Abstract
The shakuhachi (
) came to Japan in the seventh century from China as a six-holed flute used in Imperial Court music. In the middle ages, mendicant komusō Zen monks, wishing to be delivered from earthly desires by blowing zen “suizen” (
), transformed the shakuhachi into the five-holed flute played today. Honkyoku are the songs created by these monks. The name shakuhachi (
) means “1.8 shaku,” and refers to its size. It is a compound of two words: (
) means “shaku,” an archaic unit of width equal to 30.3 cm (0.994 English feet) and subdivided in ten subunits and hachi (
), which means “eight,” here “eight sun or tenths” of a shaku. The shakuhachi world is divided up among various schools, called ryu, most commonly the Tozan-, Meian- or Myoan- and Kinko-ryu. The Tozan-ryu, which utilizes western notions of rhythm and structure is built on an iemoto 
structure, with the head of the organization defining the values and styles of the school. The Meian- or Myoan-ryu is often associated with the Fuke Zen sect and traditionally employs the shakuhachi for spiritual reasons. The Kinko-ryu focuses on a combination of both komusō related honkyoku as well as modern music. In this chapter, I describe the historical background and performance techniques associated with my work as an accredited master (shihan) performer of the shakuhachi. I reflect on how shakuhachi music has evolved across time and how cultural memory and perceived historical truths often conflict. I also describe some of my own experiences as a student of shakuhachi, and the array of complex techniques and considerations required for a performance of a program of selected shakuhachi repertoire that was mastered through many years of intensive training.
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Notes
- 1.
The standard length is one shaku
eight (hachi 
) sun 
(1/10 of a shaku) (approximately 54 cm) and is formally called ishaku hassun 
. It contains a sharp blowing-edge called an utaguchi 
at the blowing end, five finger holes––four on the front, one on the back. - 2.
Fuyo Hisamatsu (1781–1871) indicated that “39 pieces lie within 36 pieces. 36 pieces lie within 18 pieces. 18 pieces lie within 3 pieces. 3 pieces lie within one piece. One piece lies within no piece. [No piece lies within a breath.] A breath lies within nothingness” (1985).
- 3.
For more on sankyoku, see also Simura and Tokumaru (2001).
- 4.
For more on Renzai Zen, see Jørn Borup, Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhism: Myōshinji, a Living Religion (Leiden: Brill, 2008), Discovery eBooks, EBSCOhost (accessed March 17, 2014).
- 5.
An early exhaustive study was conducted on the Charter of 1614 in Mikami Sanji, “Fukeshu ni tsuite,” Shigaku Zasshi 13/4 (1902): 61–76, and 13/5 (1902): 64–82.
- 6.
For more on this, see Morihide Yamamoto, Kyotaku Denki Kokuji Kai (Kyoto: Kōto Shōrin, 1795/R Tokyo: Nihon ongaku sha, 1981.
- 7.
For a translation of the Kyotaku Denki, see Tsuge 1977, 49–53.
- 8.
Nakatsuka Chikuzen (1979) writes that seventy-seven Fuke temples dotted Japan during the Edo period––the most important being the Myōanji in Kyoto and Ichigetsuji and Reihōji in the Kanto region of present day Tokyo (95–102; see also Olafsson 2003).
- 9.
Ennin founded the monastery at Tōfuku-ji
, a Buddhist temple complex in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, in the seventeenth century where komusō set up a sub-temple called Myōan-ji 
, sometimes referred to as “The Temple of Light and Dark.” - 10.
Wallmark (2012) considers the shakuhachi in relation to Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection. He summarizes her theory of abjection as “a virulent species of exclusion and division, a strategy for demarcating the bounded self in relationship to the exterior, dangerous other” (1). Furthermore, he quotes Kristeva on the philosophy of Buddhism––“division does not order chaos; it simply disturbs wholeness and denies the natural transience of all things. In eschewing good-bad judgements, Buddhism moves the practitioner away from cravings and away from disgust” (as quoted in Wallmark 2012; see Kristeva 1982, 166). It must be noted that many ethnomusicologists and certainly, many shakuhachi players take issue with applying Western theoretical paradigms to non-Western music.
- 11.
Chikuzen never mentioned that tsuki
as an option, but other sources including Nitschke (1996) indicate this possibility.
eight (hachi 
) sun 
(1/10 of a shaku) (approximately 54 cm) and is formally called ishaku hassun 
. It contains a sharp blowing-edge called an utaguchi 
at the blowing end, five finger holes––four on the front, one on the back.
, a Buddhist temple complex in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, in the seventeenth century where komusō set up a sub-temple called Myōan-ji 
, sometimes referred to as “The Temple of Light and Dark.”
as an option, but other sources including Nitschke (References
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Appendix
Appendix
Text of “charter of 1614” Enacted in 1614 by the First Tokugawa Shōgun, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) [Original Text 
and Modern Text 
]
and Modern Text 
]
[Keichō no Okitegaki] (most often cited as the Charter of 1614)
[Gonyūkoku no Watasaseraresōrō Osadamegaki ] (as cited in Sanford 1977)
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McCollum, J. (2018). Embodying History and Pedagogy: A Personal Journey into the Dokyoku Style of Japanese Shakuhachi. In: Hebert, D. (eds) International Perspectives on Translation, Education and Innovation in Japanese and Korean Societies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68434-5_17
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