NCMR_MeijiEffectShakuhachi

Nineteenth-Century Music Review, 10 (2013), pp 265–292.
doi:10.1017/S1479409813000268
r Cambridge University Press, 2013
The Effect of Meiji Government Policy on
Traditional Japanese Music During the
Nineteenth Century: The Case of
the Shakuhachi
Kiku Day
Email: [email protected]
The nineteenth century was the major turning point in traditional Japanese music, leading to
changes in the musical world that rendered it well-nigh unrecognizable. With the introduction,
in 1871, of a primary school curriculum in which only Western music was to be taught,
traditional Japanese music began its journey to marginalization – in the end becoming a genre
that sounded foreign to a majority of the inhabitants of its own native country.
The vertical bamboo flute shakuhachi was particularly affected by the new Meiji
government’s modernization process. During the Edo period (1603–1867), mendicant monks
organized in the Fuke sect had enjoyed a monopoly on playing the instrument. With the
abolishment of the sect, in 1871, and the prohibition of begging for the following decade, the
social position of shakuhachi players was radically changed. This article explores the ways in
which shakuhachi players adapted to these changes in order to survive. That adaptation
affected not only the construction of the instrument, but also the music itself.
Introduction
The modernization process following the Meiji Restoration, of 1868, and the
introduction of Western music into the primary school curriculum, had a powerful
influence on the role of the shakuhachi in Japanese culture. This bamboo flute had
been the sole – or nearly sole – domain of the mendicant monks of the Fuke sect.
With the abolishment of that sect, in 1871, and the prohibition of begging that held
for the following decade, the social position of shakuhachi players was radically
changed. The nature of that change is the subject of this article.
History and Background
The shakuhachi is a Japanese vertical notched oblique bamboo flute with four
finger holes on the front and one thumbhole on the back. It is widely believed
that the shakuhachi was introduced into Japan from China via the Korean
peninsula during the Nara period (710–794), as one of the instruments in the
gagaku (court) ensemble,1 although there are other versions of how and when the
1
TSUKITANI Tsuneko, SEYAMA Tōru and SHIMURA Satoshi, ‘The Shakuhachi: the
instrument and its music, change and diversification’, Contemporary music review 8/2
(1994): 103–29, here 105.
266
Fig. 1
Nineteenth-Century Music Review
Shakuhachi said to be owned by OZAKI Shinryū (1820–1888)
instrument came to Japan.2 The earliest examples of the shakuhachi extant today are
found at the Shōsōin, a repository built in 756, which contains eight shakuhachi used
in the ceremony performed for the consecration of the Great Buddha of Tōdaiji
temple in 752.3 These shakuhachi have six finger holes (five in the front and one
thumb hole) and produce a heptatonic scale as probably used contemporaneously
in China. When the gagaku ensemble was reorganized4 in the mid-ninth century,
the shakuhachi fell into disuse. A period of several centuries ensued in which no
references to the instrument appear in surviving historical documents.
The first mention of the instrument after this hiatus appears in 1233 in the
], a ten-volume treatise on gagaku written by KOMA NochikaKyōkunshō [
]: ‘The short flute is called shakuhachi. It is now played by mekurahōshi
zane [
[blind monks] and performers of sarugaku [theatre]’.5 The first known illustration
],6 of 1512, although the
of a shakuhachi is found in the Taigenshō [
illustration is dated to the late fourteenth century. This shakuhachi is called
hitoyogiri, or ‘one node shakuhachi’.7
During the early seventeenth century, the shakuhachi-playing monks organized
] or Fuke sect,
themselves within an institutional setting under the Fukeshū [
]
a subsect of Rinzai Zen. The monks of the Fuke sect were termed komusō [
or ‘priests of nothingness’. The first decree that granted the Fuke sect special
], was enacted in 1614 by the first
privileges, Keichō no Okitegaki [
Tokugawa Shōgun, TOKUGAWA Ieyasu (1543–1616). This served as the legal basis
for the establishment of the Fuke sect, which admitted only men of the samurai
, unemployed samurai] as members of the order. The special
class and rōnin [
privileges granted the komusō included monopoly rights over the use of the
shakuhachi (laymen were officially prohibited from playing the shakuhachi – a rule
implemented in 1677) and travel passes that allowed them to travel to any part
2
In Kyotaku Denki Kokuji Kai [Japanese Translation and Annotation of the History of
the Kyotaku] the Buddhist priest SHINCHI Kakushin (1207–1298) is said to have brought the
shakuhachi from China to Japan, along with a playing tradition that dated back to the Tang
Dynasty (618–907). The existence of the instruments found in the Shōsōin indicates that the
instrument’s history in Japan is at least five centuries older than SHINCHI Kakushin’s journey
to the Southern Song. See YAMAMOTO Morihide, Kyotaku Denki Kokuji Kai (Kyoto: Kōto
Shōrin, 1795/R Tokyo: Nihon ongaku sha, 1981).
