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This is a Sokyoku piece in the Maybe Meiji Shinkyoku style from the Yamada Ryû school . This piece was composed for shakuhachi by Nakanoshima Kin'ichi in 1934 . This piece was composed for koto by Nakanoshima Kin'ichi .

History (from Tsuge Gen'ichi)
Nakanoshima, a contemporary virtuoso of the koto and shamisen and a talented composer of traditional Japanese music, made this work at the request of NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) in 1934. The text is a free translation into Japanese of an ode by Su Tung-p'o, a Chinese poet of the Sung dynasty (tenth century). The ode expresses the poet's deep emotions on visiting the ancient battlefield of Ch'ih-pi or Sekiheki ('Red Cliff') on the Yangtze River in Hupei province.

Poem (translated by Tsuge Gen'ichi)
Under the full moon
Only a handful of stars.
Laying aside their arms.
Warriors
Might have once sung
With the magpies flying south.

Warriors,
Triumphant in victory -
How changed the times!
Where are they now?

Far from the fleeting world,
Light in spirit
On a leaf-like craft.
Let us toast
The moonlit night.
How wonderful!

This ephemeral life
(If extinguished,
A dream,
A gossamer shimmer?)
Put into such a world -
How short, how short!

On the Great Wide River
Flowing to eternity
We drink to the moon
The whole night through -
Goblets
And goblets,
Back and forth.
The new moon waxes,
If the clouds clear
(They laugh, then cry)
The full face
Of the moon.
Ah, the flowing river
Day and night it courses
Though one thousand autumns,
Ten thousand ages.
Why falter
Over small illusions?

That full moon
Over the mountain pass!
The reflected image
On the river surface!
However long one watches,
There is no tiring.
However much one takes in,
There is no end.

Glowing and shining,
One thousand miles
The moon floats
Into ten thousand homes.

How elegant!
How elegant!
Well,
Let us have another!
Let the current
Take us,
Let the current
Take us.

Sekiheki no Fu appears on the following albums:

Album	Shakuhachi	Koto	Shamisen
Japanese Masterpieces for the Shakuhachi  (Listen)	Yes
The name of a Chinese poem (The Feeling of The Red Wall) which is sung at the beginning of music. Composed by Seizan Shibata for 3 sizes of shakuhachi, - the longest being 2 ft. 4 in., the bell is played by the same performer with a 3-hole shakuhachi.
Japanese Masterpieces for the Shakuhachi (LP)  (Listen)
The name of a Chinese poem (The Feeling of The Red Wall) which is sung at the beginning of music. Composed by Seizan Shibata for 3 sizes of shakuhachi, - the longest being 2 ft. 4 in., the bell is played by the same performer with a 3-hole shakuhachi.
Musique Traditionnelle du Japon  (Listen)	Kikusui Kofu
SEKIHEKI NO FU est une prière bouddhique que Kofu Kikusui a composée d'après une pièce ancienne de style traditionnel d'origine chinoise. Le musicien utilise ici deux shakuhachis de longueurs différentes. Le second instrument est tenu par la main gauche tandis que la droite agite une petite cloche bouddhique.