Shakuhachi Music

In spite of its simple construction and specific nature of music, the instrument often charms western music lovers. The Shakuhachi is an end blown bamboo flute with four holes on the front and one on the back. The standard length of 1.8 Japanese feet (54.5 cm) is found in the name of the instrument -shaku-foot and hachi-eight.

In the Nara Period, there was an end blown flute called Shakuhachi, but it had six finger-holes, five on the front and one on the back. This was introduced from China and then disappeared in the Heian Period. In the Muromachi Period, another end blown bamboo flute from China, called hsiao, was brought to Japan and modified into the Hitoyogiri, literally meaning one joint bamboo. This is a smaller flute, 1.1 feet (33.3 cm) in length with five finger-holes. This was first favored by mendicant friars and later became in fashion among the lower class Samurai and merchants.

In the beginning of the Edo Period itinerant Buddhist priests (Komuso) of the Fuke sect who were employed by Samurai began to use a 1.8 feet long Shakuhachi for their mendicancy. This was called the Fuke Shakuhachi.

A retired Samurai, Kurosawa Kinko (1710-1771), who was the teacher at a temple of the sect, established a style of art music on the instrument by composing new pieces based upon the repertoire of the Fuke Shakuhachi.

At the end of the Edo Period musicians of the Kinko school began to participate in the ensemble of Koto music, taking the place of the Kokyu, together with the Koto and Shamisen. The repertoire of the original solo pieces of the Kinko school is called Honkyoku (original pieces) while the repertoire of Koto pieces in which the Shakuhachi participates is called Gaikyoku (outside pieces).

Since the Shakuhachi was played with the Koto it became fashionable with men of every social class and in the middle of the Meiji Era (1896), Nakao Tozan established another school. Today the Kinko and Tozan schools dominate the Shakuhachi music, while the Fuke Shakuhachi declined since the Fuke sect was abolished by the Meiji government in 1871, when the organization for protection of blind Koto musicians, called Shokuyashiki, was also abolished.

The instrument is made from the lowest section of the bamboo. The average diameter of the pipe is 4-5 cm, and the inside of the pipe is almost cylindrical. The length varies according to the pitch of the ensemble of Koto and Shamisen. A difference of 3 cm renders a half tone. The standard length of 1.8 (Japanese feet) or 54.5 cm is used for solo pieces and the pitch of the open pipe, d, is regarded as the standard pitch. Five finger-holes, four in front and one on the back, give the following six tones in the standard pipe, d (closed), f, g, a, c, d'. By various fingerings, half holing, and controlling the angle of the mouthpiece against the lip, all of the twelve tones can be produced. The mouthpiece at the top of the pipe is made by cutting the edge diagonally toward the outside.

This type of mouthpiece makes it possible for the player to control the pitch by changing the angle, which in turn produces a delicate change in intonation not possible on a Western recorder (Blockflote) having a whistle type of mouthpiece.

As well as the delicate changing of intonation and various kinds of portamento, the noise of blowing on the edge of the mouthpiece creates an artistic effect. Of course the mellow timbre of the rather thick bamboo pipe is the basic characteristic of the instrument. To give the best possible sound the inside of the instrument is carefully lacquered, as in the case of the transverse flutes of Gagaku and Noh.

The musical form of solo pieces (Honkyoku) does not show fixed forms. Different melodic lines are placed in a row. Many stereotyped intervallic units occur here and there.

The more important musical element is free rhythm. There is no piece of Honkyoku that is written in fixed rhythm. The basic mode is the In-mode, the most common mode of Shamisen and Koto music.

The Honkyoku pieces of the Fuke sect (30 to 40 pieces) are based on the religious ideas of Zen Buddhism. Honkyoku of the Kinko School took over the repertoire of the Fuke Shakuhachi, but modified into a more artistic style. Then, too, new compositions not religious in nature were added to the repertoire of the Kinko-ryu Honkyoku (36 pieces).

By Dr. Shigeo Kishibe