Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

I'd like to offer a belated congratulations to Jeffrey 'Shodo' Cairns for putting together and hosting the Kumamoto Shakuhachi Festival 2010, which was a one day shakuhachi event held on February 14 in a large university music hall next to Kumamoto Castle. Throughout the day there were four workshops offered on Kinko ryu, Tozan ryu, Gendai kyoku, and Meian ryu, followed by an evening concert at Kumamoto's Sojo Daigaku Shimin Hall.  The workshops were taught by Tsurugi Kodo, a  Kinko master (and Jeff's sensei) from Kumamoto; Yamasaki Kozan, a Tozan master from Kitakyushu; Toyama Masahiro, a Kumamoto player of modern shakuhachi pieces and Hidefumi Izukawa, a composer/shakuhachi musician and PhD candidate at the Osaka University of Arts. 

The evening concert, entitled Hitotsu Iki, Koko Ni (In One Breath), featured the pieces Sanya, Kinuta Sugomori, Kangetsu, Kaze No Uta, Beyond, and Tamuke.  Instead of the usual mc introducing each piece, they were all connected by the theatrical device of an actor playing a retired komuso telling his three grandchildren the history behind the instrument he has been playing much of his life, starting with the semi-legendary account of Pukua, Fuke-shu's original inspiration, who is said to have rung a bell repeatedly while preaching his crazy wisdom, thus inspiring the fashioning of a bamboo flute by one of his disciples in order to imitate the sound of the ringing bell.  One of the highlights of the show was the piece 'Beyond,' a modern piece composed and orchestrated specifically for the event by Keiko Ueda and featuring five shakuhachi -- four 1.8 flutes and a 2.8 (played by four foreigners and one Japanese player) and an ensemble consisting of violin, viola, oboe, bassoon, French horn, tuba, standing bass, percussion, koto, and synthesizer.  The event was different from the usual hogaku event in Kyushu in being organized by a foreign resident of Japan and featuring guest shakuhachi players both foreign and Japanese from different parts of Japan in addition to musicians from the local area.  Kudos, Jeff.

Last edited by Daniel Ryudo (2010-02-24 20:48:31)