3
TSUKITANI Tsuneko, ‘The Shakuhachi and its Music’, in The Ashgate Research
Companion to Japanese Music, ed. Alison M. Tokita and David W. Hughes (Aldershot:
Ashgate, 2008): 145–68.
4
In the ninth century, the gagaku music was reorganized into two groupings, of
Chinese and Korean music respectively, which led to a reduction of the instrumentation.
See Steven G. Nelson, ‘Court and Religious Music (1): History of gagaku and shōmyō’, in The
Ashgate Research Companion, 35–48, here 40–41.
5
KOMA Nochikazane. Kyōkunshō (1233) (Tokyo: Gendai Shichōsha, 1977).
6
TOYOHARA Nomuaki [
], Taigenshō [
] (1512), ed. MASAMUNE Atsuo
(Tokyo: Gendai Shichōsha, 1978).
7
See Tsukitani, ‘The Shakuhachi and its Music’, 147.
Day: The Case of the Shakuhachi
267
of Japan.8 According to the rules of the sect, the shakuhachi was to be used
], a sacred tool, for the purpose of spiritual training and
exclusively as a hōki [
, religious mendicancy]. However, it is known that some
for takuhatsu [
komusō did not obey these rules and even opened shakuhachi-teaching schools, in
Edo (present day Tokyo) for example.9
In all, NAKATSUKA Chikuzen lists 77 Fuke temples scattered around Japan during
the Edo period.10 Three of the most important were Myōanji in Kyoto and
Ichigetsuji and Reihōji in the Kanto region, the area around Edo, or present day
Tokyo.11 Each temple developed its own corpus of music which, when taken
together, comprise the repertoire of approximately 150 honkyoku [original or
fundamental pieces] from the Edo period known today. The term Honkyoku refers
to the solo pieces played by komusō monks, which have their roots in the Edo period
and were used either for their spiritual training or for religious mendicancy.
Interaction among the temples, including musical exchange, took place by means of
komusō monks who wandered from temple to temple.12 Music other than honkyoku
was referred to as gaikyoku [outer pieces] or rankyoku [disorderly pieces].13
The relationship between the bakufu [the Edo government] and the Fuke sect
worsened, due to difficulties controlling the sect and criminal behaviour on the
part of some monks. In 1847 a decree from the government stated that the Fuke
sect was subject to the same rules as the Rinzai sect. This revoked the special
privileges granted in Kenchō no Okitegaki, which led to frustration among the
komusō monks. The deterioration in the relationship culminated when GENDŌ
Kanmyō, the thirty-third kansu14 of Myōanji, and MYŌAN Sugyō, also from
], in 1864,
Myōanji, were involved in the ‘Hamaguri Gomon Rebellion’ [
as advocates for Imperial rule against the Tokugawa Shogunate. Mutual distrust
increased, as did the number of sanctions and investigations of komusō monks.15
The Edo bakufu was overthrown in 1868, and in October 1871 the new Meiji
], which,
government (1868–1912) issued a decree, a Dajōkan Fukoku [
among other things, abolished the Fuke sect indefinitely. Begging was prohibited
in 1872, although it was made legal again in 1881.16 These events, along with
8
See Donald P. Berger and David David W. Hughes, ‘Shakuhachi’, in The New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, ed. Sadie Stanley and J. Tyrrell (London :
Macmillan, 2001): Vol. 12, 831–6.
9
TAKAHASHI Tone, ‘Tozan-ryu: And innovation of the shakuhachi tradition from the
Fuke-shu to secularism’ (PhD diss., The Florida State University, 1990): 117.
