Shakuhachi & clay

From: Aiko Ichimura (aikop@erols.com)
Date: Thu Feb 07 2002 - 08:19:40 PST


Hello all,

I am a new list member and dozo yoroshiku. I play koto little and love to
play music that has shakuhachi part.

Anyway, I have a friend who is a student of shakuhachi and also is a potter.
He and his shakuhachi teacher has been coroborating with his potter teacher
to create a shakuhachi out of clay. I thought he was joking. But he told me
recently that they have created a decent shakuhachi out of clay and used it
to play Haru no Umi in a concert. He said he would send a tape of the
concert. I thought about it. It's not so far fetched idea because another
instument like Ocalina? is made of clay..

He is very serious about perfecting the sound. So I suggested that he make
zigzag groving inside of shakuhachi just like sugiaya groving inside of a
koto to better the sound of the insturument. He thought that was an
excellent idea...does this sound<g> crazy to you all? The color and quality
of sound coming out of clay shakuhachi may be quite different sound..

The wonderful sound of bamboo shakuhachi could touch our heart so profoundly
more so than many other Japanese instruments - and that is because the
instrument is so closely placed with human lungs & mouth? Sometimes I feel I
am listening to human heart talking directly to me....

This, I experienced also similar thing when I heard wind instrument played
by American Indians & South American Ethnic music group's wind instrument
performances such as Inti Ilimani(?).
Thank you for reading my rambling.

Aiko in DC



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