Sunday, December 16, 2012
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Saturday, November 24, 2012
the sound of silence
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What we must pay utmost attention to is how to produce a variety of timbre from one note. What is most important is timbre. And this I think separates shakuhachi from other music. It is all about timbre, basically. -- Shozan Tanabe
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| Shozan Tanabe playing in the House of Torin (Torin-in) circa 2000 A.D. |
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From the DVD "The Sound of Silence", Shozan Tanabe performs at the House of Torin the music Otonai (sounds of tones) composed by Shozan Tanabe, Kogarashi (tune for shakuhachi Tozan school), Tranquility of the Great One of Truth--Sounds from the Universe, composed by Naoki Nishimura, which according to the composer includes the meaning of universe and the sound of heart, and At Times of Quiet composed by Joji Sawada.
Recording Engineers Yasuhiro Nishumura and Kazuta Ishiura. Recording by Sounds U. Audio mixer Hiroshi Kasai. Produced by KBS Kyoto 2000.
Great nuanced recording of shakuhachi tones on this production.
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| envelope spectrum flowers |
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Autumn Waterfall Window
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| An autumn evening; The hole in the paper-sliding door Is playing the flute. --Issa |
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Morimasa Horiuchi plays at Anderson Japanese Gardens on a Beautiful Autumn Day
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| Bunjinzo--Ancient Scholar: carved between 1400-1500 A.D. |
Sunday, August 26, 2012
The Gift from Shinnyo-ji Temple
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My teacher Morimasa Horiuchi Sensei in the mid-1960s used to play shakuhachi with his Sensei Tominomori Kyozan and on occasion an old shaven-headed monk, the head priest of Shinnyo-ji Temple, who made his own bamboo flutes and other works of art.
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When the old monk heard that Mori-san was moving to America, he generously presented my teacher with a going-away gift, his shakuhachi made by the Shin-ryu that was stamped with the kanji Shin, or Truth.
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The old monk also gave Mori-san his ink brush drawing of Daruma, or Bodhidharma, the Indian monk who transmitted Zen to China in the sixth century and began the first physical training of the Shaolin monks.
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The jinashi bamboo nodes remain in the instrument bore refinements.
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A meticulous method of tuning the flute for tone and pitch, slowly and minutely shaving tiny bits of bamboo out of the bore.
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Nearly 50 years later, the monk/artist with the generous and kind spirit is still fondly remembered.
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Monday, August 20, 2012
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Monden Tekiku 門田笛空
An 85 year old Myoan shakuhachi Sensei in Osaka, Monden Tekiku was taught by Sakurai Muteki, a student of Taizan-ha master Tanikita Muchiku.
Monden Tekiku plays a 2.5 shakuhachi, the length he prefers, at Hosshin-ji, Tokyo.
Monden Tekiku was the second head of the group and retired about 5 years ago (after his 80th birthday). The present leader and Monden Tekiku's successor is Maeda Tekifū. The aim of the group is the study and transmission of Meian-Shakuhachi music using long jinashi-shakuhachi.
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A diagram of a 1.8 shakuhachi of Monden Tekiku
At Myoan-ji with Tsuda Tekishū, also probably one of Sakurai Muteki's students.
Sensei Monden's school of students, all playing the preferred 2.5 shakuhachi.
Koten-shakuhachi-kenkyū-kai
Monden Sensei also taught his students to build their own 2.5 shakuhachi.
In 1996, Monden Tekiku played many of his teacher's shakuhachi, at age 69, for his great public recording Koku. Very highest recommendation.
On the track, Shika no Tone, Monden-sensei is accompanied by Maeda Tekifu, the oldest student and successor as leader of this great but little known school.
Saturday, August 4, 2012
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