10
NAKATSUKA Chikuzen, Kinko-ryū shakuhachi shikan [A personal view of Kinko school
shakuhachi] (Tokyo: Ongaku no Tomo Sha, 1979): 95–102.
11
Torsten Olafsson, ‘Early Seventeenth-Century Ascetic Shakuhachi Ideology: The
Kaidō Honsoku. A Komosō’s Fuke Shakuhachi Credo. Dated 1628’ (MA thesis, University
of Copenhagen, 1987/R 2003): 1.
12
SHIMURA Satoshi, ‘Chamber Music for Syakuhati’, in The Garland Encyclopedia of
World Music, Volume 7: East Asia: China, Japan, and Korea, ed. Robert C. Provine, Yoshihiko
TOKUMARU and John L. Witzleben (New York: Routledge, 2002): 701–3.
13
Gunnar Linder, ‘Deconstructing Tradition in Japanese Music: A Study of
Shakuhachi, Historical Authenticity and Transmission of Tradition’ (PhD diss., Stockholm
University, 2012).
14
Administrator of a Zen temple.
15
Takahashi, ‘Tozan ryū’, 119.
16
Riley K. Lee, ‘Yearning for the Bell: A Study of Transmission in the Shakuhachi
Honkyoku Tradition’ (PhD diss., University of Sydney, 1993): 151; Takahashi, ‘Tozan ryū,
122, 127.
268
Nineteenth-Century Music Review
the Meiji Government’s decision to prioritise Western music in compulsory
education, naturally had a strong impact on the shakuhachi, its music and its
environment, and they led to major changes. According to TSUKITANI Tsuneko and
SHIMURA Satoshi, after the abolition of the Fuke sect, the shakuhachi was to follow
two distinct paths, one secular and one religious.17
Education and Music
Music occupied an important place in the Meiji government’s policy. This is
manifested in the activities of the Ministry of Education’s Music Investigation
].18 Music
Committee [Monbushō Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari,
was considered essential for nation building and modernization in the nineteenth
century, particularly in the sphere of education. This was the case not only in
Japan but also in Europe and the United States. According to Richard Miller,
there were two main reasons for the high profile of music in the Meiji
government’s politics: first, the longstanding link between morality and music in
Confucian philosophy,19 which has been a major influence for structuring the
nation in Japan since the Nara period (710–794), and second, the fact that music
played an important role for military purposes, which linked it with popular
entertainment with morale.20
A compulsory four-year school system was launched in Japan in 1872, and in
1874 ISAWA Shūji (1851–1917) – in collaboration with NOMURA Akitari21
(1819–1902) – developed songs to be used in kindergarten, selecting text from
], a Sino-Japanese text dated CE 712. ISAWA was thereafter sent to the
Kojiki [
United States by the Monbushō [Ministry of Education] and studied at the
Bridgewater Teacher’s Academy during the years 1875–1877, then pursuing
science studies at Harvard University. The Meiji government sent delegations to
Europe and United States to study their educational systems, and foreign
educators were invited to Japan to teach and help structure the establishing
education system.22 Here, the influence of Johann Friedrich Herbert (1776–1841)
on Japan’s efforts to create an educational system cannot be ignored. Herbert was
a German educator, philosopher and psychologist, who is considered the
founder of pedagogy as an academic discipline. He asserted that the goal of
education was the production of correct moral judgement. And as he believed a
17
Tsukitani, ‘The shakuhachi and its music’, 150–52; Shimura, ‘Chamber music for
syakuhati, 705.
18
The Music Investigation Committee was authorized by the government in 1879.
] in 1887, and in
The institute changed its name to Tokyo School of Music [
1952 it became the Music Department of the Tokyo University of Fine Arts
].
[
19
The Confucian philospher Xun Zi (c. 312–230 BCE) devotes a whole chapter to this
, On music], in his eponymous work, Xunzi. See Xunzi: A translation
matter, Yue lun [
and study of the complete works, transl. by John Knobloch (Palo Alto: Stanford University
Press, 1988–90).
20
Richard C. Miller, ‘Music and Musicology in the Engineering of National Identity
in Meiji Japan: Modernization Strategies of the Music Investigation Committee, 1870–1900’
(PhD diss., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2004): 27.
