Welcome to the webpages of the International Shakuhachi Society.
This site is an ever-expanding resource for people interested in the instruments used for traditional Japanese music, particularly the end-blown bamboo flute called the shakuhachi.
We hope to reach across the barriers of nationality, culture, and tradition to encourage the sharing of information among players, teachers, composers, ethnomusicologists, and hobbyists.
Our focus:
We are a membership-driven organization, established in 1990. If you find this website useful please consider joining the ISS and supporting us! Our yearly dues allow us to maintain this website and an Archive of materials that are available, on-site, for research purposes. The Archives contain a growing inventory of books, recordings, and sheet music dating back more than one hundred years. We post relevant aspects of the Archives to the ISS Facebook page.
For members we have a unique set of tools, designed specially by shakuhachi players for shakuhachi players, that allow them to create a personal page on the site, track their music collection, easily maintain a list of pieces they know how to play, and communicate with our many members.
This site is not a store. We do not offer copies of anything, either free or for sale. For out-of-print books, instruments, recordings, or sheet music check shakuhachi.com, Mejiro, eBay, or Yahoo auctions. Also check our Businesses and Organizations lists.
For ongoing discussions on shakuhachi-related topics, check out the Shakuhachi BBQ on Facebook.
Our major compendium of articles about shakuhachi, the Annals of the International Shakuhachi Society Volumes I & II, are available from shakuhachi.com.
The information here has been compiled from various sources including our Archive and contributions from our membership. We strive to improve its quality and quantity.
Please feel free to contact us for more information, or with corrections and additions. webmaster@komuso.com
Elliot Kanshin Kallen
President
Getting Started...
There are a lot of lists on this site and they can be a bit intimidating if you don't know what you are looking for. To get you started here is a, very subjective, list of some of our favorite things on this site.
People
Aoki Reibo II
Araki Kodō II
Araki Kodō III
Higuchi Taizan
Hisamatsu Fūyō
Jin Nyodo
Katsuura Shōzan
Kawase Junsuke I
Kawase Satoko
Kurosawa Kinko I
Miura Kindō
Nakanoshima Kin'ichi
Nakao Tozan
Nōtomi Judō I
Shimabara Hanzan
Ueda Hōdō
Watazumi Doso Roshi
Yamaguchi Gorō
Yamaguchi Shirō
Yamamoto Hōzan
Yatsuhashi Kengyō
Yokoyama Katsuya
Yoshida Seifū
Pieces
Kogarashi
Kurokami
Shika no Tone
Shoganken Reibo
Tamuke
Zangetsu
Riley Lee - San'an - DVD "The Sound of Bamboo"