Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Hi mike - for information on films imdb is great:
http://www.imdb.com/SearchSongs?for=Kat … &Go=Go
Note varied spelling of shakuhachi for doing other searches.

Cheers

Lorka wrote:

Baraka has some honkyoku in it.  In fact, the movie opens with Honshirabe I think.  I can't remember who plays though.  I know it's not Yokoyama, but whoever it is, they did a nice job I thought.   If you have not watched this movie, then you really should see it.  The whole thing is pure visual poetry put to music.

That's Miyata playing Honshirabe from his classic Nonesuch album...but with additions from soundtrack composer Michaels Stearns.

Mike Raftery wrote:

What I was interested in was a complete piece of honkyoku perfomed by Yokoyama in a film, or it could be just a short clip covering the length of the piece of music, but in a visual media?  Maybe he did scores to Japanese films?

I have not heard of or heard such a thing by Yokoyama-sensei. Googlin' doesn't produce any joy either.

I often have visual imagery when engaged in listening to honkyoku, that's why I was wondering if any of this music has ever been married to a movie--surprised that none of it is.  Barata is a real mixed bag, the pieces being arrangements and the shakuhachi just another instrument, except for the opening piece, which I didn't even see listed on the CD for sale on Amazon.   I think it would be a beautiful experience to hear some of these classical pieces, without additions--just wooden-bamboo--played to a film of nature, or it could even be a dramatic scene in a movie that is well written.  O well.

Although it is not Yokoyama, I am pretty there is some shakuhachi music in Andrei Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice.
If I remember correctly it is actually Watazumido Doso playing Daibosatsu among other pieces – it is in a scene when the main character, Alexander, puts on some music in his house, it is quite subtle but I would like to think Tarkovsky chose it with great care. That scene is somewhere in the later part of the movie or so.

Yes Mike, they are not complete pieces, extracts rather, but nevertheless the pieces are quite prominent given the placing within the overall narrative and that whole shakuhachi/nature/harmony aspect they represent.
In any case, I thought I better have a quick skip through The Sacrifice tape to make sure, I am not imagining it all, so here it goes:

47' - 50'  Shingetsu
109' - 113'  Nezasa No Shirabe
130' - 131' Daibosatsu

Though, of course rather watch the whole film, ideally in the cinema.

If interested,

the proper reference:
http://people.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nos … track.html

More about Tarkovsky and Japan:
http://people.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nos … html#JAPAN

The album notes from the Watazumi recording state:

8. Dai Bosatsu

Dai Bosatsu is a piece in which one's entire body and entire soul become one with the natural bamboo to produce a reverberant flow. It was created by Watazumi when he passed 20 years of age.

The foundation of Dai Bosatsu lies in the concrete manifestation of Watazumi's Way of Nature. It elicits an atmosphere of music which breaks down ideas of music itself. Because if requires that one's entire originality be brought to bear in the performance, it is the most difficult of all songs to master, and only one transmission may be made in a lifetime.

In order to accomplish the spiritual training of Dai Bosatsu, first one must train with Reiho, then Saji. After these are mastered, one may take up the challenge of Dai Bosatsu, but up until now all those who have made such attempts have failed, and transmission of the piece has halted with Watazumi.

Watazumi searched long for a hocchiku that would be up to the task of playing Dai Bosatsu, and finally selected a 2.4 shaku hocchiku that looked to have enough power within it. During the playing of the piece, though, the bamboo failed despite Watazumi's urgings, and only a sliver of what Dai Bosatsu should be was able to be recorded here.
--------

Maybe Tarkovsky was aware of this description, given the moment of the film he chooses to use that piece, but who knows.

And Mike, living somewhere where you could hear Watazumi playing at night is pretty good stuff - but then do you think the name of the piece is connected to that place with the same name? What would be the actual english translation of 'Dai Bosatsu', do you know?  Thanks.

Watazumi was a pretty good player, but when he opened his mouth, a lot of hubrisitic, self-aggrandizing crap tended to come out, along with an occasional chunk of usable wisdom.

JUST SAYIN'

edosan wrote:

Watazumi was a pretty good player, but when he opened his mouth, a lot of hubrisitic, self-aggrandizing crap tended to come out, along with an occasional chunk of usable wisdom.

JUST SAYIN'

Yoshizawa Masakazu (Masa) told a story about when Watazumi visited Los Angeles Zen Center sometime in the late 1970s, early 80s. (????)

Watazumi had a very rigorous daily physical regimen which included running a couple of miles in the early morning. Watazumi liked to run in his underwear which amounted to a kind of g-string. He didn't seem to have a problem doing this in Japan. However a few residents around Normandie Ave in residential Los Angeles had a different reaction to a bald middle-aged Japanese man running up their street in his scant underwear, cheeks flapping in the wind.

Anyway, one particular morning, Masa got a phone call from the LAPD. They had a diminutive, bald, sweating Japanese gentleman wearing a thong sitting in their holding cell.  The man gave the officers Masakazu's home phone number. Masa drove out to bring him some clothes, bail him out and return him to the Zen Center.


Photo of Watazumi playing at the Los Angeles Zen Center. Visiting Roshi Robert Aiken can be seen in the upper left of the photo.