Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Hi Hans.

The ji-nashi and ji-nuri flutes requires very different breathing techniques, as you have notied. The main difference is that because the ji-nashi is not smooth inside as the ji-nuri, the breath may hit nodes, return  or make different patterns along the way down the flute. The breath blown through a ji-nuri just goes through the flute without any hindrance just as if it was going though a metal flute.

It is therefore important to be using a softer breathing techniques when playing ji-nashi. The kind of strong breath that would be desireable when playing ji-nuri does not work here. It will hit the nodes too hard and in fact less sound can be heard. You can play with a strong breath on ji-nashi, of course, but it is still a very different technique - I find.

There is also a big difference between the two, that the ji-nashi mouthpiece is usually shallower than ji-nuri flutes' mouthpieces. This to me made it even harder to switch between ji-nashi and ji-nuri (or between ji-nashi and Western flute) than the difference in the bore. The embouchure required for a ji-nashi flute with a shallow mouthpiece is much more relaxed than the embouchure required for a ji-nuri.

All this may have changed now though because many ji-nuri makers are making ji-nashi shakuhachi and some create ji-nashi with a deep cut mouthpiece, not much nodes left and also the hole at the bottom end of the shakuhachi are now often made big now. These ji-nashi requires a different brething techniques than ji-nashi played by monks during the Edo period. So, it also depends on how your ji-nashi shakuhachi has been made.

So, finally to come to your question about how to deal with the change between the two flutes.
I can't give you much of a advice than: Just keep on playing the two flutes and try to switch between them as much as possible. At some point you will get so used to that switch that your body will remember automatically how to blow into the particular instrument resting at your lips.
I had the same thing when I began playing ji-nashi shakuhachi. I had been doing my entrance exam preparations for the conservatory in Copenhagen on flute, and found it very frustrating when I couldn't play the flute after playing ji-nashi. Today I can switch between ji-nashi, flute and ji-nuri without any problems. My body automatically knows how to blow.

So, all this for saying: keep on blowing! Both of them!

Kiku x

Hi Kiku,

thank you very much for your advice, gives me more confidence
I am already getting used to switching the flutes, and getting more trust that it is possible to learn to play both flutes
it seems indeed if the body automatically remembers what flute you are playing
I must say that playing ji-nashi flutes feels much more relaxed and less tensed then playing ji-ari instruments
the problem at the moments is not the ji-nashi flutes, but the tension required for the ji-ari ones, but as I hear from many people that they learned  it, there is still hope

thanks a lot

Hans

I think that may be part of the feeling too indeed
but I have a ji-ari 2.5 too, but its bore is thinner and so it blows much more like a common 1.8 as the 2.5 kyotaku
On the ji-ari I have to keep my lips more tensed and use more facial muscles to blow
on kyotaku it feels as if I don't have to tense at all, just relax and let go
though the sound is much softer on kyotaku as on 2.5 ji-ari
I cannot play very loud on it
the sound is soft and warm

one day I al gona try some other big ji-nashi flutes to feel how they blow