"Kinko Honkyoku."

Tajima Tadashi
World Network - Best.-Nr.: 32.379, LC 6759
1999

Track	Title	Kanji	Length	Artist
1	Hon Shirabe	本調	05'43	Shakuhachi: Tajima Tadashi
	Basis for Enlightenment, G#, 2.55 shaku Hon shirabe is regarded as preparation for what will follow: it is the first piece learned by most shakuhachi players; it is often used to begin a ceremony, a concert, or even one's own practice time; and it is often associated with a naïve state of mind prior to "understanding, spiritual awakening, higher perception, and spiritual enlightenment". Thus, while not requiring any advanced playing techniques, "Hon shirabe" does nevertheless require of the player an ability to control his own mind, his own breathing, and the performance environment. In other words, the essence of this piece is simplicity of style and the condensation of beauty.
2	Shika no Tōne (Kinko Ryū)	鹿の遠音	07'46	Shakuhachi: Tajima Tadashi
	Distant calls of deer, D, 1.8 shaku although this piece can be appreciated as a kind of "abstract music", it is usually interpreted as a tone poem or a piece of "programme music" in which a male deer, deep in an autumnal forest, utters cries of ardent affection for his far-off beloved partner. This piece is often performed by two players who alternate phrases, the prolonged sounds of which are either interpreted as the alternate cries of the male and female deer or as echoes of the male deer's own cries. In this particular performance, however, the singer soloist attempts to express feelings of solitude.
3	Shingetsu	心月	07'15	Shakuhachi: Tajima Tadashi
	Mode of the moon in the heart, G, 2.7 shaku An interpretation of this piece depicts the clear moon reflected in a heart in solitary confinement as if to illuminate the universe and the whole of creation. The enlightenment of this spiritual person is expressed through serenely sustained sounds enhanced by a series of sophisticated ornaments.
4	San'an	産安	07'51	Shakuhachi: Tajima Tadashi
	Wish for an easy delivery, B-flat, 2.2 shaku The piece may have been used in ceremonies performed by the Fuke sect of Zen Buddhism, in which komuso (mendicant priests ) cooked the rice offered to them during their mendicant performances. Before cooking the rice, it was washed in a bamboo tube; the resulting rice gruel was given to women in the process of childbirth in the belief that the babies would be delivered as easily (and painlessly) as the rice passing through the bamboo tube and that they could be safely reared on breast milk, thus emphasizing the value of new life.
5	Tsuru no Sugomori (Dokyoku)	鶴の巣籠	11'29	Shakuhachi: Tajima Tadashi
	Nesting of cranes, D, 1.8 shaku Tsuru no sugomori depicts various aspects of the life cycle of the crane, a bird symbolizing longevity in Oriental thought. A pair of cranes build a nest, lay an egg, raise a fledgling and rear it to maturity before bidding it farewell as it flies away and they are left to live out their allotted life span. Although the whole piece can be appreciated as a piece of absolute music, it is equally interesting to note the variety of programmatic playing techniques used in describing the wing flutters (trill-like fluttering effects, heard between 1:00 and 3:00 minutes), the cries (another trill-like technique, heard between 4:00 and 7:00), and even the fledgling's departure from its parents (a simple melodic line heard at around 7:50). As a whole, this piece is thought to emphasize Buddhistic values of affection between family members.
6	Yamagoe (aka Reiho)	鈴法	04'51	Shakuhachi: Tajima Tadashi
	The title of this piece suggests that even when one has passed the most difficult stage in a piece or work or the most critical stage in an illness, one can never fully relax until one reaches the end or the perfect recovery. This adage applies equally well to Buddhist training in asceticism as well as to study of the shakuhachi. In this recording, the vehement performing style effects a full range of dynamism by means of ever-fluctuating and fully ornamented melodic movements within a relatively narrow and low tessitura.
7	Ukigumo	浮雲	11'29	Shakuhachi: Tajima Tadashi
	Floating Clouds, G#, 2.55 shaku A clouds float quietly in the wide, deep sky, their shapes and sizes gradually change over time. This can be seen as a metaphor for human life, in which serenity, tranquility, and movement prevail.
8	Kokû (Dokyoku)	虚空	15'38	Shakuhachi: Tajima Tadashi
	The empty sky, G, 2.7 According to legend, Kyochiku (literally, "empty bamboo"), a Zen priest who founded the Myoan temple in Kyoto in the thirteenth century, fell asleep while practicing shakuhachi inside the temple at Ise. He dreamed of a solitary boat floating on a misty sea and heard a strange sound from the heavens. As the mist gradually disappeared, another sound reached his ears. Awakened, he immediately transcribed the mysterious sounds into the sounds of his bamboo instrument, thus creating three pieces: "Koku" (Empty sky), "Kyorei" (Empty bell), and "Mukaiji" (Misty sea). These pieces, which later became known as the "Three Olden Compositions," were all characteristically orderly and well regulated. "Koku" is no exception: built on two contrasting parts, one with simple melodic movements in a slow tempo and the other with more complex ornamented melodic figures, both parts retain a mood of tranquility and serenity, ending with the instrument's lowest pitch.