tradition

From: Peter (shakahuna@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Jan 11 2002 - 10:45:42 PST


My comments about Japanese people's reaction to shakuhachi were meant
more as a lament than a criticism, though I do feel somewhat annoyed
sometimes at the reaction I've gotten. A couple of stories that stand
out: last year I was playing a piece for another foreigner, when a
Japanese resident of the gaijin house I was staying in walked in and
started talking to her. I kept playing, though she couldn't hear the
music at all, then he walked out, and came back a minute later
with--you guessed it--a camera. So not only had he not listened, but
he'd interupted my playing. But he had to have the photo. I nearly
demonstrated the other use of a nobetake on his camera, but instead
gave him the "listen don't photograph" lecture. Another guy there made
a big point of teaching some recent--male--arrivals, who were asking me
about shakuhachi, the other (presumably more important meaning) of "to
play shakuhachi." Now, when I tell a classroom full of students why I'm
in Japan, I make sure to first say that I'm studying Japanese music
before I specify which instrument--that keeps the titters down.
A number of years ago I found a room a stone's throw away from the gate
to Ginkakuji in Kyoto. It was a beautiful traditional-style room, I had
a nice view of a plum tree in the courtyard from my window, and I could
walk out my front door, past a few souvvenir shops, and be on the
Philosopher's Walk. But within a month I'd been kicked out because one
of the neighbors told my landlady she couldn't stand the sound of
shakuhachi and persuaded her to make me leave. I found this highly
ironic (again, maybe it was just my playing, but she did in fact say
she hated shakuhachi). When I told this to Kurahashi sensei he told me
that his father used to play on the back porch until past midnight in
the summer, and that sometimes when he stopped the neighbors would ask
him to keep playing, but that now he himself wasn't allowed to play
past 10 PM. So I think that there has been a definite change in
people's feelings about the music in the last few generations.
In August I took part in the annual Shinjin-O shakuhachi competition in
Tokyo. There were many young players taking part, and some of them were
very impressive players, so that was heartening. At the same time, out
of I believe 26 players, only a handful of us played honkyoku, myself
included. The others played Tozan pieces or arrangements of Western
pieces. I was also the only competitor to wear wafuku, a minor point
but of some interest.
I'd like these to just be observations, but as someone who's spent most
of the last 17 years of his life studying East Asian culture, and who
would love to see every McDonald's worldwide converted instantly to a
soba stand, I do feel rather sad about it.

Peter

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