It's a non-scheduled one, I'll just play while we're waiting for maybe others to come. This piece is called Azuma, Azuma no Kyoku. Kyoku means peace, song perhaps. So the song of Azuma. Azuma is a place name in Japan. So the song of Azuma. This piece, for me, has a kind of folk song quality to it, more so than most of the other pieces in this repertoire. Azuma, no kyo. uh uh

[01:46]

uh uh Oh, ♪

[03:37]

["Taps"] ah ah start another interesting thing about this piece is the last section is um has kind of quality of an introduction this side of that but it's at the end that's the kind of kind of section that often comes at the beginning of the piece as an introduction the first

[05:04]

hour or so, my intention is just to blow four pieces of the traditional shakuhachi music, or classical solo pieces for shakuhachi, which in Japanese are called honkyoku. The meaning of Honkyoko literally is pieces of the book. It refers to the first book in which, for the first time in the 18th century, this music was written down in any form. It was collected and written down by a monk by the name of Kinko Kurosawa. And he collected, he went around to various temples where Shakuhachi was part of the Zen practice of a small sect called the Phuket Zen sect.

[06:22]

And he collected some of the pieces at these temples and then wrote them down. perhaps around the middle of the 18th century. Before that time, all these pieces were just learned by heart and by oral tradition, teacher to student. There are many similarities between the various pieces. On the other hand, some of them have unique characteristics not found in any of the other pieces. So I'll try to select a few pieces here which demonstrate somewhat the variety of this music. The first piece

[07:27]

would be Yamato Choshi. Yamato refers to the spirit of Japan. It's the oldest name, one of the oldest names for Japan, Yamato. The Yamato plain on the island of Honshu. And Choshi means warming up. So maybe warming up the Japanese spirit, Japanese saying, Nihon no kokoro, Japanese heart. So, Yamato Choji. the the

[08:46]

Oh, I'm Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Next piece is called in Japanese, Tsuruno Sugomori.

[11:54]

And Sugomori may be translated as, the usual translation of this is the nesting cranes. But I don't know if you've ever seen any films of the cranes, particularly the Japanese cranes. And during the mating and the dance, courtship, and then the kind of cries that they give. There's a beautiful kind of ballet dance that the cranes do, jumping into the air, and then arching their necks backwards and giving out these cries. It's very beautiful. Japanese cranes are perhaps the most beautiful of all surviving cranes in the world. So, Tsuru is the Japanese name for these particular cranes. And the crane is symbolic in China and Japan of longevity, eternal life, eternal love.

[13:11]

And so During, at traditional Japanese weddings, the woman's kimono, wedding kimono, always has the cranes pattern on the kimono. It's to, as a celebration of long life, long marriage, long love, happiness. So this bird is revered greatly. throughout Japan. Maybe not as much where they actually live because they get in the farmer's way of planting and harvesting, but partly that's because the area where these cranes live is being encroached upon and becoming smaller and smaller. They're still landing where they used to nest. They don't care if it's a rice field or not.

[14:15]

That's their home. They keep coming back. They're beautiful birds. So this piece also is the piece which was, probably not all of it, but as you can see it'll be about, I don't know, well, it'll be about 18 minutes long duration. One of the longer pieces. And, but it was recorded on one of the Voyager satellites. It's I think headed out towards Neptune somewhere now. And one of those gold disks, is this recording of shakuhachi along with Bach and other music, other sounds, and probably an abbreviated version of this nesting cranes.

[15:17]

Sura no Sugamori. Aum. Aum. ♪♪♪

[16:28]

Hey! [...] AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[18:04]

uh uh ♪

[19:48]

Oh, you

[21:19]

ah ah uh uh Hey.

[22:56]

so uh uh ah ah

[25:43]

♪ I ah ah

[27:27]

uh uh Hey. uh uh

[29:23]

oh oh you oh

[30:53]

["Taps"] ah Those are the program notes.

[32:53]

It says Kyushu, next piece, Kyushu Reibo. Kyushu is one of the four main islands in Japan. Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. And Reibo, rei is the small handle used in some practice. and also used when there is a combined ceremony with shakuhachi and chanting at a temple. The bell sound, not this one, but small hand bell, will be used as a signal for when the shakuhachi people how to start and when to stop.

[33:57]

But it has a long history in terms of Shakuhachi's significance, going back even to China to stories of a Zen teacher named Fuke, for which the Fuke Zen sect was named after. He was a contemporary of Rinzai, a good friend. a Rinzai, kind of an eccentric fellow. He used to have this poem, he used to go around town delivering, and then after he'd ring the little bell. And so people throughout the years got very accustomed to this poem and ringing of the bell. So from that time in Shakuhachi tradition, the bell has, the bell sound has become symbolic of enlightenment, clarity, the bell sound.

