Hello everyone,
Ronnie Nyogetsu Seldin gave a nice overview of the Tokyo shakuhachi
summit and I'd have to agree with the choice of his highlights; Yokoyama
Katsuya directing Tamuke, and breaking down in tears afterwards, and Aoki
Reibo's masterful performance of Oshusaji . Several other highlights of
the final day's concert for me were a very atmospheric performance of
Takemitsu Toru's piece Eclipse, composed for shakuhachi and biwa, the
shakuhachi part being performed by Kaoru Kakizakai sensei, and the
performance of another gendai kyoku entitled Kyochiku (literally, "crazy
bamboo") which blew me away, performed by Japanese master Teruhisa Fukuda.
I'd not heard it before but it may be a piece common to the shakuhachi
repertoire. I'd appreciate it if anyone could tell me anything about the
background of that piece or anything about the composer, Izumi Koji (my
reading of the kanji may be mistaken). In addition to the much welcomed
teaching on minyo, the enka party, and other different events Ronnie
mentioned, there was also a komuso room where various modern day komuso
talked about their life experiences as well as giving information and
answering questions on the komuso players of the past. A group of komuso
gave a rather surreal shakuhachi performance, wandering through one of the
halls, clad in their kesa (black clothing) and tengai (deep basket hats).
In addition to the workshops on honkyoku, gaikyoku, and gendai kyoku, which
have been a regular feature of past international festivals, several
shakuhachi players/makers, including John Kaizan Neptune, gave interesting
workshops dealing with shakuhachi making.
Concerning the foreigners present, I can remember speaking to twenty
other foreigners there so there must have been at least twenty-one in
attendance. The really impressive work that Ronnie attributes to the two
Australians and one French woman were performances by Andrew Macgregor, Jim
Franklin, and Veronique Piron. Andrew gave a brilliant rendition of the
koten honkyoku Sagariha in addition to playing two modern compositions. He
was one of the gracious hosts at the Australian Shakuhachi Festival held
this past February in Melbourne, also a very memorable event, has his own
shakuhachi dojo in that city, and is an accomplished player of the
shakuhachi, always with a beautiful tone to his flute. Jim Franklin is a
composer by profession and a master of shakuhachi who has done a lot of
work with the shakuhachi and electronic music. He taught several helpful
workshops on the shakuhachi and improvization at the recent shakuhachi
festival in Australia. Veronique is a professional flautist and very
talented shakuhachi player who has been studying the shakuhachi the last
several years in Tokyo with Furuya sensei, and who hopes to introduce the
instrument into the public schools in France (another great place to hold a
shakuhachi festival in the years to come!). All total, there seem to have
been five Australians, two German students of the shakuhachi -- both living
in Kyoto, the Frenchwoman Piron, a Danish/British woman -- the charming Ms.
Day, and one other British? shakuhachi maker and player, a long term
resident of Nagano, Bill, I believe was his name (forgive me if I'm wrong
about that) in addition to the larger American contingent present. Peter
Hill, the American player and winner of the 4th rookie of the year contest,
played the honkyoku piece Sanan in his performance for that contest. The
first kanji in Sanan means childbirth and I've heard that the piece was
originally a piece played by komuso monks as a prayer for a good delivery
of a child. There were many other excellent young players of shakuhachi in
that competition and most of them played their chosen pieces from memory.
The player who came in fifth place, Morozumi Masayuki, a young visually
handicapped player and student at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, already
with a master's license in the Tozan style, performed the piece Tsuru No
Sugomori. I was lucky to be able to meet him in the spring of this year
and we played an informal honkyoku duet of Shika No Tone one rainy day
outside where we took shelter from the rain under the eaves of a building
at his university and were able to hear our notes echoing off the building
walls. I remember being quite impressed at the time with his playing and
his memory of pieces and was glad to see him take part and do well in the
contest. Back to the subject of foreigners, also to be included in the
"usual" crowd of shakuhachi professionals that Ronnie mentioned is Tim
Hoffman, who always does an interesting performance of Indian or original
ragas on the shakuhachi. Tim studied the shakuhachi under former National
Living Treasure Yamaguchi Goro as well as spending five years in India
mastering Indian vocal music on shakuhachi, quite an amazing cross cultural
pollination. He was accompanied by his wife on tambura as well as a
professional tabla player for his performance of a raga for shakuhachi
during the final day's concert. Finally, not to forget David Wheeler, who
in addition to a moving performance of his own composition Hoshi, did an
excellent job emceeing in both Japanese and English languages for the final
day's concert. He was also the only foreigner present in a symposium's
panel discussion (in Japanese) several days earlier on the future of the
shakuhachi in Japan. At the end of the Tokyo shakuhachi summit, following
the last evening's banquet, several Tozan shakuhachi masters sponsored a
night climb up Mount Fuji to see the sunrise from the top of the peak and
play some shakuhachi up in the abode of the kami (gods).. Did anyone hear
about how that hike went and how many joined it? Each of the three
International Shakuhachi Festivals has had its own unique feeling ...they
have all been great events; it's always a good experience meeting fellow
shakuhachi enthusiasts from around the world, learning and playing
together, and getting the opportunity to hear wonderful music by some of
the finest players of the instrument.
Best Wishes,
Dan Ribble
Kochi, Japan
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