AdrianFreedman-Notes About Shakuhachi

Notes About the Shakuhachi  Adrian Freedman

 Within the sound soun d of the shakuhachi we w e can hear living nature – the autumn au tumn  wind playing with dry d ry leaves in a bamboo b amboo grove ... the cry of a soaring bird b ird ...  waves crashing on a distant shore ... .. . an empty bell ringing rin ging in a still morning … The mystical sounds of the shakuhachi come from the edge of silence, crossing boundaries of time and culture to echo in the soul.  When looked at, nothing could seem see m more simple: a hollowed hollowe d out bamboo stalk with just five holes; yet despite its simple appearance it has a reputation as being one of the most difficult instruments to master, and is capable of producing a remarkable range of expressive tones. The shakuhachi has a venerable history, going back well over a thousand  years. It has strong links to Zen Buddhist Bu ddhist contemplative practice. practic e. Within this context the shakuhachi was considered as more of a spiritual tool than a  musical instrument. instrumen t. Playing the shakuhachi as part of meditation practice came to be known as suizen (blowing zen). It was considered that the development of ‘spirit  breath’ (kisoku) would lead to ‘absolute sound’ ( tettei-on), in which a single tone could contain the entire universe. The monks who practiced the shakuhachi in this way were known as komus!, literally ‘Monks of Emptiness and Nothingness’. They roamed the  Japanese countryside coun tryside playing the shakuhachi from temple to temple with rattan headdresses that obscured their face, signifying detachment from the  world. The traditional repertoire of the komus! was called honkyoku (original  music), or d!kyoku, (music of The Way). Some honkyoku pieces are serenely  meditative and picturesque, pi cturesque, others are more powerful and an d dynamic. These  pieces have been b een passed down d own in an oral tradition spanning hundreds hund reds of  years, with different differen t playing and teaching styles emerging at different times and in different parts of Japan.

The legendary shakuhachi master Watazumi Doso Roshi commented: “If you go deep into the source of where the music is being made, you'll  find something more interesting. At the source, everyone's individual music is made. If you ask what the deep place is, it's your own life and it's knowing your own life.” *

Playing the shakuhachi One feels the unseen worlds In all the universe There is only this song

Ikky! S" jun (Crazy Cloud) 1394-1482. Zen Buddhist monk and poet

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