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Sorry for my very belated WSF '08 Festival review. I clipped it from my blog. For a more detailed one, with a few photos go to: http://www.bamboo-in.com/about-us/diary.htm
Having organized one small shakuhachi festival in Vancouver in 2003, I am totally in awe of what Riley, David, Christopher, and the other senseis have accomplished with WSF08!
My energy level going to Sydney was not at it's optimum and my skin was really bothering me as I have been a chronic sufferer of eczema for a long time. Combined with the jetlag, I was really feeling low. But I was still definitely excited about the Festival! The day before the Festival I busked at Circular Quay from 9-5 as an honor to my recently deceased aboriginal friend, and first didgeridoo teacher. I met a really friendly aborigine didge player busking at the Quay who actually knew him.
He told me what a terrible death he experienced from brain hemmorage due to excessive alcohol consumption. During his last days he was living on the streets and was in bad shape until he was taken away by the ambulance to the hospital where he passed away. He was only 40. What a terrible shame as he was a really talented being with many great opportunities handed to him on a silver platter. Truly a sad sad story. In that sense I hate alcohol and what it has done to the indiginous people of the world!!!!!! I pray for everyone to have protection from the seductive and destructive effects of this poison. I hesitate to mention his name as it is against Aboriginal custom to say the name of the deceased.
One of the first people I met in Sydney was Justin Senryu Williams who was also lodging at the Sydney Backpackers Hostel where I was staying. He is an exceptional young, player and maker who studied with various teachers (in playing and making) in Japan and UK. He actually won 3rd place in the S1-Grand Prix for his rendition of Tsuru no Sugomori. I played his flutes and was most impressed. He is definitely a maker to watch in the future.
Finally reaching the venue (Sydney Conservatorium of Music) was such a relief. Meeting many of my teachers and shakuhachi friends from Japan and abroad was such a great feeling! Too many to name! Also meeting many new friends was great too! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera on hand at all times so missed many photos I wished I had taken with everyone.
On the first day of registration, I met up with Yamaguchi Shugetsu who said he didn't have a place to stay and asked where I was staying and said he would like to stay there with me if there was any vacancies left. Later that day we went back to the hostel together and found a bed for him. Lucky for him (and me as well) because for the first few nights I was stuck in the most cowded and messy room of the place. Being very sensitive to cleanliness, it added more stress for me. So when Yamaguchi came they put him in an empty, very clean room and I just transfered over with him! Whew!
Basically, I spent most of my time helping Yamaguchi, as he brought tons of shakuhachi to sell. The shakuhachi vendors were set up at the second level of the Conservatorium. The first vendors to set up shop were Yamaguchi, John Kaizan Neptune, Masami Kurita, and later Justin Williams, Phil Horan, and Peter Hill. This was the most interesting place for me as everyone came to the shakuhachi tables to try play flutes. Man what missed great photo opportunities! Although I was helping Yamaguchi a lot, I did my best to help all of the vendors sell their flutes and it was definitely fun to try all of them! Consequently I didn't attend as many lectures and workshops as I wanted.
I was scheduled to play in one honkyoku presentation and to help the didgeridoo master, Matthew Doyle do a didge workshop. For my honkyoku, I played Neri Saji, a.k.a. Daibosatsu on a hocchiku that I made. I noticed that there were no players presenting hocchiku at the Festival so I felt a need to represent that. I was quite honored to be playing in the same line up as Mitsuhashi Kifu, Sakai Shodo, Komei Takemura, Ronnie Seldin, Elizabeth Reian Bennet. The didgeridoo workshop with Matthew Doyle went fine. I basically helped him carry the instruments into the classroom. Matthew talked about his experience as a cultural steward for Aboriginal culture through the performing arts particularly through dance and music. He gave some interesting information about the didgeridoo and let everyone have a try at playing. However, I would have liked to have concentrated more on the specifics of playing such as circular breathing and basic sound production.
I made it to some of the other workshops which were superb and fascinating. I went to the panel discussion of shakuhachi flute makers with John Neptune, Yamaguchi Shugetsu and Masami Kurita. John pretty much dominated the discussion as he brilliantly expounded on the esoterics of shakuhachi flute physics of sound production. Yamaguchi and Kurita-san also added a few words of wisdom from their experience.
Also went to the jinashi shakuhachi lecture/demo of Satoshi Shimura, John Singer, and Brian Ritchie which was totally fascinating. Great to listen to John's experience with kokan (antique) shakuhachi and their relevance in today's world. Also, Simura-san really going into depth about the difference between the jinashi and jiari experience. And of course to listen to the many interesting old flutes that Brian brought for us to hear and try.
I attended Miyata Kohachiro's lecture on the development of the 7-holed shakuhachi where he gave some very interesting information about playing techniques of the past. He also played a lovely version of "Shika no Tone" for shakuhachi and 17-stinged koto.
Kawase Junsuke sensei's lecture on shakuhachi and chi-kung was wonderful as well. He gave the same lecture back in 2004 in New York.
Also got great inspiration from Ichiro Seki's shakuhachi composition class.
All the performances and concerts were wonderful!!!!!
I skipped out on the farewell dinner due to my fatigue. But Yamaguchi gave me a full report when he got back to the room. The big news was that the next WSF 2012 will be in Kyoto!
See you there!
Alcvin
Last edited by Takegawa (2008-08-24 09:53:35)
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Takegawa wrote:
The day before the Festival I busked at Circular Quay from 9-5 as an honor to my recently deceased aboriginal friend, and first didgeridoo teacher. I met a really friendly aborigine didge player busking at the Quay who actually knew him.
He told me what a terrible death he experienced from brain hemmorage due to excessive alcohol consumption. During his last days he was living on the streets and was in bad shape until he was taken away by the ambulance to the hospital where he passed away. He was only 40. What a terrible shame as he was a really talented being with many great opportunities handed to him on a silver platter. Truly a sad sad story. In that sense I hate alcohol and what it has done to the indiginous people of the world!!!!!! I pray for everyone to have protection from the seductive and destructive effects of this poison. I hesitate to mention his name as it is against Aboriginal custom to say the name of the deceased.
My sincere sympathies and condolences for you.
I feel your friend has shared a great lesson with everyone who knew and loved him. A new level of awareness and appreciation for life. His sound will always be with you all. I pray with you. Peace, -kerry
Last edited by Kerry (2008-08-24 08:48:30)
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