Watazumi Doso  (b.1910-d.1992)

Watazumi Doso was the founder and head of Watazumi-Do, a discipline using the bamboo flute to directly express the realization of  mind through transcending the illusion of separation between performer and instrument.

Born in Tokyo in 1910, he first played for the Emperor of Japan at the age of 25, later serving as lecturer in the Ministry of the Imperial House from 1940-45. From 1940 until 1951, when he founded his own school, (Watazumi-Do), Watazumi Doso was regarded as the foremost exponent of the Fuke School of Shakuhachi.

The leading candidate for selection as a Living National Treasure of Japan in 1962, Watazumi Doso declined this rare honor in order to continue his intensive practices.

Therea re many types of Japanese flutes, ranging in length from several inches to several feet, of which the shakuhachi is probably the most well-known type. Watazumi Doso sharply distinguished the instruments he played on (which he called Hocchiku or 'Bamboo of the Dharma or Way'), from the standard shakuhachi which was a flute whose bore is built up with paste and lacquer. Hocchiku were very raw pieces of bamboo with minimal work done to the inside of the bore, and which are very large in diameter. Watazumi Doso also practiced the jo, an oak pole about 12 feet in length, associated with maritlal arts in Japan.

The practices center around three movements: breathing out, stretching out, and grasping. With the exception of time spent working and sleeping, the students entire time is spent in these activities, utilizing both bamboo flute and jo.

Watazumi Doso did not consider himself a musician but rather a teacher of a spiritual discipline centered on the jo and bamboo flute. Even so, ethnomusicalogists regarded him as one of the world's finest shakuhachi players.

"So in that sound you have to put in your guts, your strength and your own specialness. And what you are putting in then is your own Life and your own Life Force.

When you hear some music or hear some sound, if for some reason you like it very well; the reason is that sound is in balance or in harmony with your pulse. And so making a sound, you try to make various different sounds that imitate various different sounds of the universe, but what you are finally making is your own sound, the sound of yourself."

                                                            ----Watazumi Doso