Art of the Shakuhachi Vol II
Mitsuhashi Kifu
Celestial Harmonies
2003
| Track | Titel | Kanji | Länge | Künstler | |
| 1 | Reibo (Echigo) | 霊慕 (越後) | 12'52 |
Shakuhachi: Mitsuhashi Kifu | |
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Reibo is a shakuhachi piece found in a large number of variants, each of which was transmitted by the komuso of a particular temple. Echigo reibo was transmitted by the monks of a branch of the Myoanji temple in the province of Echigo (today Niigata prefecture). At age 15, Saikawa Baio (1871-1967) learned this piece (as well as the piece "San'ya") from a komuso of the Echigo Myoanji. Baio was not a professional shakuhachi performer. Instead, for some 80 years, he played shakuhachi of his own making at fairs and street booths. Nevertheless, well known shakuhachi masters such as Jin Nyodo (1891-1966) and Okamoto Chikugai (1915-2000) looked to him as a source of traditional shakuhachi compositions. Baio also devised a program for "Echigo reibo." The piece begins with a dragon revealing himself between the clouds, with his tail beating wildly. Next the music portrays a mountain ascetic sounding a conch shell as the pleased dragon gurgles. Finally the dragon disappears behind the clouds once again. Whatever one may make of this program, "Echigo reibo" is endowed with a strong bouncy feeling. Near the end of the piece there is a section known as hachi-gaeshi (literally, "returning the bowl") played as a gesture of appreciation by a komuso who has received a donation. Usually hachi-gaeshi sections feature a melody making much use of high notes, but "Echigo reibo" ends in a low register. This device was probably Baio's creation. | |||||
| 2 | Chôshi (Yamato) | 調子 (大和) | 03'11 |
Shakuhachi: Mitsuhashi Kifu | |
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This piece was composed by Tani Kyochiku (1882-1950), a student of the Kyushu (Kumamoto prefecture) shakuhachi master Miyagawa Nyozan (1868-1946). Kyochiku was a professional shakuhachi-playing monk who toured not just Japan but also China and other countries. In 1930 he took his long 2.5-shaku (approx 75 cm.) instrument on tour to Hong Kong, Singapore, Sumatra, Burma, and India. At that time his passport identified his occupation merely as a "religious musician." Kyochiku learned this piece as "Darani" from the Nara shakuhachi performer Murata Sen'o, but when ten years later he performed it for Murata, the latter exclaimed "That is a nice piece, what is it?" This comment, indicating that after ten years the piece had been completely altered, greatly disheartened Kyochiku. He then named what he played "Yamato-joshi" (literally, "melody from Yamato"). Yamato, another name for Nara, was the area in which he had once learned the original composition. This brief piece features repeated short phrases. In recent years it has been commonly used as a prelude to the piece "Ajikan." | |||||
| 3 | Kyorei (Don't know which version) | 虚鈴 | 09'04 |
Shakuhachi: Mitsuhashi Kifu | |
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Along with the pieces "Koku" and "Mukaiji," "Kyorei" is considered one of the "three classics" of the shakuhachi repertory. In fact, it is considered the most basic piece, for it is said to express the sound of the small bell that the legendary founder of the Fuke sect of Zen - the sect to which the komuso belonged - played in Tang dynasty China. Jin Nyodo has stated that this piece was transmitted by the Fudaiji temple in Hamamatsu (Shizuoka prefecture), but originally it was a composition of the Seien school in the Nagoya area. It is based on the melody "Banshikicho" (the name of a mode), used by the Kinko-school as a prelude to the piece "Shin-kyorei." As this melody was played in the Nagoya area it began to take on the characteristics of what has become "Kyorei." The basic repertory (honkyoku) of the shakuhachi is in many cases a product of such eclecticism and flexibility. "Kyorei" is a very simple and straight-forward melody which, however, is also very tense and thus expresses an element of Zen itself. The composition is played with an almost unmodulated breath known as "kyosui," (literally, "empty blowing") considered the ultimate ideal of shakuhachi playing. | |||||
| 4 | San'ya (Echigo) | 三谷 (越後) | 13'20 |
Shakuhachi: Mitsuhashi Kifu | |
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Like "Echigo reibo" this is a piece from the Echigo Myoanji temple, transmitted by Saikawa Baio to Jin Nyodo. Again like "Echigo reibo" "Echigo san'ya" too has been outfitted with a program devised by Baio: The first sounds express the shape of Mt. Fuji; as the piece progresses, the mountain is gradually draped in clouds. The shakuhachi is also thought to express the spirit of "yin" and "yang," the sound of a hand-gong being struck, and the ideograph for "heart" or "spirit." This composition is structured in five sections: 1. an opening prelude in which the instrument is tested (takeshirabe); 2. a "main section" (honte); 3. "high notes" (takane) 4. expressing gratitude for a donation (hachi-gaeshi); 5. coda. The melody is of the same lineage as "San'ya" variants transmitted to northeastern Japan, but "Echigo san'ya" is a more brilliant piece featuring virtuosic fingerwork and larger melodic inflections. The flow of the melody and the beautiful high notes are particularly impressive. Unlike "Echigo reibo," the hachigaeshi section (4) is played in a high range. | |||||
