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Christopher Yohmei Blasdel, born in Texas, began the shakuhachi and studies of Japanese music in 1972 with shakuhachi master, Living National Treasure Goro Yamaguchi. He received a teaching license and the professional name "Yohmei" from Yamaguchi in 1984. At the same time, he completed graduate work in ethnomusicology at Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music. A permanent resident of Japan, he has performed, taught and lectured throughout China, Thailand, Europe, North America, Mexico, India, Malaysia and the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. He has been a visiting artist in residence at Earlham College, Richmond Indiana, guest professor at the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, invited artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, resident of Centrum Arts Center and recently awarded an Asian Cultural Council grant to study the transmission of Thai traditional music. He was an executive director of the Boulder World Shakuhachi Festival 1998 and is the artistic director of the Fukuoka Gendai Hogaku Festival for contemporary Japanese music.

His book, "A Shakuhachi Odyssey," written in Japanese, is published by Kawade Shobo Shinsha and was awarded the prestigious Rennyo Award for non fiction.

In his musical activities, Blasdel maintains a balance between traditional shakuhachi music, modern compositions and cross-genre work with a great variety of well-known musicians, dancers, poets, and painters, both Western and Eastern. Blasdel presently performs, teaches, and records in Japan and around the world. He works as Advisor to the Arts Program at the International House of Japan, is part-time lecturer at International Christian University and Temple University in Tokyo, teaches privately at the Asahi Culture Center in Shinjuku and writes occasionally for The Japan Times. He holds a second-degree black belt in Aikido.

Speciality: Shakuhachi
Email: yohmei@gol.com
Homepage: http://www.yohmei.com

Teachers:

Yamaguchi Goro

Albums released:

	Heart of Bamboo Poetry and music in the zen tradition.
	Night of the Garuda
	Voices from Afar - Voices From Within Shakuhachi. koto, shamisen, oud and voice.
	Watching the Waves Shakuhachi accompanies poetry with traditional Japanese and zen Buddhist themes. Classical and modern poems with honkyoku.
	Zen Reveries

Track	Album
Another Kind of Dream   (Listen)	Zen Reveries
Dorian Dance   (Listen)	Voices from Afar - Voices From Within
Gates of Heaven and Earth, The   (Listen)	Voices from Afar - Voices From Within
Gendai Choshi   (Listen)	Zen Reveries
Hi Fu Mi Hachigaeshi no Shirabe (Kinko Ryu)	Night of the Garuda
Mama no Kawa	Night of the Garuda
Morning Becomes Electric   (Listen)	Zen Reveries
Night of the Garuda	Night of the Garuda
Pale Lights   (Listen)	Zen Reveries
Replay   (Listen)	Zen Reveries
Shadow of the Rose, The   (Listen)	Voices from Afar - Voices From Within
Song of Atitlan, The	Night of the Garuda
Storytelling on a Winter's Night   (Listen)	Voices from Afar - Voices From Within
Tears of Heaven, The   (Listen)	Voices from Afar - Voices From Within
Tsuki (Masumoto)	Night of the Garuda
Worthless Shakuhachi, Five Songs from the Kanginshu   (Listen)	Voices from Afar - Voices From Within
Yearnings   (Listen)	Voices from Afar - Voices From Within
Zen Mondoh   (Listen)	Zen Reveries

Year	Title	Kanji	Alternate Title
	Night of the Garuda
	Song of Atitlan, The
1986	Yearnings	憧憬
1987	Dorian Dance	ドーリア風の舞
1988	Gates of Heaven and Earth, The	乾坤関
1989	Shadow of the Rose, The	薔薇の影で
1989	Worthless Shakuhachi, Five Songs from the Kanginshu	篇ないものは、尺八ぢや J 閑吟集より五つの謡
1996	Another Kind of Dream
1996	Gendai Choshi
1996	Morning Becomes Electric
1996	Pale Lights
1996	Replay
1996	Zen Mondoh