Update 2: Meeting with Shamisen and Biwa
November 18, 1999
It's already November and I have settled down nicely into my life in Japan.
It's persimmon (kaki) season again and leaves in the mountains are starting
to blaze up with yellows and reds. It's a wonderful feeling to see the
change in the seasons.
Last week I met a shamisen player named Makoto Nishimura. For those of you
who don't know what a shamisen is, it is a three-stringed square banjo-like
instrument made of wood and animal hide, used in playing a particular genre
of Japanese music called "nagauta" often times with koto (Japanese
horizontal zither), shakuhachi, and voice. It originally developed as
accompaniment to the Japanese theatre dance of Kabuki and subsequently was
used in Noh theatre, folk dance, as well as bunraku (puppet theatre).
Makoto-san is the long time student of shamisen master, Hiroaki Kikuoka, who
is a major force in the development of concert nagauta. I was moved by her
story of poverty and a dissillusioned marriage and rebelling against the
structure of the Japanese traditional music system by focusing on passing
the art down to foreigners, passing up a professional career for a mundane
9-5 job as a sterilizer of medical instruments in a hospital while raising
two children on her own. I met her for the first time last week and we
played together for a small bit, the piece, "Kuro Kami" or "Black Hair" to
get a feeling for each other. Actually I followed along improvising as she
sang beautifully and played her shamisen since I didn't memorize the piece.
I was also surprised to find out she is also well versed in the "tsuzumi"
and shime daiko drums, as well as the horizontal bamboo flute (fue).
This December we plan to play a show together in Tokyo with a koto player
and biwa player and perhaps a butoh dancer.
This past weekend I also met Furuya Kazuko, a story teller and biwa player.
We originally met while I was in Vancouver a few years ago, through my
mentor Takeo Yamashiro. The biwa is another stringed traditional Japanese
instrument made of rosewood and boxwood. It is very similar to the Chinese
pipa, but with less strings. No doubt they are related. It has its origins
in the ancient middle east with the Arabic, lute called the al-'ud.
Crusaders in the dark ages took it and made the English lute. But earlier,
it made its way to Japan via the silk route and China. In the Japan of old,
the biwa was a favorite instrument of Heian era (700-1200 ca.) aristocrats
who sang about love and nature. It was often played in duet with the koto.
Later, the biwa was also used by samurai warriors of the Satsuma clan in
southern Kyushu as a tool to develop mental concentration and perseverance.
Wandering priest-musicians also used it as accompaniment to intoning sutras.
It has a special buzzy effect which comes from the high and wide bridges
which the strings are suspended from. This beautiful sound is called
"sawari" and is very similar to the and sitar south Indian vina. The bloody
sea battle of Dan No Ura closed the Heian era and ballads of legends of
fallen warriors and tragic suicides changed the biwa into the deep and
brooding solo instrument it is know as today. There is a strong similarity
with how the shakuhachi was used, but at that time I believe the shakuhachi
had gone underground. It wasn't until the Edo period (1600~1870) that the
shakuhachi emerged again and was used as a tool to aid in the process of
enlightenment through playing the honkyoku (original solo pieces) as the
wandering beggar monks known as Komuso travelled the countryside. Shakuhachi
solo pieces tended to have a minor, dark flavor, and used particular blowing
techniques such as "muraiki", to imitate the fierce, howling wind. I wonder
if this dark, lonely, intense feeling is connected to all the death and
bloodshed that happened in the past. I love the sound of the biwa. It is my
favorite instrument next to the shakuhachi. Kazuko studied biwa with the
national treasure, Tsuruta Kinshi who, sadly, passed away this year.
Interestingly enough, Kinshi-sensei is connected to Yokoyama Katsuya in that
they played together on the ground-breaking piece, November Steps, composed
by Takemitsu Toru in the 60's. This piece was the first contemporary
orchestral piece composed for traditional Japanese instruments (shakuhachi
and biwa). Kazuko also studied traditional story telling, called "Katari",
which literally means "narration", with a master storyteller of Noh
theatre, Hideo Kanze, as well as taiko drumming.
We spent the day together then I accompanied her to her evening reading
(without biwa) at her artist friend's dwelling: an old thatched-roofed
Japanese farm house in the outskirts of Yokohama. The atmosphere was very
appropriate as she was bathed in shadows; the soft brown candle light
glowing off dilapidated washi paper sliding doors as the audience sat on old
tatami mats, kerosene stoves keeping the space warm and comfortable.
Contrasted with the traditional Japanese setting was her story which was an
old Austrian myth about wolves. Mind you, I hardly understood a word since
it was all in poetic Japanese, but her expression was wonderful and
beautifully theatrical, almost as if she were singing and telling a poem.
She
captivated the audience for 2 full hours. I couldn't stay for the cozy party
afterwards since Yokohama to my apartment in Asaka is 3 hours by train, so I
had to leave early.
Japanese are sometimes accused of lacking emotion and generally outward
emotional expression is discouraged. But ironically, strong emotion is a
major way of persuading and influencing Japanese people. And in traditional
arts sensitivity is preferred over analysis and understanding of your art
and instrument with the "kokoro" (heart-mind) is the rule. But in order to
be a balanced player development of technique is also essential. In the 1994
International Shakuahachi Festival in Bisei, Okayama, Japan, shakuhachi
master, Iwamoto Yoshikazu said, "...practice 8 or more hours a day, even if
it means
keeping your neighbours up at night!"
That's all for now. I'll write again later.
Al
Asaka Shakuhachi Circle
Alcvin Ramos (Shakuhachi)
2-2-18 Dream Palace #201
Asaka-shi, Nishibenzai
Saitama-ken, Japan T351-0021
Phone: 048-451-0414
Kita-Asaka Kominkan (Shakuhachi Dojo): 048-473-0558
Office: 03-3486-7667
(Outside Japan first dial 001-81 then delete first 0)
Email: komuchiku@hotmail.com
"There is something deeper if you would go deeper,
if you go to the source of where the music is being
made, you'll find something more interesting. At the
source, everyone's individual music is made. If you
ask what that deep place is, it's your own life and
it's knowing your own life, that own way that you
live."
Watazumi-do Shuso
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