[35:14]

Bo means, bo means yearning for. yearning after the ray, the clear sound of the bells, or perhaps, say, the deep desire and dedication towards practice for enlightenment. The pieces which have a rainbow as part of their title are, for me, some of the most interesting pieces in this repertoire. They usually, in all of the Raybould pieces, there's something different, unique about the particular piece. And there's often surprises. The Raybould pieces don't follow regular patterns. They don't, but often have abrupt ...perhaps changes or disjunctions and... ...Van and I were talking about that this morning, about how... ...symbolic of that... ...there can... ...there is no... ...regular... ...cause sequence of cause and effect... ...which leads one from, let's say, normal consciousness to enlightenment.

[36:45]

that in terms of normal consciousness, which is based on thought, enlightenment is a disjunction. I remember one of my teachers, Hisamatsu, said he compared enlightenment to a circle. And he said the problem is how to achieve the perfection of the circle. And he said the usual attempt, and he said specifically today in our age the scientific technological attempt is to go from the center by increasing the angles and the numbers of sides. you see, from within the circle trying to expand outwardly ever increasing number of sides and angles to approximate, you see. But no matter how many times you divide the angles and increase the sides, you never reach perfection of the circle, you see. It always remains as a limit.

[37:48]

And so he said we have to jump out of the center into the circle, you see. So there is a Then from the perfection of the circle we can understand all the polygons that it may contain. But from the standpoint of sequential development we cannot attain enlightenment. So the rainbow pieces, some more than others, particular piece, Kyushu Reibo, is not as disjunctive as perhaps some others. And it may not be a dramatic change. I'm not saying it's dramatic. It may be just small changes in phrasing that kind of throw us off from the usual patterns in the phrases.

[38:52]

With that tableau, Kyushu Reibo. uh [...]

[40:53]

you Hi.

[43:04]

♪ I love you!

[44:46]

Yeah! Shakuachi, the key of D. Shakuachi, the key of D, and it's about approximately 1, 1 foot 8 inches.

[46:29]

There are other lengths of bamboo. The term shakuhachi, although it refers specifically to the length of the shakuhachi which I was playing before, the standard shakuhachi, but the term shaku is sort of like one means one foot. It comes from a Chinese formula of measurement. and shaku is part of one foot and then it's a... the full name would be ichi shaku ha-sun, ha meaning eight, sun sort of like an inch, so one shaku eight sun, but then the name is shortened just to shaku hachi, hachi means eight. But the term is generically used to refer to all sizes, how big, how wide, how long. This is called in Japanese, a ni-shaku-san-zun. Ni-shaku-san-zun.

[47:33]

More than two feet. Two and a half feet, exactly. I've never measured it. And of course, the longer the flute, the wider the flute, the deeper the tone. more air it takes to vibrate the air column inside. So it's another way of deepening the breathing practice. First piece is called Choshi, which means warming up. Second. Number six doesn't forgot the title. It's all right. You notice that?

[48:34]

I'll mention it. uh uh ♪♪

[49:59]

howl [...] oh Oh. Aum

[51:26]

It's called Algae Khan. See, it says here. It refers to the first human sound, ah. And the first letter in the Sanskrit alphabet, ah. So it also can be the universal source or formless self, sunyata, emptiness. There is a practice, a chanting practice at Mount Koyo-san. Koyo-san being one of the most sacred mountains in Japan. And they have a special hall up there for the practice of a particular chant called Haji-kan, which is considered very

[53:15]

special and I understand that only practicing monks can enter into this practice. Others are not allowed to go in. This is a Honkyoku piece called Adhikan and is considered one of the five perhaps most important pieces in the Honkyoku repertoire. ♪♪♪

[54:29]

I love you. uh uh uh um

[55:53]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Om. Om. Om. uh [...]

[57:14]

I love you. um oh oh

[58:46]

I'm uh uh oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[60:14]

um um uh uh uh Aum Aum Aum

[61:47]

I love you. uh [...] This bamboo in Japanese is called Take.

[64:03]

Often Shakuhachis refer to it as Take bamboo. This Take is about San Shaku, about three feet. I call it my dragon flute. It was made by a friend of mine and carved a dragon in the base. I don't think you can see it well there, It has the eye, the curtain. And it's a... The quality of shakrachi depends on the bamboo and of course the craftsmanship that goes into making it. You have to, the grade, different grades of shakrachi, about three main grades, are determined by the basic quality of the bamboo. It has to be of a certain density, not too hard, not too soft, and resilient, and have a resonant quality to it.

