Japan update

Shakuhachi has but one joint (fushi)
Only one refrain (fushi)
Yet so familiar a ring,
It wins over ones successive generations
like an old friend.

----Kobori Enshu

October, 1999

I hope all of you are doing well and in good spirits. I have been in Japan now for about one year and things are going wonderfully well and smooth. The last time I was in Japan was from 1992-1996 and it was kind of a rough experience since my famililarity with living in the culture and especially the language usage was quite limited. But this time around things are so much more fluid and easy since all that I've learned has sunk down and penetrated to a deeper part of my consciousness.

I live in the little town of Asakadai in Saitama Prefecture, just outside of Tokyo. I take the trains to and from work. I am amazed with the wonderful design of the transportation system in Tokyo. A miracle of modern technology! It seems quite a complex and daunting task at first to use but it is very efficient and easy once one gets used to it.

Teaching English to corporate business people is so much more enjoyable and satisfying for me than teaching jr. high and high school kids since these folks are very interested in learning something. It is very refreshing. I also work as an editor for a petro-chemical research center a few days to give me more variety in work.

But the reason why I am here in Japan is to study shakuhachi. I had my first lesson with Furuya Teruo sensei the second week in Japan and it was quite revelatory for my playing. I improved so much after just that one lesson. I go to him every Friday for about one hour. Furuya sensei is one of the top deshi (disciple) of the master Katsuya Yokoyama (and a very nice man, I might add!). Yokoyama sensei recently had a stroke and is unable to play. He is undergoing rehab in his hometown of Bisei, Okayama Prefecture. But he still gives lessons by singing and talking to the student about the music. I also just started studying with Kakizakai Kaoru every other Saturday in the town of Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture. He is also a major deshi of Yokoyama sensei. The other major deshi of Yokoyama-sensei is Matama-san who lives in Yokohama. But I'll mainly be studying with Furuya-sensei and Kakizakai-sensei. They specialize in the style of shakuachi playing style of Yokoyama Katsuya who studied honkyoku from the eccentric virtuoso player, Watazumi-do Shuso. I am also interested in studying a little of the Jin Nyodo tradition of shakuhachi with Mitsuhashi Kifu in Tokyo. So I will start lessons with him in November. I feel quite fortunate to be in Japan at this time in history since this generation of shakuhachi teachers are more open about letting students study with other teachers. In the old days there was an interesting contradiction. The master prohibited the student from studying with anyone else, but it was common practice and generally understood that everyone stole techniques from various teachers (surreptitiously of course) even from one's own master! I was told this was one of the main functions of the uchi-deshi system (where the student becomes a live in disciple of the master) so that it is easier for the student to steal techniques form the master. Interesting use of language! My schedule is flexible enough to give me lots of time to practice which I am grateful for. I practice every morning and evening for a few hours. Some days I have large gaps of time where I can practice even longer.

It's fascinating to see how this instrument reflects the Japanese culture in various ways. For instance, the presence of space between things and thoughts is prevalent in the shakuahchi and Japanese culture. This space is called 'ma'. In martial arts it's called 'ma-ai' or the meeting of space between opponents. This ma exists when people communicate with each other in Japanese. Silence is a valued virtue in the society which comes from the Confucian and zen influence of the mistrust of words. More weight is placed on a person's actions. Japanese are not conditioned to be assertive in their expression of speech like in the west. "Silence is golden" is a popular saying in Japan. As a result this 'ma' is very important in shakuhachi traditional honkyoku (original shakuhachi solo pieces) as well. The long note as it trails off in to non-existence and back into its full sound and back into nothingness is a standard Japanese tone line. The degradation of the note, the sound of air hitting the blowing edge making the sound of the wind through the trees as it dies down to silence is aesthetically pleasing in shakuhachi music. It's all about creating tone colours and shapes much like a painter uses paints to create a picture. It's true that shakuhachi music tends to be on the minor side of the musical scale. This is in keeping with the wabi-sabi aesthetic of the lonely, dark, solitary sonic mood that expresses the suffering of existence and the hardships of the monaststic life as well as the beauty of the degeneration things. The intentional flattening or narrowing of the note is also reflective of the close, narrow proximity that people and buildings are in. The flattening to full note cycle is like weaving in and out of Japanese streets: narrrow to wide to narrow to wide; just like breathing.