Happy Summer Solstice Zuihou 54

Longest Day of the Year.
Temple of More Light than Dark

Kyozan-bo group visits the Abbott at Hoshin-ji, Tokyo.  The shakuhachi program played was

1)Ken Ko San

2)Hi Fu Mi Hachigaeshi

3)Ekosan

4) Murasaki no Kyoku

Intermission

5)Uji

6)San'Ya

7) Kyo San'Ya

8)Yoshiya

9)Ryugin Koku

10)Choshi & Mukaiji

Chidori!

Waterfall by artist with Chinese poem written by Tominomori Kyozan with his stamp.

Hoshin-ji

Flutes of Distinction: Ogawa Nando 1.9 Shakuhachi

Outstanding Kinko Shakuhachi made by Ogawa Nando, deshi of Miura Kindo.  A kodaka (vertical oval) profile, deep big open sound, rough finish jiari, 11-10 proportion holes.

SHAKUHACHI MASTERS (KANTO REGION) 1933 THE 8TH YEAR OF THE SHOWA PERIOD

From Bottom right going up and around:

Tsugawa Keizan, Miyauchi Taido, Teshigahara Kodo, Uchida Kakufu, Takayama Yuzan Abe Kozan, Ozawa Koun, Yoshizawa Dodo, Takutami Fuzan, Notomi Judo, Kusano Tatsuji, Kishi Seiho, Fukuda Rando, Yoshida Seifu, Yasaka Reizan, Seki Wado, Ogawa Nando, Yamaguchi Shiro, Shindo Kodo, Momose Hodo, Sumikawa Yodo, Zangetsudo Tekkan, Kimura Yusai, Nakamura Tsukan, Araki Baibyoku (IV), Ogino Seiun, Murase Chikugai, Shimokawa Sensei, Hirokado Reifu, Kagami Fumio, Takayama Kindo, Kurakawa Sensei, Tanaka Shosei, Ozawa Kosuke, Konishi Shozan,

Top: Right to Left

Aoki Reibo (Seizo), Kawase Junsuke (1), Nakao Tozan, Araki Kodo (III), Inoue Shigemi

Jo-un with Maki

Shakuhachi made by Tomomasa Gakudo (岳童友正), early 20th century.  Gold leaf urushi painted by an official artisan of the imperial family.

The Curve of the Back

Traditional Meanings of the Shakuhachi Holes

1.7 Edo Shakuhachi



utaguchi
horizontal 34mm O.D., 20mm I.D.
vertical 30mm O.D., 21mm I.D.

close-filed root
horizontal 46mm O.D., 19mm I.D.
vertical 40mm O.D., 19 mm I.D.

undercut holes are 10mm long by 9mm wide

length 51 cm.

The average height of an Edo (1603–1867) period Japanese man was 5 feet tall.

Interesting hanko: the pilgrim's water gourd.

The hanko could also be the shape of the sitting Buddha.

 Whatever the reason, the average height of the Japanese increased gradually over the space of 10,000 years up to the sixth century, but then it strangely began to decrease again. The average height of people in the Edo Period (1603–1867) was 156 centimeters for men, and 145 centimeters for women, about the same as for the people of the middle Jomon. What on earth could have caused this?
Population density was the most likely culprit: Once people began farming in earnest, the population increased dramatically. Particularly from Japan's medieval period onwards, people began to gather in cities, and as suitable new land for farming became scarce, food shortages emerged. Sanitary conditions also deteriorated, and the physique of the populace suffered as a result.

Etsuzan Fujiyoshi

Planetary Harmonics & Neurobiological Resonances

At the Shinjuku Bunka Center, Etsuzan Fujiyoshi plays a shakuhachi made by his Sensei Takahashi Kuzan (1900-1986), a 1.8 pitched in C#.  Higuchi Taizan's main flute was also a C#.  My teacher Morimasa Seisui Horiuchi plays the 1.8 C# and has two fine examples, including a two stamp shakuhachi made by his teacher Tomimori Kyozan.  Tanikita Muchiku also favored the C# as many other great Masters of the Myoan lineages....  My favorite flute is also a 1.8 C#, and Mori-san and I practice this pitch 90% of the time in lessons, after an occasional break with 1.8s or shorter, pitched in D.

 

Why this preference for C#?  It is said the Consciousness Chakra resonates with the musical pitch of C#, verbalized as OM. The sound of OM connects us to the universe in a very real way. OM is derived from the Earth’s rotation around the sun. It takes 1 year, or 31556935.97 seconds, for the earth to complete one cycle of rotation. If frequency is cycles per second, you get 1/31556935.97; the portion of a year that exists in one second. Both the frequency of C# and C is close to that fraction in frequency.  Many have said shakuhachi is the sound of Earth.  It's interesting to see the pitch reflected in the orbit sound of our planet, from the the roundness of the root, the endless enso of the bore, taking the listener in its grounded sound circling through the space of  OM

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Tradition in a Sea of Change

Russian Shakuhachi