| 5 | Marobashi Sugagaki | 転菅垣 | 11'09 |
Shakuhachi: Mitsuhashi Kifu | |
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This piece is based on the composition "Koto sugagaki" of the Nagoya-based Seien school of shakuhachi playing and was probably composed with the sound of the koto in mind. In fact until around 1700, "Sugagaki" was most commonly a koto composition. Like the compositions "Shishi" and "Taki ochi," however, "Sugagaki" gradually became a shakuhachi piece. An alternate title title, "Koro sugagaki", stems from Higuchi Taizan (1856-1914), the founder of the Myoan-taizan school, who probably followed the example of the Kinko-school piece "Koro sugagaki" (an otherwise unrelated composition). The Sino-Japanese ideograph used to write the word "koro," meaning to turn or rotate, can be read in a number of different ways in Japanese, including "marobashi," a term which also refers to the deepest principle of the Yagyu-shin-kage school of swordsmanship, in which body, spirit, and sword are imagined as constituting one large sphere that rotates and moves about with perfect freedom. Because of this connection, Okamoto Chikugai called the piece "Marobashi sugagaki." In fact, this composition is crisp and compact, perhaps inspired by an image of traditional swordsmanship. The ideograph "koro" can also be read "Utata." For this reason the piece is sometimes called "Utata sugagaki", referring to the famous komuso Kamiya Utata (1794-1843). | |||||
| 6 | Taki Ochi no Kyoku | 滝落の曲 | 17'18 |
Shakuhachi: Mitsuhashi Kifu | |
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"Asahi-taki" is a 100-meter waterfall in the mountains of Izu in Shizuoka prefecture. The piece "Taki-ochi," literally "falling water" is said to have been composed on the banks of the pool at the bottom of this waterfall. "Taki-ochi" is supposedly sometimes played in front of this waterfall. The piece is a honkyoku of the Kinko school but variants are found in other schools as well. According to Jin Nyodo, when one learns this piece it is important to listen to the sounds of waterfalls. In the case of a pair of waterfalls one must pay attention to which is the "female" (i.e., smaller, less powerful) and which is the "male" (stronger, bigger, etc.). The piece begins with the sound of water dripping; these drops then increase to become a small stream that gradually builds in strength. The second half of the composition describes a large waterfall. This piece features the use of "yuri" and "furi" ornamentation of the melody. It also uses powerful straight breathing and high notes that conjure up the power and scale of a very large waterfall. Although "Taki-ochi" may have originally been taken from a koto piece by the same name, it must have been greatly altered to suit the shakuhachi. Like many other pieces of the basic repertory, music of other genres was incorporated and varied, resulting in further development of shakuhachi musical styles. | |||||
| 7 | Ajikan (Itchoken) | 阿字観 | 08'52 |
Shakuhachi: Mitsuhashi Kifu | |
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This composition, one of the most famous in the entire shakuhachi repertory, is played by nearly everyone who performs traditional honkyoku. The title refers to an important meditative practice of Shingon-sect esoteric Buddhism. "A” is thought to be the first sound uttered by humans once they open their mouths. Once one has moved away from this "A" nothing is explicable in words, thus becoming pure "nothingness." Thus reflecting (kan) on the ideograph (ji) of "A" gives "Ajikan." "Ajikan" as performed here was devised by Miyagawa Nyozan. It is based on an earlier piece from Kyushu known as "Sashi." "Sashi" comes in three variants. One, known as "Bo-sashi" is performed "straight as a stick (bo)." A second, devised in the Hakata area (Fukuoka prefecture) by a man known as Ikkencho-no-Shinshichi, played this in a more wavering (yuri) style, and is known as "Yuri-sashi" (or "Shinshichizashi") Finally, a third and even more complicated variant known as "Neri-zashi" was devised. "Ajikan" is based on the second variant, "Yuri-sashi." "Yuri-sashi" features a melody that is repeated, but in "Ajikan" the opening of the repetition is played in a higher range of the instrument. For this reason "Ajikan" features a sense of tension that would not result were the melody simply repeated. Perhaps its most remarkable characteristic is the use of ornamentation known as "yuri." When Nyozan played "Ajikan" he performed it at a rapid tempo; disciples such as Kyochiku, however; who used a longer, deeper_pitched instrument, tended to play it at a slower pace. | |||||