Christopher Yohmei Blasdel
Shakuhachi
yohmei@gol.com
http://www.yohmei.com
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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.
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Teachers
Students
Kyle Kamal Helou b. 1973 Perry Yung
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Heart of Bamboo Poetry and music in the zen tradition. |
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Night of the Garuda |
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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. | |
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Zen Reveries |
Tracks Recorded
Composed or Arranged
| Shakuhachi Compositions | |||
| 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 |
Publications
| Title | Kanji | Publisher | Year | Pages | Language |
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| Shakuhachi odessei [Shakuhachi Odyssey] | Bungei Spring | 2000 | 336-360 | ||
| The Shakuhachi: A Manual for Learning. (With Yuko Kamisango) | Tokyo: Ongaku no Tomo Sha | 1988 | |||
| The Shakuhachi: Aesthetics of a Single Tone | Japan Quarterly 31, no. 2 | 1984 | 214-217 | ||
| The Single Tone - A Personal Journey into Shakuhachi Music | Printed Matter Press | 2005 | 167 | English |
The International Shakuhachi Society - 2013