[65:07]

So it's, you find maybe one out of a hundred pieces that are cut will be, make a good shakrachi. For a really good shot watch, maybe one out of a thousand you'd find that has just the right qualities to have a well-balanced flute. This one is interesting because a friend, when he made it, didn't do very much to it inside, left it kind of rough-hewn inside, much like the pillars here. not refined, yet elegant. And so some of the membranes or septums are still left inside and then just lacquered it very lightly. So it came out quite well. Surprised him. Sometimes making one this large, it's hard to even get it to blow or

[66:14]

or trying to get it in tune is sometimes very difficult. But this one, you can see the holes are not too irregular in terms of the spacing. Quite fortunate. But still, the distance apart requires a different fingering technique. We have to use, instead of the tip of the fingers, have to use the upper part of the finger for some of the blowing. and get them some nice taunts and... Getting started, that's done. So this piece I just call Sui Zen, which means Blowing Zen, and it's based on Honkyoku, but it allows for more improvisation, which when you go to the long shakuhachi like this,

[67:32]

Improvisation is good because then you just get into blowing tones. Don't worry about particularly how they come together. Come out. Just get into the blowing. To me, a big shakuhachi like this is like a basketball, the medicine ball, the big heavy ball. You throw that around and it's real heavy. Then when you grab a regular shakuhachi, you feel like you can throw it clear across the court. After blowing this, pick up the smaller shakalachis and feel like you're going to make them explode. So of course, sweet. Sweet, yeah. OM OM Om.

[69:01]

Om. a [...] Oh, I love you I love you

[70:30]

Aum. [...] I'm. um um

[71:53]

so so The last piece which I've chosen is called Tso Makotsia. Tso Makotsia.

[73:24]

This piece was uh... has been added to the repertoire in about the last seventy years it was discovered in an ancient manuscript and was uh... then transcribed for present-day Shakuhachi and uh... it was quite a discovery because apparently was blown by Shotoko Daishi. The type of shakuhachi which existed at that time is quite different from present-day shakuhachi. It's much thinner bamboo. And when you have thin bamboo, then the mouthpiece cannot be cut on as thick of a diagonal.

[74:27]

That means that it limits the amount of pitch variability which can be produced. And as a result, the playing style of that time must have been much more, in a sense, subdued than what we can do today. I've chosen this piece of bamboo to blow it. It's a very rustic shakuhachi, one piece, solid one piece, and again rough hewn inside, and very lightly coated with lacquer so that it retains more of the bamboo sound. Whereas some of the others, they are more lacquered and produces a different quality of sound. This one in Japanese is called ni-shaku, two shaku in length.

[75:32]

ah ah ♪ I'm.

[78:06]

uh Oh, uh uh

[79:31]

oh oh uh uh oh

[81:49]

Hey, hey. Oh, the the the

[83:35]

uh uh If you have any questions you'd like to ask, feel free.

[85:40]

Glad to respond. For two sounds. That may take a month. May take two months. It may take one day. It varies. Then, when a person can blow both octaves, then the lessons with the music begin. So, this is interesting because you're not expected to be an accomplished blower before you start the music. As soon as you can blow the notes of two octaves.

[86:43]

Because the emphasis is not placed on how well you blow. It's not important. Just the blowing alone in itself is what's important. In a sense the music or the sound is merely a guide to get us into the blowing. and a particular kind of breathing. I think of the music in a sense as it's composed in terms of breath phrases. And so the breath phrases create a kind of a breathing yoga. The purpose of which is to increase our capacity to exhale. blow out more of the residual air that's left in the lungs, usually. So, it starts, as soon as you can blow it through active, you start to feel it with your knees.

[87:52]

And then it goes just from one piece to another piece. You don't dwell on one piece. You don't dwell on one phrase. You don't dwell on one note. keep the flow, the flowing movement is important. You go from one piece to another piece. And usually without any reviews, you don't review anything. See, it's a different concept. You're not blowing music. You're not playing music. You're blowing shakuhachi. But what happens is that as one blows more and more and more the blowing gets stronger and with that increased strength in blowing comes greater control of the sound or getting more deeply involved with the nuances of the phrases and the breathing that goes along.

[89:00]

So then eventually what happens is that the pieces, there are similarities in phrases. So one begins to learn how to play certain notes in conjunction with each other. And this represents a common structure throughout all the pieces. Then within each piece there might be some perhaps variations of that standard structure. I feel that I studied in Japan two, about two, almost two and a half years, and went through majority of the pieces in this edition. There are different editions of the Honkyoku music depending on what teacher you study with. This particular edition is And we went through most, it was about 70 pieces in the entire repertoire of this edition.

[90:13]

And we went through most of the 70 pieces. And then at the end of that two and a half years, we concentrated only on this music. That's not the usual experience. The usual experience in Japan is you study, first, a different kind of music. Music which goes with Koto and Shamisen. you know, in that manner. I was fortunate that, in studying with Sato, he asked me from the beginning what I wanted to do, and I said I wanted to study home care. And considering, at that time, I didn't know how long I'd be able to stay in Japan, and there was a certain limit.

[91:18]

I was on a scholarship, and I stayed for just two years on the scholarship. through my studies in this one. So I had to leave and come back to California for one year, and then I managed to go back to study The first time we studied it or whether this was something he was added.

[92:18]

@Text_v004
@Score_JH