Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Daniel wrote a good article on the subject. Doesn't give current figures, but from 2002 so still quite up to date. One source for that is here:
http://www.shakuhachi.com/K-Ribble-OSP.html

Could also check Riley's thesis for relevant info:
http://www.rileylee.net/Thesis14Mar06%2 … tents.html

Some info on the schools:
http://www.komuso.com/schools/

There are different repertoires. From the Edo period we have honkyoku and sankyoku. Then there is minyou, Tozan, Shinkyoku, Gendaikyoku, Enka etc. For honkyoku there is Fuke-shu (Fuke-Zen sect) honkyoku and non-Fuke honkyoku. Non-Fuke is for example Tozan and Ueda. Usually when you hear the term honkyoku we mean Fuke-shu honkyoku. Nowadays the most popular repertoire is Kinko, then there are other repertoires of Nezasa-ha, Meian Shimpo-ryu and Seien-ryu which come from the Edo period, and then repertoires which are collections of honkyoku from across Japan, collected and sometimes arranged, after the Edo period, by people such as Higuchi Taizan (who formed Meian Taizan-ha), Watazumi (received into Yokoyma Katsuya's school Chikushinkai), Takahashi Kuzan (perhaps the largest repertoire?), Jin Nyodo, Okamoto Chikugai and so on. So many repertoires passed down to the present overlap, or have the same pieces at different stages of transformation. (By the way Meian and Myoan are the same in case you get confused (same kanji, some people say it one way some the other)).

As for gakki or hoki, generally speaking my impression is the players here in Japan who don't play honkyoku regard it as gakki, and then many of the honkyoku players also regard it as gakki too. (Gakki = musical instrument for those not familiar with the term, whereas hoki = religious tool).

But some honkyoku players do have deep Zen associations with playing honkyoku. That is not all. Of course they all know it is connected to Zen, but some people have no or little interest in that side. However, many people do have interest. I have met many players (some of whom may only play honkyoku but some of whom may play both honkyoku and other genres) who hold Buddhism in high regard, some of whom are passionate about it. Some of those people regard their honkyoku practice as a kind of spiritual training. Each step here we are getting progressively fewer people. And even for these people, I am not sure whether they actually refer to their shakuhachi as hoki or gakki, though for them if you said hoki I expect they would understand. I have never asked them directly. In conversation we just say "shakuhachi" or "take" or refer to them by length.