Beyond Japan Update

Shakuhachi Summer Adventure

June, 2003

"Without love, beauty, and danger, it would almost be easy to live."

PART II: ENTER COLORADO

Entering Denver and Boudler, Colorado with butterflies in my hara. Lots of time to practice shakuhachi and write.

The root of my heart

Desires to blow the flute

On the cavern floor

I step on the path

Wind blows eternally none

I am still a child

Moving to extreme

I back into a balance

Again I miss it.

Blowing the bamboo

All waste and hurt fall away

only beauty left

I walk into death

Opening lotus people

ro tsu re chi ri

Concentrated air

fueling the bamboo tube

breath sight, empty sky

The clock ticks falsely

The mind makes movement and sound

The bamboo shatters

The Kiss of Emptiness

Bamboos waiting to merge again perfectly imperfect they call to me to stroke the earth-light-dark shining surface to evoke the sonic power riding on the edge of eternity of dimentional bonding through light and dark combinations pulling ki from the center point opening and closing the empty forms deeply moving deeply yearning a bell in the distance floating in the empty sky embracing the mountain anywhere everywhere< nowhere< roots clutching extracting you from primordial ground touching makes the alchemy happen sculpting into true wonder we kiss and the Universe awakens as waves crash against sand and stones whispering like harmonics of first timing remembering forgetting remembering letting go the harmonics of first meeting

6/25

Yesterday was an auspicious day. After helping David Wheeler make a poster for the Shakuhachi Masters concert, I returned to the hostel and my friend, James and I visited the Nippon Kan Dojo in Denver, the largest Aikido dojo in the Rocky Mountains. It's founder, Gaku Homma was the last uchi-deshi (live in student) of the founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba. It's a truly impressive structure with an adjoining traditional Japanese-style organic cuisine country restaurant (called DOMO, ranked one the of 5 top Japanese restaurants in North America), and Japanese folk art museum. I first visited the dojo 5 years ago after attending the big World Shakuhachi Festival in Boulder in 1998. My friend John Uchikura, who is also an avid Aikido practitioner and shakuhachi player was with me and we walked into DOMO restaurant inquiring to speak to Gaku Homma Sensei. He happened to be cooking that day and speaking to us from the kitchen, we explained to him that we were shakuhachi players just coming from a big festival. I asked if he would like us to play for his customers in the restaurant. His eyes widened and he agreed. So John and I proceeded to play a selection of folk melodies and honkyoku switching off and playing duets every now and then, as we walked around the restaurant. When we finished, Homma sensei insisted we sit down as he was going to prepare a meal for us. The food was sumptuously and beautifully prepared in the traditional folk-style of old Japan. Afterwards he personally gave us a tour of the grand dojo and museum. As a parting gift he gave us copies of his books written about Aikido and Japanese cooking, which he personally signed. We promised to return someday and to perhaps train Aikido the next time. That time was yesterday. We wanted to eat at DOMO restaurant, but it was closed that night. So we entered the dojo entrance hall and genkan, and sat in the waiting area in front of the main office. I was very surprised at how developed their system of organizing the students. He has so many students that everyone is assigned a number and has to announce to the secretary their number before they start practice. We heard, 405, 309, 250.....It's known that Homma sensei has taught over 12,000 students at Nippon Kan. Amazing. I asked the woman in the front office if Homma sensei was in and if it was ok to see him. She asked who I was and I told her, "Shakuhachi player from Canada". She relayed the message to the sensei who came out. I greeted him and asked if he remembered me. He said "Of course!" and invited us to train with him that night and afterwards he would take us out to dinner. James declined since he hadn't been practicing so long. The secretary found an extra pair of do-gi for me to work out in since I didn't bring mine, and I joined in the keiko (practice) which was very interesting for me as well as fun. Very different style of Aikido I'm used to from my dojo in Vancouver. I learned a lot from practicing with his yudansha (black belts).

After class, we went out for sushi together and caught up on life happenings. Returning to the dojo, Homma sensei leads us into the folk museum and asks to hear my shakuhachi. As I evoke a melody from the bamboo, Homma sensei approaches the okedo taiko drum in the corner of the room, sits seiza in front of it and starts to beat and stroke the skin gently, quitely, letting the sound of the shakuhachi fill the space. We play together for several minutes in an organic session of heart, flute, and drum then end in a trail of silence and potentiality.

I thank him for his hospitality and promised to return again in the future.