Wow.
Thanks Riley, for your incredibly well-written and informative email. I feel
that I learned a lot.
But, one more thing on the subject of "intonation" for Honkyoku.
There are many varying stances on this subject, but their are two that i
find particularly informative:
1-As many of you know Kurahashi Yoshio Sensei teaches many Honkyoku without
using any (or many) partially closed holes when playing Meri. Of course,
this will sometimes lead to a somewhat "sharpened pitch for the Meri.
Kurahashi-Sensei's point, however, is that ,"Who are we to decide what the
Edo-period player felt was in tune or not." He believes that the early
players had a sense of intonation which allowed for notes to be sharper than
our ears hear them.
2-Yokoyama Katsuya-Sensei (among other great attributes, without a doubt the
world's foremost proponent of Dokyoku) once said to me that, "I don't
believe this stuff about players hearing the Meri-sounds sharper. They just
can't play in tune If they could- they would !!"
So, I think that the best way to approach this perhaps, is to ask your
teachers opinion on this subject, and if you agree- follow it ..
Ronnie
>
> The term 'hochiku' may have been coined by Watazumi. He used it to
> refer as much to a philosophical or spiritual approach to playing
> bamboo flutes as to the manner of constructing them.
>
> Flutes with little or no 'ji' (ji nashi flutes) existed long before
> Watazumi, as did flutes with filler (ji ari flutes). The 'ji nashi'
> flutes, as you guessed, were more prevalent in the Edo period than ji
> ari flutes, though flutes with some kinds of material, for example
> layers of 'urushi' or Japanese lacquer have also been around for
> centuries. It takes many coats of 'urushi' to form even a thin layer of
> filler, but it is still material. And, as Tom mentioned in his earlier
> response, some of these old flutes had more than just thin layers of
> filler.
>
> The scholar and very good shakuhachi player, Simura Satosi (spelt
> 'Shimura Satoshi' in the Hepburn system) recently wrote a book about
> 'ji nashi' flutes, based upon his PhD research. The book is called
> "Kokan shakuhachi no gakki gaku" (The Musical Instrument Study of Old
> Shakuhachi). Mr. Simura's research led him to some interesting
> conclusions.
>
> Firstly, he observed that there were two distinct 'worlds' in
> shakuhachi playing. One 'world' is that of the act of playing the
> instrument. The other 'world' is the construction of the instrument. He
> surmised that the two 'worlds' are different, but that they mutually
> influence each other.
>
> Mr. Simura concluded that the old style flutes are 'out of tune' when
> played by shakuhachi players today because the latter don't know how to
> play the former. In other words, the old style flutes, when played a
> certain way, do in fact play in tune. The way in which they are
> constructed demand a certain way of playing in order to play in tune.
> This way of playing is not the same way demanded by modern shakuhachi.
>
> Furthermore, when played in the way that their construction demands,
> not only do the old style flutes play in tune, but they play in a way
> that, according to Simura-san is more aesthetically suited to honkyoku
> than what we get with modern flutes.
>
> So, Simura-san believes that the old style, mostly ji nashi flutes were
> constructed in a specific way in order to get a specific sound suited
> to honkyoku. That specific way required a certain playing technique in
> order to play in tune. Apparently this technique is considerably
> different from the technique needed to play modern shakuhachi in tune.
> One has to practice to develop this technique.
>
> But with practice, this technique renders a 'better' honkyoku
> performance than what can be produced on a modern shakuhachi played in
> tune. By 'better', Mr Simura gives examples of dynamics and tone
> colours, elements associated with meri and kari, tonal centres and
> modes, etc.
>
> It is not only a matter of whether or not the flutes have ji or don't
> have ji. Other equally important elements in their construction are the
> placement of the holes, the undercutting of the holes, the shape of the
> blowing edge, the shape of the bore, manipulated by filing away the
> bamboo, and so on. The makers of the time purposely and precisely made
> their flutes in a certain way, for musical reasons.
>
> I have always thought that those old flutes played out of pitch because
> Japanese komuso hundreds of years ago, completely uninfluenced by
> western pitch sensibilities, not too worried about 'the music', and
> without such things as pitch tuners, just made flutes that were
> inferior to today's flutes. Cars and computers improve over time, so of
> course shakuhachi must have, too. According to Simura-san, not so!
>
> If Mr Simura's observations and theories are correct, then this makes
> me wonder about 'ji nashi' flutes made today. I think it is safe to
> conclude that many if not most of the 'ji nashi' flutes made nowadays
> are made so that they play in tune when modern day players play them.
