Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Shihan is 'Master' level license.

Dai Shihan is 'Grand Master' level license, which I believe is the highest rank for a performing shakuhachi player. There is at least one higher level pertaining to more venerable players/teachers who have made exceptional contributions to the shakuhachi community, sort of a 'lifetime achievement award. Don't recall the term for this, however.

Shihan does not apply exclusively to shakuhachi:


From Wikipedia: Shihan (師範) is a Japanese title, often used in budo. The word means teacher or model.

Its primary definition is "One who brings water," explaining where the title came from.

Various budo arts and organisations have different requirements for the usage of the title, but in general it is a high title that takes many years to achieve. It is sometimes associated with certain rights, such as the right to give out dan ranks in the name of the organisation.

Depending on the ryuha, the titles junshihan and shihan usually indicate that the person has gone through (I hesitate to use the term 'mastered') a certain repertoire of pieces to his teacher's satisfaction, but as Tairaku mentioned, it is rather subjective as each ryuha has different requirements, and even then one hears that in some cases people have paid a license fee and been granted the title of junshihan or shihan, even when they don't seem to have a minimum of mastery of the pieces involved.  Tozan ryu has a standardized test for shihan which is used throughout Japan; John Kaizan Neptune took that one; I think it may require reading staff notation as well as the traditional music notation and has listening and writing components in addition to the playing of the pieces; one could probably find out by looking at John Neptune's website.  The various branches of Kinko have different requirements but most require students to complete a certain repertoire of gaikyoku and honkyoku pieces.  My own particular branch of Kinko, Chikudosha, requires one to go through three levels for gaikyoku pieces, and the same three levels for honkyoku pieces: shoden, chuden, and okuden, before the shihan is awarded.  One can obtain the junshihan license after going through the first three levels of gaikyoku pieces, and as junshihan one is permitted to teach but cannot give rank.  In the gaikyoku shoden repertoire taught by our school there are over thirty pieces but if one is able to play about half of them then the sensei assumes you can do the others on your own and one can take that rank (after getting the sensei's approval, that of the iemoto, and paying the fee for the rank).  There are certain pieces, however, that must be played to the sensei's satisfaction in a recital in front of an audience, such as Rokudan No Shirabe, Chidori No Kyoku, Yugao etc.  Daishihan usually seems to be more of an honorary title given to a shihan by a very highly ranked teacher, often the head of a shakuhachi school; the person who receives daishihan has often done a lot for shakuhachi in terms of taking the shakuhachi music to a larger audience or teaching a large number of students, some of whom have gone on to become teachers themselves.

Last edited by Daniel Ryudo (2006-08-31 22:09:16)

Did a little digging; here is a pertinent excerpt from John Neptune's playing guide:

"The Tozan-ryu classifies students according to their level of playing ability. The first four are: (1) sho-den, beginning or initial,
(2) chu-den, middle, center, (3) oku-den, innermost, (4) kai-den, entire, all. These are awarded by the individual
teacher after the student has successfully played pieces of various levels of difficulty and has paid the necessary fees to the Tozan-ryu.

The length of time needed to complete these levels varies greatly; one year is average for each step. If the student is then ready, his teacher
will allow him to take the jun-shihan examination (jun, "next to, just below"; shihan, "master"), held at specific times and locations during
the year and administered by the leading mebers of the Tozan-ryu. The examination involves not only performance, but also mastery of
shakuhachi music theory, dictation, composition. and singing. If the student passes, he becomes a 'teacher', although at this point he would
not generally have his own students. He may, however, help his teacher with the instruction of beginning students.

The shihan (master or full-fledged instructor) examination cannot be attempted until three years after completing the jun-shihan. It
requires one to play selections from the most difficult repertoire of the Tozan-ryu. When this level is reached, a special stage name with
a "zan" suffix, from Tozan, is given to the new teacher. He is permitted to teach independently. There are two levels above shihan:
daishihan (dai, "great"), and chikurinken. These are honorific titles awarded by the Tozan-ryu without examination to perfomer/
instructors who are outstanding and  active in the Tozan-ryu."