21
Nomura was a scholar of ancient Japanese literature and culture.
22
CHIBA Yūko, Doremi o eranda nihonjin [When the Japanese chose ‘do re mi’] (Tokyo:
Ongaku no Tomo sha, 2007).
Day: The Case of the Shakuhachi
269
moral judgement was in its essence an aesthetic judgement, music occupied an
essential place in his pedagogy. This had a strong impact on Isawa’s methods
when he returned to Japan. He became the Director of the Music Investigation
Committee in 1879, and the changes he initiated are still visible today, not only in
the sphere of music education, but also in traditional Japanese music. Together
with the American music educator Luther Whiting Mason (1818–1896) with
whom he had studied music at Bridgewater, Isawa led a team of musicians and
educators in the development of a music curriculum for the compulsory primary
schools. The result of their work was a set of songbooks, teachers’ guides and
school courses based on principles of European and American schools. The first
, Collected Songs
edition of the songbook Shōgaku shōka shū shohen [
for Elementary School, First Edition] of 1881, contained European and American
melodies from the collections Mason and Isawa had brought with them from
the United States, along with some from Japan.23 A collection of songs for
], was published in 1887,
kindergarten children, Yōchien shōka shū [
], appeared in 1889.24
and one for middle school, Chūtō shōka shū [
According to Ury Eppstein, 30 of the 33 songs in the first elementary school
songbook are derived from identifiable Western sources, and 28 are in a major
key, although there is disagreement among scholars regarding the sources of the
songs. All the songs are written in staff notation, with the Japanese text below.25
Three songs bear the time signature , two are in , 21 are in and one is in .
Twenty-one of the songs are in key signature of C, six are in G, four are in F and
two are in D.26 The lyrics were either translations from the original, or newly
written Japanese texts, and the Ministry of Education was very attentive to their
content.27
It is thus evident that although a hybridization may have been the aim of
Isawa and his team, it was, in fact, Western classifications of pitch, rhythm and
tonality that they introduced to ensuing generations of Japanese students. The
songbooks served as standard material until the early twentieth century and
formed the basis for further developments of material for the public school
curriculum.
Shakuhashi: The Music and the Instrument in the Late Nineteenth Century
From the above, it can be seen that the shakuhachi went through two radical
changes during the nineteenth century. First, the the abolition of the Fuke sect
triggered a secularization process for the instrument’s use and repertory. Second,
the Japanese musical world was profoundly affected by the introduction of
Western music and its theoretical foundations into the education system, and the
23
The first volume was followed by two further ones, in 1882 and 1883. The volumes
were originally published by Monbu Ongaku Torisirabe Gakari, in Tokyo.
24
Miller, ‘Music and Musicology’, 65–73.
25
Ury Eppstein, The Beginnings of Western Music in Meiji Era Japan (Lewiston, NY:
The Edwin Mellen Press, 1994). Cited in Miller, ‘Music and Musicology’, 76.
26
Miller, ‘Music and Musicology’, 82.
27
Based on Miller, ‘Music and Musicology’, 59–114. See also OGAWA Masafumi,
‘Early Nineteenth-Century American Influences on the Beginning of Japanese Public
Music Education: An Analysis and Comparison of Selected Music Textbooks Published in
Japan and the United States’ (DMus Ed diss., Indiana University, 2000).
270
Fig. 2
Nineteenth-Century Music Review
The numbering of finger holes from the lowest front hole: one to four, five is
the thumbhole. Shakuhachi jizai hō, 1897: 5. Reproduced by the courtesy of
Gekkai Bunkō, Hosshinji Temple
shakuhachi was not exempt from this. The results of these changes to the
education system are still felt today, in the alienation the Japanese people often
feel towards the traditional music of their own country. Under these
circumstances, the shakuhachi could not remain unchanged, and both the
instrument and its music underwent major changes during this period.28 Our
aim here is to investigate more closely how these changes occurred.
