Art of the Shakuhachi Vol I

Mitsuhashi Kifu
Celestial Harmonies - 13224-2
2001

Track	Title	Kanji	Length	Artist
1	Mukaiji (Don't know which version)	霧海箎	13'08	Shakuhachi: Mitsuhashi Kifu
	Legends recount that the priest Kakushin had a devoted disciple named Kichiku, who was an excellent shakuhachi player. Kichiku went on a pilgrimage to Ise province (today Mie prefecture) and eventually arrived at a shrine on top of Mt. Asama. While there he dozed off and dreamt of hearing wondrous flute sounds while drifting in the ocean in a small boat. After he awoke, he attempted to capture what he had heard in two new pieces for the shakuhachi, one of which was Mukaiji (‘Flute on the foggy sea’). Whatever the true source of this piece may have been, it is today considered to be one of the oldest honkyoku, ranking in importance with Koku (Empty sky, another piece that Kichiku supposedly composed on awakening), and Kyorei (Empty bell). The Kinko school Mukaiji is also known as Mukaiji-renbo or Mukaiji-reibo. This piece demands a playing technique known as kusabi-buki (wedge blowing) in which the breath is contoured like a wedge: first broadly and the gradually narrowing, producing a decrescendo. The mood of Mukaiji is highly refined and calm.
2	Choshi (Fudaiji)	調子	04'01	Shakuhachi: Mitsuhashi Kifu
	Choshi is a kind of prelude (take-shirabe) that allows the player to appraise his own breathing and examine the tuning and qualities of the instrument. Many types of takeshirabe are found throughout Japan. The one recorded here was transmitted to Kyoto from the Nagoya area and is today one of the most popular versions of the piece. This composition also requires the use of wedge blowing, and in very concise form includes most of the basic shakuhachi sounds and melodic motives. The Fudaiji, the institution through which this piece was transmitted, was a komuso temple in what is now Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture. After komuso temples were abolished in 1871, the site of the Fudaiji was taken over to become the first musical instrument factory in Japan, the ancestor of the Yamaha company.
3	Somaku Sha		08'15	Shakuhachi: Mitsuhashi Kifu
	According to ancient myths, this piece originated when Prince Shotoku (?-622) was playing the shakuhachi in a court music (gagaku) piece of the same name. A mountain spirit appeared and danced to this accompaniment. Since the gagaku shakuhachi has become entirely extinct, it remains a mystery what kind of music the Prince might have played. In any case, Somakusha, a bugaku ( dance piece ) in the Tagaku (Chinese-style music) repertory and featuring one dancer, is still performed by imperial court musicians today. A version for shakuhachi of the music for this dance was created by Ono Tadatsugu in the 1920s. Ono was a member of an important family of gagaku musicians. He was also an accomplished shakuhachi player with the bamboo name (a name given to skilled shakuhachi performers) Gindo. The piece begins with a prelude-like section known as netori (to 1' 15’) and then proceeds to the Somakusha proper. The melody is unlike most shakuhachi music today, for it features the scales, rhythms, timbres, and ornamentation of gagaku music.
4	Tsuru no Sugomori (Renpoken)	鶴の巣籠	21'56	Shakuhachi: Mitsuhashi Kifu
	An early version of the piece Tsuru no sugomori (The crane settles into its nest) is recorded as having been played in Kyoto as early as the end of the seventeenth century. Pieces by this title also exist in the kokyu (a bowed spike fiddle) and koto (zither) repertory, though the relation of these pieces to the shakuhachi version is not entirely clear. The shakuhachi piece also exists in a large number of variants. These can be broadly classified as Kansai (western Japan) and northern Japanese types. Both the Renpoken and the Kizenken were komuso temples in northern Japan, in what is now Fukushima prefecture. The version of the piece recorded here was transmitted through these temples to the renowned shakuhachi player Jinbo Masanosuke (1843-1914). The crane has since ancient times been considered an auspicious bird that lives for a thousand years. Perhaps for this reason this piece is among the most popular in the repertory. Tsuru no sugomori is somewhat programmatic, depicting in musically highly abstract terms the life of a pair of cranes. The composition begins with an opening section (to 1' 24’) that allows the player and the audience to encounter the tuning and sound of the instrument. The music then quickly moves on to portray a pair of cranes arriving from the sky (to 2' 23’). They seek for a nesting place and then begin to produce their nest. A section based on a piece known as San'ya (to 5' 49’) is followed by a melody in a somewhat higher range describing the joy of nest building (to 7' 52’). The nest is actually constructed (to 10' 09’) and when the eggs hatch the cranes again experience joy (to 12' 23’). The next segment seeks to render in music the feeling of love between parent and child (to 14' 32’), but eventually the chicks seek to separate themselves from their parents (to 17' 58’). In this section a special vibrato-like technique known as tabane is used to produce a sound that resembles the cry of a crane. The piece ends with a hachi-gaeshi section (to 19' 44’) and then finally a coda (omusubi). This composition is regarded as one of the most difficult in the entire shakuhachi repertory.
5	Hi Fu Mi Cho (Taizan Ha)	一二三調	03'33	Shakuhachi: Mitsuhashi Kifu
	Hifumi-cho is, like Choshi, a take-shirabe, a piece of an introductory nature, but it too has evolved into something of an independent composition. Hifumi-cho was introduced to the Kyoto Myoanji temple around 1895 by Higuchi Taizan (1856-1914), a player of the Kinko school in Tokyo. Hifumi means ‘one two three,’ implying a beginner's first steps; cho (or shirabe) means ‘mode’ or more literally ‘exploration.’ This piece is often the first music a novice learns, both in the Kinko and Myoanji schools. Hifumi-cho is characterized by a melody that remains entirely within the lower octave of the instrument. For this reason the mood of the composition is very calm.
6	Hachigaeshi (Taizan Ha)	鉢返	03'49	Shakuhachi: Mitsuhashi Kifu
	This piece, yet another take-shirabe, was also introduced to the Kyoto Myoanji by Higuchi Taizan. Hachi means bowl, and refers to the begging bowl that Buddhist monks used to collect donations. Kaeshi (or -gaeshi) means ‘return’ and signifies the music that a komuso played for the donor after receiving a small contribution of rice or coins. Hachigaeshi thus functioned as an expression of gratitude. In contrast to Hifumi-cho, which uses only the lower range of the instrument, the melody of Hachi-gaeshi employs mostly notes in a high range.
7	Mujunshin Kyoku	無住心曲	11'43	Shakuhachi: Mitsuhashi Kifu
	The title of this piece means ‘A heart with no abode’ or ‘an unattached spirit’. This Zen notion of remaining unattached to the world of appearances became a shakuhachi piece in 1937 when Jin Nyodo (1891-1966) was traveling through China in search of the spot where the legendary Fuke had been summoned to heaven. Since Jin had not sought to ‘compose’ this piece, he did not view himself as its creator. Instead, it only ‘came to be.’ The music is divided into four sections. In the first part (to 1' 24’) is a take-shirabe, a short melody is heard in the low range of the instrument. The second segment (to 6' 29’), known as honte (basic melody) features higher pitches in a flowing musical line with considerable dynamic range. In the third section (takane, to 9' 58’) this continues, but the music reaches for an even higher register. The fourth part, musubi (coda), returns to the lower end of the shakuhachi range and ends quietly. Mujushin kyoku includes much music that is the essence of the traditional honkyoku style. Only the pitches in the extremely high range of the third section, which allows for the expression of boundless sadness and loneliness, is not found in older traditional music.