travel came the spread of many things Japanese to the outside world; including the shakuhachi. Naturally, any player who ventured outside of Japan would take their particular learned mothod with them and expose any who would listen. What was heard became the represented norm to outsiders. The concept of 'shakuhachi' became one thing. With that, and the realization to those new listener/learners came the idea that isolated schools of thought were not a necessity and could/should be grasped equally. Interestingly enough, to many, the original sounds of the Monks of Emptiness resonated and that is where their real learning began. The evolution then went from isolated pockets to more isolated pockets but in a culturally different setting. All of this changed with the advent of the internet. Now learners can not only purchase high quality instruments, but get online lessons from not just one teacher, but many. One wonders what the outcome of this will be. Will we see the isolationism of the past fade? Will we see the defining lines of the ryuha dissapear? The future is indeed interesting.

The Path of the Maker

2008-12-12T16:40:00.000+09:00

Tsurugi Kyomudo, master shakuhachi maker
I've been involved in a very general way with shakuhachi making for some time now. I came into it innocently enough. Just being around my teacher(Tsurugi Kodo) and his father(Tsurugi Kyomudo), who has been a master shakuhachi maker for well over 50 years, was sufficient to prick my curiosity on the matter. A few well placed questions caused later and I was thinking of trying to make an instrument myself.
The physical calculations and work went by rather smoothly. I had some training in the art of crafting Noh masks before I tried to make a shakuhachi, so the idea of tedious work was no stranger to me.
It often surprised me prior to having made my first shakuhachi, how much time was involved in its immergence into a playable instrument. It seemed like such a simple construction: a tube, some holes and a blowing edge. I soon learned that there was so much more.
After the initial process of removing the oils and resins by heating, and the initial exposure to sunlight to change the surface colour (about two weeks), the bamboo has to go through a period of curing in relative darkness and controlled humidity. Generally, between one and three years is good for that. Thereafter, the bamboo might need to be straightened in a jig. As a rule of thumb, a curve on the front side of the instrument upward from the bell is good, but a curve in any other direction is not good. It actually doesn't affect the sound, but it is an aesthetic consideration. After bending, the physical act of measuring and cutting to length, removing internal node membranes, opening up the bore in the root end, cutting the angle of the blowing edge and inserting the blowing edge inlay and drilling holes happens. If the flute is to be made as a jinashi shakuhachi (no ji paste applied to the bore for tuning purposes) then the maker will remove small amounts of bore wall material in specific places in order to improve tone and volume. If the instrument is to become a jiari (ji paste is applied for tuning, sound colour and volume) then a mixture of tonoko (crushed rock powder) and urushi (Japanese lacquer) is applied to the bore walls then removed incrementally by sanding until the desired sound is achieved. This step can take a great deal of time that often comes with frustration. To say the least, it's often a question of hit-and-miss at this stage until you've aquired years of experience under your belt.
As it is, I prefer to make jinashi flutes for now.

Hanko

2008-12-05T16:18:00.000+09:00

Within the world of the shakuhachi maker, a particular means of identification has been in use at least since the 8th century. It comes by way of a stamp made from stone, bone, wood or metal that carries the maker's symbol, usually made from one or more Chinese characters(kanji) significant to the maker and is commonly known as 'hanko'.

This method of identification was formally introduced to Japan in 701 from China, and has been used in a general sense as a signature to bind any and every legal contract in Japan. "Jitsuin," or "true seals" are registered with the local authorities and used on important legal documents. Japanese also carry personal hanko for everyday use.

The shakuhachi maker's hanko has evolved from a simple carving in the body of the instrument to a much more elaborate inscription typically burned into the skin of the instrument from a metal stamp. Though these are intended to be the mark of the maker, they aren't legally controlled or registered, thus leading to a great deal of ambiguity when attempting to discover the identity of some long-dead, and possibly forgotten maker.

I've recently become interested in these marks as a result of collecting many older intruments. My often frustrated inquiry into the identity of a maker has lead me to begin to compile as many photos of hanko as I can and to soon post them on the internet with whatever information that I can find. I hope to publish this photo database in English soon as a service to others who would like to know more about their particular instrument.

Scouring the groves

2008-11-28T17:08:00.001+09:00

I've been involved in searching madake bamboo groves in central Kyushu, Japan for suitable bamboo to make shakuhachi for the past 22 years. My interest began when my teacher, Tsurugi Kodo, asked me to join he and his father (master maker Tsurugi Kyomudo) in the bamboo hunt. The more hands, the easier the task was. I came to enjoy the atmosphere offered in the quiet of a large bamboo grove. Typically every year we harvest about 40 or 50 culms (pieces of bamboo including the root) for making shakuhachi. It's hard work, but very enjoyable. In recent times, my teacher Tsurugi Kodo and I have been hosting an international group headed by shakuhachi maker/teacher Alcvin Ramos from Vancouver, Canada.. We take the tour members through the process of choosing a suitable piece of bamboo according to their needs, and doing initial preparation like aburanuki which is a process of removing the oils and resins from the bamboo and begins the long curing process. We are very pleased to share our time and knowledge with those who seek it out. In this way we are perpetuating this ancient craftAlcvin Ramos from Bamboo-In, Canada

2008-11-21T16:45:00.000+09:00

My interest in learning shakuhachi wasn't just to assimilate the tradition, but to use it toward my own interests. I've always been interested and involved in performance and the addition of the shakuhachi to this part of my life was no different. In 1996, I released my first commercial CD recording on my private label Healing Fugu Records with my then bandmates Darby Stands, Kyousuke Yamaoka, Sho Tajiri and Keisuke Hirayama together known as Stands & Cairns. This was a completely original effort that included 9 instrumental pieces that blended western folk/rock aesthetic with what I gleened from my 10 years of shakuhachi study at the time. In retrospect, I think it was a good effort and one that people still comment about favourably. What do you think? You can check it out here.

In Days of Old

2008-11-14T17:05:00.000+09:00

Somewhere in the midst of midevil Japan, a sound echoed through the land. It was singular and sweet. It spoke of 'otherness` in a way that other sounds didn't. It held promise and mystery. It caused some to give-up everything in the material world other than a crafted bamboo tube... the shakuhachi. The purveyors of this dream were wandering monks known as Komuso. Practicing an uncommon form of Zen Buddhism brought to the Japanese shores in the 12th century from China, these men went so far in pursuit of their goal of becoming one with the universe as to relinquish their identity to others by donning a basket known as a tengai, that obscured their faces to any onlookers. Though the occurance of such mendicant monks has all but disappeared today, their practice known as suizen and the lure of enlightenment from one sound continues on. It may well be said that a piece of those players of old rests in the heart of every shakuhachi player today regardless of heritage, race or creed.

The Alluring Air

2008-10-31T17:30:00.000+09:00

I've been taken by a sound. It stirred deep inside me and latched onto me. It speaks of something almost lost. Something quiet. Something sensual, tantilizing and alluring. It's roots are in Zen Buddhism, but those roots have all but severed now. I speak of the Japanese shakuhachi. For 22 years I've been seeking the purity in its sound and now I would like to write about it. I welcome any comments.