Zen Music - III
Yamaguchi Gorō
Victor, Japan - SJL-2063
| Track | Title | Kanji | Length | Artist | |
1  |
Yugure no Kyoku | 夕暮の曲 | 15'04 |
Shakuhachi: Yamaguchi Gorō | |
| The title means 'the Tune of Evening." It is said that this piece was composed form the musical impressions of the evening bell of Chi-On-In, a famous temple in Kyoto. There are some sections which suggest the sounds of the temple bell. This is an artistic music and not of religious use. | |||||
| 2 |
Akita Sugagaki (Kinko Ryu) | 秋田菅垣 | 12'32 |
Shakuhachi: Yamaguchi Gorō | |
| Akita is the name of a district in the northern part of the Japanese main island and sugagaki denotes some instrumental pieces for strings. It seems that this piece originated in Akita district as an arrangement for a shakuhachi from a certain piece for a string-instrument and later spread to other districts. This is not a ritual music, either. | |||||
| 3 |
Mukaiji Reibo | 霧海箎鈴慕 | 25'38 |
Shakuhachi: Yamaguchi Gorō | |
| This, as well as 'Shin-no-Kyorei,' is one of the three pieces that used to be the most respected of all honkyoku pieces: Reibo is commonly understood as 'the yearning for the bell.' According to the legend, the origin of those pieces which bear reibo in their titles is as follows: Fuke-Zenji in the Tang dynasty, the founder of the Fuke sect, used to propagate his doctrine in streets ringing a small bell in his hand; after his death his disciples composed shakuhachi pieces reminiscent of their master's bell sounds. Mukaiji consists of three words, or three Chinese characters, I.I. Mu, kai and chi(-ji), each meaning the for, the sea, and the flute. There is a story to the effect that Kichiku, a chief disciple of Kakushin who founded the Fuke sect shakuhachi music in Japan, composed this piece after a dream he dreamed in Kokuzo-do, a temple in Ise district, that he heard beautiful flute melodies, not knowing whence it came, while he was on a boat on an open sea in the fog. | |||||