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This is a Koten piece in the Takuhatsu style from the Kinko Ryű school .

History (from Singer, John)
In this piece the term "Kyorei" is a suffix. "Shimotsuke" is a location name and it is not known from which temple this piece originated. However, it was transmitted by Shu Kyoku at Ichigetsu-Ji Temple in exchange for the piece "Yugure No Kyoku".

Shimotsuke Kyorei appears on the following albums:

Album	Shakuhachi	Koto	Shamisen
Complete Collection of Honkyoku from the Kinko School - Vol 2 - Disc 1  (Listen)	Aoki Reibo II
Kinko Ryu Honkyoku - 5  (Listen)	Aoki Reibo II
Shakuhachi no Shinzui-Shakuhachi Honkyoku - 08  (Listen)	Yamaguchi Goro
Spirit of Wind, The  (Listen)	Iwamoto Yoshikazu
"Kyorei" (Empty Spirit) appears as part of a title in many pieces of traditional shakuhachi music. It reminds us of the Buddhist concept of "Emptiness" (Sanskrit, Shunyata). The Madhyamika-karika says "What is dependent co-arising we call emptiness" and the popular Heart Sutra explains that "Form is emptiness and that very emptiness is form." This piece originated in the old Shimotsuke province (current Tochigi prefecture), north of Tokyo.