Dancing with the Dead
From time to time the question comes up if we ever compose our own pieces or if we ever improvise. And it is a legit question as all honkyoku must have be written down or “composed” if you like at some point or other in history. For the oldest pieces like Kokū or Mukaiji the Legend of the Kyotaku explains that they have been “received” in visions or dreams. But for many others we don’t know their exact origin and only in a few cases the “composers” are known by name (e.g. Ōshū-Sashi). The Myōan tradition of shakuhachi is based on the idea that what we do is not some kind of musical performance, and therefore concepts of “expressing oneself”, “musical virtuosity” or “creativity” do not apply. It seems to be the fundamental mystery about the tradition that what seen from the outside is clearly a musical tradition is denying its musicality from the inside. For me personally it has always been a strong source of inspiration that by playing those melodies that have come down to us thr...