Beyond Japan Update

European U-Turn Tour 2003

September 28, 2003

I left Canada with thoughts of the Vancouver Shakuhachi Festival and how it may turn out. I did all I could to get as many things in place as possible before I left such as making the web site, schedules, advertisting, sponsorship, etc. So I felt a little bit more secure about leaving for a month away from the helm. Thanks to my wife Sandra, she took care of all the new registrants and other important details while I was away. Also, we're very grateful to Norman Stanfield for securing the University of British Columbia Asian Centre for us to use as the venue for the Festival.

THE U-TURN TOUR

October, 2003

This was my first trip to Europe. I had a brief desire to go to the UK while I was in high school but my desire to go to Japan to study shakuhachi eventually consumed my being. But I've always dreamed to playing shakuhachi in Europe at some point in my life. When Uzume Taiko accepted me to join them on this tour that dream became a reality. Without going into a long-winded description of the experience, this tour of Belgium and Holland was a great success, and gave us much confidence in our work. With the help of a fine tour manager, we traveled all over Belgium and Holland by van and truck to each of the 15 theaters, some huge and some small. We started from Amsterdam, then drove through the country sides, with our first show in Asse, Belgium eventually finishing in Steenwijk, Holland. Every place we played to an average audience attendance of 250, and each place gave us a standing ovation without fail.

The wonderful thing about Europe for performance groups is that theaters are in such close proximity to one another, as opposed to Canada where everything is so far apart. Driving 8 hours to a venue is not uncommon. Whereas in Europe not more than three hours is the farthest one has to drive to a venue. Therefore it's easier to make a living as a performer in Europe. People in Europe also seem to appreciate live shows of a less commercial nature more than in North America. Europeans also seem to be less enslaved by home-entertainment than North Americans. Driving from town to town was quite challenging. Without our tour manager, Dirk Bryzzbaert, we would never have been able to accomplish the tour. Even with his trusted experience, we made countless u-turns as we navigated through the highways and byways of Belgium and Holland. Hence the dubbing of the "U-turn Tour".

KAITO and the KOMOSO SCHOLAR

During one of our breaks, I had the opportunity to meet other shakuhachi folks in Holland and Denmark. I was invited to Leiden, Holland to give a workshop at a SUIREN-JI Zen Centre for the Kaito Dutch Shakuhachi Society, organized by Kees Kort. Kees was kind enough to set this up for me and put me up for the night at his place, as well as drive me to the train station the next morning.

Kaito at Suirenji.

We barely made it to Skiphold train station in Amsterdam with 4 minutes to spare before my train to Copenhagen departed. I almost cancelled my trip to Denmark due to the cost of the trip, but finally decided on going since this may be the only time to meet Torsten Olafsson at his home. Torsten just published his translation of the 17th century KAIDO HONSOKU (via Monty Levenson), the oldest surviving philosophical account of the Fuke Shakuhachi movement. It's a totally fascinating subject to me since I've always wondered what the practice of shakuhachi was like back in the old days of Japan. Apparently it was not as closely connected to zen as previously thought, which was what I intuitively suspected. Torsten's CD ROM translation of the Kaido Honsoku can be purchased on Monty's site, www.shakuhachi.com.

Torsten picked me up from Copenhagen Central Station and we drove to his home in Helsignor (Elsinore) where we spent the evening talking about the Kaido Honsoku in depth. I awoke the next morning and practiced shakuhachi for an hour in his basement then we talked more about shakuhachi subjects over brunch as we listened to old vinyl records of Watazumi-doso. Before Torsten brought me to the train station to go back to Amsterdam, he took me to Kronberg Castle, where Shakespeare was inspired to write the play "Hamlet". As we drove toward our destination in the dying light of the late afternoon, the fortress-castle Kronberg rose out of the horizon like a gothic ghost dream. From the Castle cliffs overlooking the Baltic Bay you could see Sweden in the distance, canopied by ominous black clouds, pregnant with rain and storm. We drove back to Torsten's place to pick up my luggage then we drove to the train station where I took the overnight train back to Amsterdam, comforted by new imaginations and inspirations about the shakuhachi.

Torsten Olafsson at his home in Elsinore, Denmark.

Overall the tour of Europe was a great success. Other highlights of the trip were meeting the German Taiko group, WADOKYO, making new European friends, and drinking the various European beers!

ON TO THE VSF 2003

My body never really adjusted fully to European time zone, so returning to Vancouver felt wonderful, to say the least. Also relieved to be back to focus on organizing the Vancouver Shakuhachi Festival. I got back to find that 30 people will be coming to partake in the Festival and we hope to have more people register in the next couple weeks before the actual event takes place. Folks from Japan, California, Oregon, Washington, Victoria, Kootenay Mountains, and Alberta will be coming. We're all very excited here about the First Vancouver Shakuhachi Festival. It promises to be a beautiful and inspiring experience. Hope to see you there!