History:

Rokudan (Ikkan Ryu) appears on the following albums

	Album	Artist
	Jin Nyodo No Shakuhachi 02	Shakuhachi : Jin Nyodo
Ikkan-ryu: ROKUDAN 1-shaku 7-sun 8 min. 33 sec. 1. About the title: This piece is known either as Ikkan-ryu Rokudan or Nagashi Rokudan. The melody of the piece Rokudan was adapted for komuso shakuhachi and in the process altered to the free rhythmic structure of shakuhachi honkyoku. The form handed down by Jin Nyodo is that of the Nezasa-ha and is played as komibuki. The following is a traditional story about this piece: The seventeenth abbot of Rantei-in in Hirosaki, Tessan Yoshiki (died 14 Tempo, 1843) inherited this piece as the disciple of Miyaji Ikkan. However, he would not teach the piece to anyone or play it in another person's presence. Ban Yasuyuki asked to be taught the piece but was not granted his request. So over and over again, late at night, he would sneak into the temple cemetery and listen in secret to the abbot's playing. In three years time he was able to grasp the first four dan, (some say three), but his memorization was cut short by the abbot's death. Although this is an Ikkan-ryu piece, there does not seem to be any direct transmission of this work in the Kanto area. 2. Structure of the piece Even though it is called Rokudan (six steps) there are in fact only three dan. 3. Special features of the piece: Although it generally follows the exact melody of the koto piece Rokudan, ornamental tone patterns typical of shakuhachi honkyoku are added throughout. Tetra chords of the melody (yo'onkai) are mixed in and phrasing and rhythm are freely altered in the manner of shakuhachi honkyoku to the extent that the feeling of the piece is quite different from the original. Because it is played as komibuki in the particular style of the Nezasa-ha, it has an unconstrained feeling quite similar to the ura-joshi of Shirabe, Sagariha and Matsukaze. Even though the Jin family actually possesses an old notation b()ok (date unclear) giving four dan for this piece, Jin Nyodo played three dan exclusively throughout his life; so this recording only goes through the third dan. We do not clearly understand why he did not play the fourth dan, but we can surmise that the interest of the piece diminishes sharply after the third dan.