Komusō-Shakuhachi

Some impressions of the  21st Fuke Fūin Kai 普化風韻会 (“Elegant Fuke Gathering”)  Semi Annual Concert at Kōbe Here is the program of the meeting  The Fuke Fūin Kai  is led by Master Uemura Fūgetsu who has a YouTube channel with his recordings. It is accessible through the homepage of the Fūin Kai. https://studio616.net/fuke/youtube/ 40 players had assembled this time and we played for six hours without a break. It is always an intense experience a real "shakuhachi shower" washing away your daily worries. Master Uemura Fūgetsu giving the opening address In the morning before the concert Towards the end of the meeting Myself playing Matsukaze no shirabe 松風之調 - Matsukaze no kyoku 松風之曲

  At Myōan-ji, November 6th 2022 Kyochiku-zenji Hōsan-kai 虚空禅師奉讃会 Yamato-chōshi, Ajikan - 大和調子・阿字観 Ajikan is now one of the most famous Shakuhachi pieces. It is an arrangement done by  Miyagawa Nyozan 宮川如山 (1868-1946)  of the piece Sashi 薩慈. The contemporary practice of playing Yamato-chōshi as a kind of prelude started with Tani Kyōchiku 谷狂竹 (1882-1950) who is famously known as the "Last Komusō". Ajikan translates into "Contemplation on the Syllable A", a meditation practice in the esoteric Shingo school of Japanese Buddhism. The piece is also known as Aji-no-kyoku 阿字の曲 and it  is played on a 2.5 Shakuhachi made by myself.

On the 3rd of May 2024, Shimura Tetsu (Zenbō) 志村 哲　(禅保) Professor at The Osaka University of Fine Arts 大阪芸術大学 and one of the leading Shakuhachi Players and researchers of our time has published an article about Myōan Shakuhachi / Komusō Shakuhachi in the Nikkei Shinbun one of the major Japanese newspapers. It is entitled “Stubborn and rich” (the online edition reads “Stubborn and fascinating”) and in his article he tells the story of how he became a Shakuhachi player in the first place even though in his youth he was intrigued by Western music (English Rock). It is - as you might imagine - a longer story and it is not my intention to summarise his whole story here. “Stubborn and rich” is how he puts the essence of our music into a nutshell. The Komusō Shakuhachi is stubborn as it refuses to follow the changing taste of time. The world around us is getting faster, noisier, more efficient and more and more consumer oriented. Japan being by no means an exception but rather one of leaders ...

  Matsukaze no shirabe 松風之調 - Matsukaze no kyoku 松風之曲 The piece Matsukaze 松風 "Wind in the Pine Trees" belongs to the Kinpū-ryū Nezasa-ha 錦風根笹派 tradition which originated in the old province of Tsugaru (now Aomori Prefecture) in the Northern part of Japan. It is composed of two parts Matsukaze no shirabe 松風之調 and Matsukaze no kyoku 松風之曲, the former being a kind of introduction and the latter the main part. --- In the recording presented here it is played by myself on a 2.3 Shakuhachi made by Sakurai Muteki the teacher of Monden Tekikū who was my own teacher.  That Shakuhachi was often referred to as  k uro  黒 ("black") by Monden Tekikū because the color of the bamboo is very dark, nearly black.

In the book   Komusō Tani Kyōchiku  (edited by Inagaki Ihaku, Komusō-kenkyū-kai 1986) Tani Kyōchiku  reports some popular beliefs about the Shakuhachi and the Komusō which I present here.  (1) "Mr. Komusō, would you please let that child wear your  tengai  for a moment?" As I was stopped like that, I turned around and saw a women holding a little child. She's making fun of me, trying to trick me into taking off the  tengai  so that she can see the Komusō's face. When I looked silently at her, she said very earnestly: "Could you please be so kind and let the child wear it?" There was no laxness in her voice whatsoever.  "And what will happen, when the child wears the  tengai ?" I asked insistently, because I did not now what was going on, and that was a somewhat fishy situation. When I listend to her explanation I understood. "That child has something with its brain ✢  and we are in trouble." She also said that she herself had headac...