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In 1941, shortly before Japan declared war on the United States, a set of recordings were made of traditional Japanese music. These recordings were meant to be given only to educational institutions and not sold. Right before starting their distribution, war broke out in 1941. Only two copies of these recordings existed after World War II of which one set was given to Beate Sirota Gordon for safe keeping. Beate Sirota Gordon, age 22, accompanied the U.S. Army to Japan in 1946. She had grown up in Tokyo with her parents. Her father was the famous Leo Sirota who moved to Tokyo, Japan where she lived for about ten years before moving to Oakland, California, in 1939. Apart from belonging to a famous family, Beate Sirota Gordon is famous in her own right. She was a member of the team that drafted the Constitution of Japan under Douglas MacArthur. She is considered an American icon among Japanese women for helping secure women’s rights and equality by writing portions of articles into the Japanese Constitution. During her mission, Donald Ritchie, a noted film historian, discovered a set of these recordings and gave them to her. Gordon presented them to World Arbiter Records in the late 1990s. Aside from her copy, only one other complete set is known to have survived the war in Japan, as they were possibly destroyed in a warehouse bombing. Listen to an Interview with Beate Sirota The people of post-war Japan and the rest of the world now have the chance to hear these lost recordings of Japan's broad cultural legacy. On these recordings, one is struck by a sense of eternity belonging to a culture living in a mind-set of immortality and permanence, an ease buoying virtuosity and intricate musical forms, revealing a gripping authenticity that later performers hint at. These recordings of the Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai, heard with excerpts from theater and songs performed by many artists born in the Meiji period. They represent the earliest examples of ancient classical traditions. In the late 1930s, Japanese musicologists and experts completed years of work on a project to record their country's musical cultures, starting with ritualized shamanic traditions of the palace's gagaku, Buddhist chant, Noh theater, blind lute (biwa) players chanting medieval epics, a body of koto music, shamisens of kabuki dances, folk songs of workers, artisans, farmers, and children's songs. Five volumes, each with 12 78 rpm discs, comprised the leading performers of the time, many born into a Japan that newly opened to the West in 1868, taught by masters of an earlier isolated Japan. This third of five discs contains significant examples of the koto and shamisen literature, dances from Kabuki and puppet theater traditions, many originating in the 1700s. "The International Cultural Council (Kokusai Bunka Shinkōkai) produced a set of LPs documenting the traditional music of the Japanese home islands. Originally produced in five volumes of a dozen 78s each, and recorded over the span of five years by ethnomusicologists Tanabe Hisao and Machida Yoshiaki, the series attempted to document performances of shakuhachi, koto, shamisen, gagaku, festival music, religious music, theatrical music, and folk music with roots in the early modern Tokugawa period (1600-1886) or earlier. This was actually one of several projects attempting to preserve pre-opening Japanese culture and place it in the context of the rest of Asia and the world, but the only one which appears to have survived the end of World War II, thanks in no small part to the efforts of western Japan experts Beata Sirota Gordon and Donald Richie. "The third of a projected five CDs, this release includes a variety of koto music from the two major schools (Ikuta-ryū and Yamada-ryū), as well as shamisen music from the jōruri (puppet) and kabuki theatrical traditions. The recordings were of the highest quality, as were the performances, although the casual listener may find it difficult at first to hear this excellence through the surface noise, which was minimized but not removed in the digital restoration by Allen Evans. The English liner notes by Dr. Terauchi (an accomplished scholar of traditional Japanese music specializing in gagaku) provide some musical and historical context, as well as brief descriptions for each cut; the Japanese notes are significantly more complete, however. Listeners with little knowledge of Japanese traditional music may want to augment the notes with more in-depth sources, such as William Malm’s Traditional Japanese Music and Musical Instruments (Kodansha, 2000) or the volume of the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music on East Asia. A Note About Recording Quality "Unfortunately, due to the short playing time of 78 RPM discs (less than four minutes per side), most of the recordings represent excerpts from or condensations of longer pieces. . . . In short, this is a disc for specialists and enthusiasts, not for the casual listener. For the former, however, this is a priceless contribution, providing a rare window into pre-war, and in some cases pre-modern, Japanese music." From a review by Richard Miller |
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This second volume of the 1941 Kokusai Bunka Shinkô-kai (KBS) recordings features Noh theater masters, many of whom had been trained by artists active before the Meiji (1868) period. An essay and texts in both English and Japanese with translation are included in the CD. Noh, a masked play, was established by the actor Kan'ami Kiyotsugu (1333-1384) and his son Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443) in medieval times. Based on various earlier forms such as sangaku (acrobat and juggling), dengaku (dance and play derived from rice festivals), and kusemai (dance), the noh created a far more highly artistic form of theater than ever before. Japanese biwa music is characterized by a narrative with biwa accompaniment. The instrument, born in ancient Persia and introduced into Japan around the 8th century as a component of the royal court's gagaku ensemble, is a four stringed lute plucked with a large plectrum. In the late 12th century, blind Buddhist priests developed a unique narrative style, using this instrument as an accompaniment. The shakuhachi is a vertical bamboo flute sharply edged in its flue. Its standard length is about 54 cm., but there are shorter or longer types than this standard. Shakuhachi was traditionally played by komusô, Fuke-shû priests (a Zen Buddhist sect). The blowing of a shakuhachi (sui-Zen, literally "blowing Zen") was a komusô's religious act equivalent to chanting a sutra. Music for the Noh theater Kyôgen kouta Biwa Shakuhachi
