Home People Pieces Recordings Bibliography Schools Glossary Sites & Events Teachers Join the ISS Log In

Tsuru no Sugomori (Don't know which version)

鶴の巣籠

[Genre]Honkyoku

Tsuru no Sugomori (Don't know which version) appears on the following albums

Album Artist

Home is Now Shakuhachi : Horacio Curti

Ichi Shakuhachi : Horacio Curti
Cranes are precious birds in Japan. This piece makes reference to their life cycle.
Play ButtonJin Nyodo No Shakuhachi 06 Shakuhachi : Jin Nyodo

Kinko Ryū Shakuhachi Koten Honkyoku Shakuhachi : Kawase Junsuke II
Shakuhachi : Tanaka Jodō

Melody of Japan - Stillness of Winter Shakuhachi : Miyata Kōhachirō
Koto : Yui Ensemble
Play ButtonMichi Shakuhachi : Tokuyama Takashi
Although from the temple of Meianji, the structure of this piece suggests a later date of composition. While the opening section is indeed similar to the Meianji school interpretation, the sudden appearance of higher (kan) tones connects Tsuru-no-sugomori with Koku and Sanya. However, a revealing signature of the sugomori music is a playing technique that is characterized by the sound "koro-koro, koro-koro," as well as the steady rhythm and traditional scale. The "Sugomori" preserved in the kinko -ryu tradition (Sokaku-reibo) is similar to Beethoven in that the emotions portrayed are dynamic and build gradually in a tight construction. The Meianji school, on the other hand, is more like Mozart, wherein new phrases are continually introduced. Tsuru-no-sugomori consists of nine sections. Two of these (seven and eight), however, were long considered "secret" and were only revealed to a master's more gifted disciples. We know now that the seventh and eighth "secret" sections are merely repetitions of the ninth and sixth sections respectively. It seems that during an undetermined time, the shakuhachi music to "Sugomori" was lost. It is believed that the piece was preserved within the Kokyu and then later adapted back again for shakuhachi. Also, within the Kabuki play Chusinguya, five different versions of Tsuru-no-sugomori exist. This is unique considering that shakuhachi was seldom included as a part of Kabuki theater.

Music for Zen Meditation - Shakuhachi Japanese Flute Shakuhachi : Rodrigo Rodriguez
Play ButtonNeutral Point - Forest Shakuhachi : Nakamura Akikazu

Poeme du Bambou Shakuhachi : Marco Lienhard
Play ButtonRakugaki Shakuhachi : Helen Dryz
Play ButtonShakuhachi - Classical Modern Best 30 - 02 Shakuhachi : Hoshida Ichizan II
Shakuhachi : Hoshida Ichizan I
Play ButtonShakuhachi - Ryudo - 02 Shakuhachi : Takahashi Ryudo

Shakuhachi - The Japanese Flute Shakuhachi : Miyata Kōhachirō
Perhaps no other composition in the entire solo repertory has suffered so much mutilation as this haunting work. The title means "Tenderness of Cranes,” specifically referring to such tenderness as is expressed between parent birds and their young. Many of the special trill effects can be considered as imitation of bird sounds, although so many variants of this piece exist-not only in different regions, but among different schools and even different performers-that the reference is not always specific. In the hands of some players it has degenerated into little more than a vehicle for virtuoso display. The piece is played here on the standard (1.8-foot) shakuhachi.

Solstice Spirit Shakuhachi : James Nyoraku 如楽 Schlefer
This honkyoku, which translates as Nesting Cranes, uses specialized techniques in depicting the lives of cranes. One of the few clearly programmatic honkyoku, it describes the cranes' love calls, the mother turning her eggs, and the parents raising their chicks. This particular version of Tsuru no Sugamori, from the Meian temple, is remarkable for its chant-like, almost hypnotic rhythmic pulse.
Play ButtonSound of Bamboo, The Shakuhachi : Takahashi Kûzan
Play ButtonSound of Zen, The Shakuhachi : Okuda Atsuya
Play ButtonWild Silence Shakuhachi : Elizabeth Reian Bennett
Play ButtonWorld of Zen Music, The - Saji Shakuhachi : Nakamura Akikazu
This piece begins with a graphic depiction of a pair of cranes flying through the sky at daybreak. They build a nest, breed, care for their young, eventually take leave of their offspring, and finally prepare to meet their deaths. This depiction of the whole life-cycle of cranes is considered to be a musical allegory imbued with the Buddhist ideas of compassion and sadness.

The performance makes use of a variety of techniques unique to the shakuhachi such as shakes and tremolos (korokoro, karakara) , glottal trills (tamane) and flutter-tonguing (tabane). These are used to imitate the flapping of the wings and the cries of the parent cranes and their chicks. They may be used in combination or together with multi-phonics to evoke the image of the cranes. At the climax of the piece, the korokoro shake technique is combined with tamane glottal trills and multi-phonics consisting of four or five different pitches in order to depict the cries and wing-flapping of the two parents and their chicks all at the same time.

In the second half of the piece a mysterious atmosphere is invoked by the appearance of an 'altered' scale as the foundation for a melody called ko-wakare (the separation of parents from their young).

Tsuru no sugomori is the title of many different pieces from all parts of Japan. There are in fact more than twenty pieces which bear this title, although the number far exceeds this if variants are also included.

The version of Tsuru no sugomori featured on this disc is that associated with the Shoganken temple in Iwate Prefecture. Of the many pieces bearing the title, this is the most virtuosic and possesses the most complex structure.