> Many if not most of these players use the playing technique that modern
> 'ji ari' flutes require.
>
> Therefore, perhaps most modern 'ji nashi' flutes are constructed in a
> way that requires basically the same 'modern' technique as 'ji ari'
> flutes. There may be minor changes in technique, such as playing
> softer, but nothing major. Otherwise, people like me, who don't know
> any better, will complain that the 'ji nashi' flutes play out of tune.
>
> If this is so, have the 'ji nashi' flutes made today lost the magic of
> the old style flutes?
>
> Can one even say that when you or I pick up a ji nashi flute and play
> it in the same way we play our modern ji ari flutes (the only way I
> know how to play a flute), if the ji nashi flute plays in tune, then
> it's a lousy ji nashi flute? If so, this is real revelation to me!
> Please note that just because a modern ji nashi flute is out of tune
> when someone like me plays it, this doesn't mean that it's a good ji
> nashi flute of the old style. It might not play in tune even in
> Simura's hands.
>
> I would imagine that most ji nashi flutes floating around today are
> made so that they play relatively in tune by the likes of me, because
> firstly the makers may not know how to play and therefore how to make
> old style ji nashi flutes. How many people other than Simura and Tom
> Deaver have access to flutes made 300-400 years ago to practice for
> hours on them?
>
> Secondly, today's buyers, who have learned on modern flutes, pvc pipes,
> etc, want flutes that play in tune, and they use a modern flute
> technique when they play any flute. So, the makers might be
> accommodating both themselves and their buying public.
>
> Therefore, one might ask, are most of the ji nashi flutes that are made
> and played nowadays not only not very good flutes by modern flute
> standards, but not even very good flutes by the old style ji nashi
> standards? By the way, this is my question, and not a subject
> explicitly discussed by Mr Simura. Also, I am not asking the question
> rhetorically; I have my hunch but I really don't know.
>
> One might argue that all this comes down to whether or not we take
> Simura's word on what is a 'better' honkyoku performance or 'honkyoku'
> sound. Mr Simura's book comes with a CD of honkyoku, which he has
> performed using these old style flutes, some made in the early 1600s,
> so he does give us the opportunity to decide with our own ears.
>
> But one strength of Simura's theory is that he looked at a great number
> of kokan shakuhachi and they all conformed 1) to the same basic
> construction method (he used ultra sound type 'x-rays' to help
> determine this), and 2) they all responded to the same basic playing
> technique, by playing in pitch, and so forth. It seems that they knew
> what they were doing.
>
> The book is written in Japanese. It is published by Shuppan Geijitsu
> Sha in Heisei 14 (2002?). I don't know how one might best order the
> book; my copy was a gift. Mr Simura works at Osaka University of Fine
> Arts. He does not speak English. If enough people wanted the book, I
> might be able to put Monty Levenson in touch with Simura, People could
> then order through Monty. It will probably be expensive, very expensive
> if you can't read Japanese and all you really want is the CD.
>
> Mr Simura gave an extremely informative presentation about this subject
> at the World Shakuhachi Summit in Tokyo last August. He also gave a
> presentation on other aspects of honkyoku at the first World Shakuhachi
> Festival in Boulder in 1998.
>
> One final thing: if Simura is right about all of this, then this
> implies that a lot of thought was given way back when, by the folks we
> call komuso, to the way that their instruments were made and played,
> that is, to the musicality of their 'suizen'. They weren't just playing
> any old 'out of tune' flutes any old way, even when 'blowing Zen'.
>
> Best regards, Riley
>
>
> On Tuesday, March 11, 2003, at 11:19 PM, shakuhachi wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>> It's been a while since the last thread on this subject and I have
>> gone back
>> through the archives but still have questions.
>> It seems the idea of a pasted bore, finely tuned flute developed in
>> the late
>> 1800s or even later. A lot of what I gathered from archives suggests
>> the
>> Hochiku may have developed around the same time as a concept of
>> Watazumido
>> Shuso and his differing path from the "rest of the crowd" so to speak.
>> My question is, if the late development of the Hochiku idea is correct
>> just
>> what existed before it and the pasted bore flutes? I would have
>> guessed the
>> Hochiku, a natural bore, rather basic tool in both construction and
>> tuning
>> would have been what the Komosu used and over the years this then
>> developed
>> and became more refined into what we cal Shakuhachi today. That path
>> seems
>> to be a natural development but from several of the accounts I have
>> read the
>> Hochiku and Jinari flutes may not be that many years apart in concept.
>>
>> Just what did the Komosu play?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Tony Miller
>>
>
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>
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