This CD includes recordings of
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1. Hien no kyoku (Ikuta-ryû)
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Gagaku Buddhist Music
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AKIKAZU NAKAMURA is a shakuhachi teacher and jazz virtuoso. He graduated from NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) school of traditional music. as well as from Berklee College of Music in Boston with summa cum laude (majored composition and improvisation). He studied at the New England Conservatory for graduate studies of composition major and toured over thirty countries commissioned by Ministry of Foreign Affair of Japan. Nakamura-sensei teaches traditional shakuhachi in Tokyo, however, has stretch the limits of this ancient instrument in ways that few others have such as innovating the use of circular breathing for shakuhachi. |
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Shakuhachi & the end-blown Turkish reed flute performed by two master players. Kudsi Erguner, one of the foremost nay masters of our times, is particularly famed for his activities helping to introduce Ottoman and sufi music to the world with internationally acclaimed projects and recordings. He lives and works in Paris as a musician, composer, musicologist, teacher and author. Erguner comes from a family of Turkish musicians. His contact with many famous musicians from the older generation, who continually passed through his parents house, and his involvement with various Sufi brotherhoods, whose music and teachings Erguner studied, left their decisive marks on him. He received his training directly from his father, Ulvi Erguner, who was the last great master of the Nay. Kudsi Erguner studied also architecture and musicology in Paris, he has given concerts and played in major festivals throughout the world and has researched the music of India, Pakistan and Turkey, grounded diverse music ensembles, recorded numerous albums and has worked with such well known artists around the world. Erguner is regarded as one of the most important pioneer and contributor to the Ottoman Sufi and classical music as well as to the world music with his original projects.
Learn more about these two traditional flutes in Dan Ribble's article on the subject. |
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WATAZUMIDO DOSO ROSHI (1910-1992) is perhaps the most legendary of all modern shakuhachi players and teachers. Amongst his many students is Yokoyama Katsuya, one of greatest players in Japan today. Regarding himself as something other than a musician, Watazumido based his music in an uncompromising vigorous physical discipline. He was a practitioner of the Jo stick, a long hardwood pole with which he used to stretch, massage, pounds and invigorate his body in a daily regimen beginning at 3:30 AM each day. For over 3,000 consecutive days, he maintained this discipline. Watazumido studied Rinzai Zen attaining the title of Roshi or Master and later became the Kanjo or unifying head of the Fuke sect of Zen Buddhism. He shunned traditional organized Zen practice for 32 years in favor of his own iconoclastic approach distinguished by breath training and vigorous exercise at its core. The lengthening of the "Out Breath" in his practice is directly descended from the wisdom of the breath as practiced in Zen. Watazumido's music is as unique as it is intense. His style of shakuhachi playing is based on a discipline combining Zen breath awareness and the martial arts. He is known for the blowing an original, personal style of Honkyoku on bamboos of enormous size and length called hotchiku flutes. |
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25th Anniversary Commemorative Reissue
S-W1b [J] (Translation: Musoshoku - "Non-adornment ". Muchoon - "Non-tuning".) This event was marks the unveiling of Watazumido's philosophy and spiritual practice. Before this time, he had refused any discusion or revelation of his philosophy. The program was divided into three parts: 1. Lecture on Avant-Garde Philosophical Principle; 2. Practice of Watazumi-Dojo; 3. Training of Suijo ("Blowing").
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MAMINO UNRYU YORITA / 寄田 雲龍 真見乃 is a truly remarkable shakuhachi player and a prodigy of the highest order. In 2006, at the age of 15, she became the youngest woman ever to be awarded a Shihan by the Tozan-ryu. This extraordingary accomplishment was acknowledged by the press throughout Japan. Wanting to learn classical shakuhachi, Mamino began studying Kinko ryu honkyokuwith Yoshinobu Taniguchi soon thereafter. She has also studied with Living National Treasure Aoki Reibo and Katsuya Yokoyama, who referred to her as a "genius". Her remarkable accomplishments testify to this fact. In just one year, she passed the Dai shihan (Grandmaster) exam (Kinko-ryu) and in 2008, passed the Dai shihan (Grand Master) exam (Watazumido, Fuke Meian ryu, Koden classical shakuhachi and Azuma ryu). At the age of 18, even before graduating from high school, Mamino received the Meiyo Dai Shihan rank (Honorable Grand Master), an achievement that was totally unprecedented. In 2009, she gained admission to Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku (Tokyo University of the Arts) where she presently studies shakuhachi. |
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CD Quick View
Alphabetical Listings of All Shakuhachi & World Music Recordings.
Includes links to artists and complete information for each recording.
