Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Harazda wrote:

Tairaku, the world of shakuhachi certainly contains a lot of opinions.  A friend of mine who's a leader in the Native American flute world once described the shakuhachi community as "always arguing and having fistfights over who's following the 'true' way."  He added that his Anasazi flutes are free from such entanglements; there are no laws, no rules.  Right about now, that world seems pretty appealing.

There is quite a lot of what you are talking about in the shakuhachi world. The fact that we are always dividing ourselves into schools such as "Kinko", "Tozan", "Myoan", "Dokyoku", "Yokoyama Dokyoku" "Chikuho", "Ueda" etc. proves that. Some of this is strictly because of the Japanese way of doing things, which is exclusive rather than inclusive. That every instrument and every ryu of every instrument has different notation shows that quite a lot of emphasis is placed on exclusion. I don't know enough about Japanese culture to understand why but it's observable. Many many times I have been told by Japanese sensel that a certain technique or articulation is "right" and the other ryu's is "wrong" or "bad".

Still this has produced a lot of great music and instruments.

We recently had a member quit the forum and he said exactly what you said, he's going back to the Native American flute world where everything is lovey-dovey. He said the people on this forum are nasty. I think we have vigorous debates about a lot of inconsequential stuff and important stuff too but it's cordial and respectful most of the time. People should not really express opinions in a public forum if they're not willing to have them challenged.

I've listened to the music of a lot of the forum members, pros and amateurs, and I like some of it and don't like some of it. But I respect all of it because I know from personal experience how difficult it is to make music on the shakuhachi. This by the way is in contrast to instruments like the Native American flute which is very easy to play.

Perry Yung had something great on his site recently, "Shakuhachi is a big house with many doors." Hopefully we aspire to this ideal on the forum.

There are plenty of flutes which are free of entanglements, with no laws or rules. Even other Japanese ones. I'll write about one in a separate post.

Zakarius wrote:

First of all, sorry to Pier for sidetracking your post... As for those of you who responded to my comments, thanks for your suggestions. Unfortunately, I haven't met anyone in Taiwan who plays honkyoku shakuhachi, let alone teaches. <shrugs>

Zakarius

No problem