Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

I read with sadness today about Tom Deavers' s passing.  Being so new to shakuhachi I never met or spoke with him or held one of his flutes.  But, I still felt a personal connection to him because his Ichiyo Shakuhachi Manuals and CD transfers of the original cassette tapes have been my constant companion and instructor. 

Several things about Tom's manuals really stand out, especially the beautiful notation. Combined with perfectly executed recordings, played as written on a 1.8, are great for a new student trying to learn to read the notation. Maybe eventually someone will find a way to reprint those manuals or otherwise make them available.   

A couple of months ago I contacted Tom via email about getting original copies of these, since my photocopied ones were so great, I wanted to pay for actual copies.  Tom was a bit "old school" I think, and the way he recommended paying for the manuals and cassette tapes was physically mailing him the Yen.  Well, I had no idea how to go about doing that and was about to go into a month long retreat, so I let the matter drop hoping to follow up eventually...

The shakuhachi world has lost a bit of a legend with Tom's passing and my sympathies and warm wishes go out to those who knew him.