Ethnic Folkways Library - Music of the Shakuhachi

Yasuda Shinpu
Folkways Records - FE 4218
1975

Track	Title	Kanji	Length	Artist
1	Choshi (Taizan Ha)	調子	03'47	Shakuhachi: Yasuda Shinpu
	This is considered to be especially basic to the Meian Koten Honkyoku. It is also known as Takeshirabe and holds a particularly important place in Shakuhachi music. Cho shi means melody. It is a very simple piece but certainly very profound. Usually a Meian student learns it as his first piece. At group Meian concerts the performers usually play it in unison before the concert begins. This tune is played on a long shakuhachi made of Aizu paulownia wood and it is called the Kotokan. Its length is exactly three shaku and six sun (107 cm.). This shakuhachi is just exactly one-octave lower than a regular shakuhachi and its tone quality is extremely soft.
2	Kyorei (Taizan Ha)	虚鈴	08'14	Shakuhachi: Yasuda Shinpu
	Considered next in importance to Choshi in the Koten Honkyoku. This is one of three Kyorei, or especially treasured pieces of the Meian school. A meian student can buy a package of all the Meian scores. They are usually numbered. Choshi is the first. However at the back are the three extra special pieces which are not numbered. Kyorei is one. It is said that this is a tune Hoto Kokushi brought back from Sung China. Kyochu Kuzen once imagined that he heard the sound of a reitaku (a staff with rings carried by certain monks that would produce a ringing sound when moved) while he was praying in the Asama temple of Yamato. He then composed this tune based upon the same kotokan that is used for Choshi.
3	Kokû (Taizan Ha)	虚空	10'43	Shakuhachi: Yasuda Shinpu
	This is also one of three Kyorei or special pieces. It has a very spiritual or Buddhist feeling. It is central to Buddhist, especially Shakuhachi music. On the one hand it is believed that Hoto Kokushi brought this tune back from Sung China while on the other hand it is said that Kyochiku composed it. It is played on the Hochiku Shakuhachi which is two shaku and three sun long (68 cm.). This Hochiku is considered to be typical of Shinge Shakuhachi.
4	Mukaiji (Taizan Ha)	霧海箎	09'51	Shakuhachi: Yasuda Shinpu
	This is the third of the three Kyorei. Kyochiku composed this tune while viewing Mt. Asama through a fog from a boat in Ise Bay. It conveys well the feeling of Ise mountains wrapped in a spring mist. The essence of classical Buddhist music is expressed in this piece. It is three shaku and three sun long (93 cm.).
5	Ajikan (Itchoken)	阿字観	08'28	Shakuhachi: Yasuda Shinpu
	From ancient times there was a town known as Aji in Kyuchu. Kiguchitaizan and Miyagawa Nyozan (35th generation of Meian School) added the term Kan and the tune came to be known as Ajikan. This piece is in the esoteric style peculiar to the Meian school of playing. It sounds like the chanting of Zen monks. It is typical Buddhist Shakuhachi music and is also known as Saji or Sa. It is played on a shakuhachi or specified length made of esron pipe. This is used to adapt the tune to the current auditory sense. It could be said that it represents the Renaissance of Japanese classical music. This esron pipe has seven holes and is 56 cm. long.