Dear Shakuhachi list,
Released for a while
Studying the rudiments
Searching for truth
Living the Dream
Our excursion into the fascinating netherworld of shakuhachi
and bamboo in
Japan is just about over. I will be giving a very detailed
description of our amazing journey which I will post on my
website complete with beautiful photos soon. But now, I will
just briefly impart to you parts of the trip focussed on our
shakuhachi.
Participants:
Darren Stone (BC, Canada)
Ramona Taylor (BC, Canada)
Randall Anctil (BC,Canada)
Jane Kilthau (NY, USA)
Alcvin Ramos (BC, Canada)
First of all, the weather all over Japan was excellent and
glorious. Our first destination on Nov. 18, after one night
in Tokyo was lovely Matsumoto city in Nagano Prefecture
where we spent
the night at the superb Seifu-so Ryokan (Japanese Inn).
Highly recommended to all those visiting Matsumoto. That
night we saw a performance of the famous shakuhachi master
Miyata Kohachiro and a great koto group from Matsumoto led
by koto master
Kuniko Watanabe. The show was mainly featuring the koto and
they played all modern pieces. The venue was a posh high
tech concert hall called Harmony Hall. I was so tired that I
was dozed off for most of the show but the
sound of the heavenly koto comforted me like a warm blanket.
It was great to see Miyata playing so strong and
beautifully.
The next day we took a short train ride from Matsumoto
Station to the small village of Sakakita where we were to
harvest bamboo with the Zensabo group. It was an incredible
day as the temperature was a comfortable 16 degrees with a
cool breeze and sunny, cloudless sky. We drove about 20
minutes up into the hills and parked near a river bank. We
all checked out tools: saws, picks, and hammers, then in
single file, we all trekked up a hill several meters up
overgrown path into the dense foliage of pine, ginko, sage,
and bamboo. The bamboo
substabtially increased the higher we got and finally we
reached the top where the ground leveled off evenly. This
was where we started digging out our treasures. We spent
several hours immersed in bamboo samadhi. I offered sake and
dried squid to the kami-sama (deities) of bamboo and the
mountain. Each of us harvested about 5 pieces. We finished
around 5 PM when it started to get dark. Then spent the
night partying and playing shakuhachi all night.
The next morning I woke up at 4 AM and sat zazen in the
empty banquet hall then one of my friends, Igarashi-san
played shakuhachi while I sat and
listened to him till 6 AM. Our group was originally schduled
to go to Eiheiji Temple in Fukui Prefecture that morning but
I cancelled as we all agreed that we wanted to partake in
the
complete process of bamboo preparation (oiling and drying
bamboo over fires). This is called Abura Nuki. We started
this around 9 AM after a nice Japanese breakfast. We
finished around 12:30 PM then we all said our goodbyes to
everyone and headed to our next destination: Kyoto.
To be continued.....................
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