Fuke Shakuhachi Research Pages

KAKUA SHŌNIN's FLUTE - KAKUA's ZEN LECTURE TO EMPEROR TAKAKURA

The anecdote about Kakua playing his flute in front of the Japanese Emperor in the late 12th century is being featured thousand-fold, 'here, there, and everywhere' in books, and on the World Wide Web in particular
- often in the most colourful language.
The original Japanese text is, however, extremely short and - laconic.

There, Kakua is not reported to have at first been standing for a long period "in silence", no mention that any esteemed advisors and courtesans "grew agitated", while waiting.
We do not read that Kakua "produced his flute from the folds of his robe",
nor that he "blew one short single tone".
Studying the original source, the Genkō shakusho dated 1322, we see no mention of Kakua "bowing politely", nor that he "returned to the mountains".
That is all mere imagination - however enchanting, indeed.

See the original text in Japanese as well a translation of its actual contents on this web page (entry 12th century):
Japan 1 • 600-1233

Calligraphy by Matsumoto Kyozan, 1985

FUKE ZENJI's MYŌAN POEM in the RINZAI ROKU

An interesting, thought-inspiring variety of English renderings of this fundamental Fuke Shakuhachi credo is presented on this newly updated web page: China 2 • 500 ...

Shichiku Shoshinshū - cover
Copyright © by Waseda University, Tokyo

THE KOMUSŌ CHAPTER in the SHICHIKU SHOSHINSHŪ - 1664

A complete translation of the komusō chapter in Shichiku Shoshin-shū, Vol. 1, 1664, by Nakamura Sōsan, is presented on this newly updated web page: Japan 6 • 1664-1767

The poet Ton'a (Nikaidō Sadamune) - 1289-1372

TON'A, THE DENGAKU SHAKUHACHI PLAYER - or TON'A, THE POET ... ?

It now appears to be very unlikely that the famous poet Ton'a, 1289-1372, could be identical with the person praised by Ikkyū Sōjun in his poem "Portrait of Ton-Ami with a Shakuhachi".
Read more on this page (15th century): Japan 2 • 1233-1477

Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen:
MURMURED CONVERSATIONS
A Treatise on Poetry and Buddhism by the Poet-Monk Shinkei
Translation, Commentary and Annotation
Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, 2008, 416 pages
ISBN 978-0-8047-4863-6


Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen is Professor of Japanese Literature at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. Ph.D. Harvard University, 1983. Quoting from the book cover,

"Murmured Conversations is the first complete and rigorously annotated translation of Sasamegoto (1463-1464), considered the most important and representative treatise of the medieval period in Japan because of its thoroughgoing construction of poetry as a way to attain, and signify through language, the mental liberation (satori) that is the goal of Buddhist practice.
It is a fascinating document revealing the central place of Buddhist philosophy in medieval Japanese artistic practice.
Shinkei (1406-1475), the author of the treatise, is himself a major poet, regarded as the most brilliant among the practitioners of linked poetry (renga) in the Muromachi Period.

Along with the extensive annotations, Ramirez-Christensen's commentaries illuminate the significance of each section of the treatise within the context of waka and renga poetics, of the history of classical Japanese aesthetic principles in general, and of Shinkei's thought in particular, and the role of Buddhism in the contemporary understanding of cultural practices like poetry.
This is the most comprehensive presentation available in English of a major classical Japanese critical text."

Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen:
EMPTINESS AND TEMPORALITY
Buddhism and Medieval Japanese Poetics
Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, 2008, 208 pages
ISBN 978-0-8047-4888-9

Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen is Professor of Japanese Literature at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. Ph.D. Harvard University, 1983.

Nakatsuka Chikuzen
KINKO-RYŪ SHAKUHACHI SHIKAN
607 pages. Nihon Ongaku-sha, Tokyo, 1979.
This indispensable book contains all of Nakatsuka Chikuzen's articles about Fuke Shakuhachi history originally published in the music periodical 'Sankyoku' in 1936-1939. The most comprehensive and best commented source collection in the field of shakuhachi history research ever produced.
Available from www.mejiro-japan.com.

 

IKEDA JUZAN SHŪ - TAIZAN-FU SHŪI
'The Ikeda Juzan Anthology - An Anthology of Taizan notations.'
A beautiful collection of old, original Taizan-ha honkyoku notations presented in high quality b/w photographic reprint. New limited edition.
272 pages. Tokyo, 1985.
Read more - and order online here: www.mejiro-japan.com.

Ueno Katami
SHAKUHACHI NO REKISHI
Revised and expanded edition. Shuppan Geijutsu-sha, Tokyo, 2002.
299 pages. Available from www.mejiro-japan.com.

2009:

The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music
Edited by Alison McQueen Tokita & David W. Hughes.
SOAS Musicology Series. 466 pages.
Published by Ashgate Publishing Group, England & USA, 2008.
ISBN 978-0-7546-5699-9.

Prof. William P. Malm, University of Michigan, writes in his introduction:
"An excellent companion for anyone who wants to know about Japanese music whether it is a court, religious, theatrical, folk or popular genre. It is filled with the results of current research by Japanese and Western specialists and enriched with extensive examples in notation and on audio tracks. The book opens a new era in Japanese music studies."

Prof. Tsukitani Tsuneko, Japan's foremost shakuhachi scholar, is represented with an article about the shakuhachi.

Tsukitani Tsuneko, in her conclusion, states as follows:
"The body of shakuhachi researchers in Japan is relatively small; names that recur in the bibliography include Kamisangō, Tsukitani/Tukitani, Seyama and Simura/Shimura. It is regrettable that the most conspicuous work is being produced not in Japan but by scholars abroad. (See the works by Fritsch, Gutzwiller, Keister, Lee, Olafsson.)"

You may order this excellent book here:
www.ashgate.com

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