Hello All,
Stav asked "and how many accomplished
shakuhachi players are there in Japan right now?",
and Jeff Cairns gave some interesting information
regarding Kyushu. I've been playing shakuhachi the
last sixteen years in Kochi, Japan, on the island of
Shikoku and can give some information about the Kochi
prefecture sankyoku kyokai (organization of koto,
shamisen, and shakuhachi players). About a decade ago
there were perhaps 300 members of this group, maybe
about two-fifths of whom are shakuhachi players, but
now there are only a little over a hundred members of
the organization, so obviously there has been
something of a drop in shakuhachi players here in the
official organization, though some of the members have
split off from the official groups and created their
own groups, and the koto and shamisen players I
usually play with are not in the "official" group.
Also, to be a member of the organization, one must
already have a junshihan or shihan license granted by
a recognized organization so there are plenty of other
players who don't yet have a license, aren't
interested in going the license route (which, like any
other traditional art in Japan is expensive, with
license fees, pay to play concerts etc.), or even if
they have one may not want to join the official
group. I know of about thirty licensed Kinko ryu
players in town and we are far outnumbered by Tozan
players. There seems to be a slight upswing in young
players of college age over the last couple of years;
three colleges in the city here have Japanese
traditional music clubs, and at one of the college
clubs women players of the shakuhachi predominate,
though I would estimate the number of university
student players of shakuhachi in the prefecture as
being only twenty or so (at four universities).
For some statistics, which I believe come from an
article in Hogaku Journal (the main journal of
traditional Japanese music) four or five years
ago?...unfortunately, the copy I have doesn't list the
source or how the survey was taken....I'm going to try
to track it in back issues of Hogaku Journal (written
in Japanese, which unfortunately I have never learned
to read with any degree of proficiency), according to
the article, entitled Koten Kei Shakuhachi Suitei
Jinko to Seiryoku Bunpuzu (roughly translated as an
estimation of traditional or classical shakuhachi
population according to the influence of the different
schools), the population of shakuhachi players in
Japan is given as 27,700 people. This figure is
divided according to region, with Kyushu/Shikoku
listed as having 3800 players, and Kanto area as
having 7900, for example. The article further divides
each population block into Kinko, Tozan, and other
schools, the only school other than Tozan or Kinko
which is actually named is Ueda ryu, which was
originally a split off from Tozan. In all areas of
Japan except for Kanto, the Tozan school appears to
predominate. Some comparisons in terms of the
population of groups in different areas of Japan:
Kanto area (Tokyo)
Kinko Players 54%
Tozan Players 42%
Other 4%
Hokkaido/Tohoku
Tozan 63%
Kinko 30%
Other 7%
Hokuriku/Chubu (Nagoya, Shizuoka...)
Tozan 65%
Kinko 29%
Other 6%
Kinki (Osaka/Kobe, Kyoto)
Tozan 69%
Kinko 13%
Ueda 11%
Other 7%
Chugoku (Hiroshima, Okayama)
Tozan 77%
Ueda 10%
Kinko 9%
Other 4%
Kyushu/Shikoku
Tozan 75%
Kinko 14%
Other 6%
Ueda 5%
This is probably more than most people ever wanted to
know but .... I think there may be a decline of
interest in studying the shakuhachi via the
traditional licensing route in particular among the
young, but something of an increase in interest in the
shakuhachi among younger people here in Japan over the
last few years. Now more people take lessons at
university or at a music school.
The Japanese teachers of shakuhachi who travel abroad
to teach foreigners who want to learn are in the
minority and are a very dedicated bunch of people. I
would second Jeff Cairns' recommendations on
attending camps and festivals which bring foreign and
Japanese players together. Last weekend I was able to
attend the annual spring workshop in Bisei-cho with
Kakizakai, Furuya, Ishikawa, and Yokoyama senseis,
which was an excellent learning experience and lots of
fun as well. We got a day of continual snow, unusual
at this time and it was freezing in that wooden old
school building, though I do like the atmosphere of
the place. The teachers were all Kinko players but
of those attending, a little over a third were Tozan
players, who in most cases came to learn the komuso
era honkyoku pieces which their school does not
teach. The one other non-Japanese present at the three
day camp of about twenty-five people (where we studied
Koden Sugomor, Shika No Tone, and a Fukuda Rando three
part piece) was a woman player from Trier, Germany.
There were four young players of college age who
worked as volunteers at the camp; of the four, the one
young woman player was interested in trying to make a
career as a shakuhachi professional and has an
audition for a music school this week....the tree of
shakuhachi is still sprouting new branches here in
Japan....
Happy Blowing,
Dan Ribble
P.S. I won't have access to a computer the next week
or so....will try to get around to looking at this
thread then if by any chance it continues...
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