Although the Keichō no Okitegaki had officially restricted playing of the
shakuhachi to komusō monks, who were allowed to use it exclusively as a sacred
instrument, in fact it had continued to be played as a secular instrument
throughout the Edo period. According to UENO Katami, a document submitted
by the Reihōji and Ichigetsuji temples (the main Fuke temples in Edo) shows as
many as 21 shakuhachi teaching studios in Edo.29 According to the eighteenth, Miscellaneous records of elegant pastimes],
century Gayū manroku [
‘nowadays, typically the shakuhachi is a long, thick instrument. It is tuned with
the shamisen,30 and in this way, its pitch has become quite low. Its voice is the
, A genealogy of song], of
height of licentiousness’.31 The books Uta Keizu [
, Yamato Kōsaku’s annotations on
1782, and Yamato Kōsaku eshō [
painting], of c. 1688, show the shakuhachi depicted both as one of the instruments
in the sankyoku32 ensemble and in an ensemble with dancers, shamisen and two
drums.33 The popular usages (performance activities and teaching shakuhachi to
commoners) most probably helped prevent the shakuhachi falling into oblivion in
the nineteenth century, after the abolition of the Fuke sect; instead it became
widespread and popular among the general public. The playing of gaikyoku led to
the first changes in the instrument. This is seen with the reduction of the third
finger hole.34 According to MARU Sadakichi, who wrote a series of articles on the
shakuhachi in the early twentieth century,35 this technique was invented around
28
TSUKITANI Tsuneko, Shakuhachi kotenhonkyoku no kenkyû [Research on old honkyoku]
(Tokyo: Shuppan geijutsu sha, 2000); SHIMURA Satoshi, Kokan shakuhachi no gakkigaku
[Organlogy of the ancient shakuhachi] (Tokyo: Shuppan geijutsu sha): 106–13.
29
UENO Katami, Shakuhachi no rekishi [The history of the shakuhachi] (Tokyo: Shuppan
Geijitsusha, 2002): 241.
30
A Japanese three-stringed long-neck lute.
31
OEDA Ryūhō, Gayū manroku [
, Miscellaneous records of elegant pastimes]
(Osaka, 1763, originally published in 1755). Mentioned in Lee, ‘Yearning for the Bell’, 1993.
32
The Sankyoku ensemble consists of the shakuachi, shamisen and koto (13-string
zither).
33
Ueno, Shakuhachi no rekishi, 259–60.
34
The holes of the shakuhachi are counted from the hole nearest the root end of the
instrument, four in the front and the thumbhole as the fifth hole.
35
MARU Sadakichi, ‘Shakuhachi seisakuhō’ 1–6 [Methods of shakuhachi making, 1–6]
Sankyoku (1922–3), issues 14–19.
Day: The Case of the Shakuhachi
271
the end of the Edo period by the Kinko player and maker ARAKI Kodo II
(1823–1908). He changed the size of hole three in order to accommodate it to
other instruments.36
Changes of this type became even more important when adjusting the pitches
of the shakuhachi to Western pitch. As can be seen on Figure 3, modern fingering
charts place the notes of the shakuhachi according to Western pitch. They are
pitched according to the standard size shakuhachi, measuring one shaku and eight
(hachi) sun, a measurement from which the name shakuhachi is derived. One
shaku measures 30.3 cm, and thus the standard size shakuhachi 1.8 is 54.54 cm.
Most instruments from the Edo period measure between 1.7 and 2.0 in length
and are constructed in such way that there is a node in the bamboo at the top and
at the bottom of the instrument.
Thus, although the komusō, who generally made their own instruments during
the Edo period,37 would have chosen which bamboo to harvest according to the
size of the instrument they wished to construct, nature always had the final say
in fine tuning, both with regard to the length of the bamboo tube and the width
of the bore. SHIMURA Satoshi, who has investigated in detail the construction of
Edo period shakuhachi and the way these archaic instruments were played,
concludes that they cannot be played in the way modern shakuhachi are.
Knowledge of both the blowing techniques and the instrument construction
characteristic of the Edo period has, he says, been lost.38 After the abolition of the
Fuke sect and the prohibition of begging, the demands of ensemble and unison
playing, and later the influence from Western musical instruments, required a
new and standardized shakuhachi, which arrived on the scene gradually.
In the construction of the jinuri shakuhachi, the modern standard instrument,
the bamboo is cut across the bore into two attachable halves. The length of the
bamboo, and thereby the pitch of the tube, can thus be regulated, while retaining
a node at the top and one at the bottom of the finished instrument. The bore is
coated with ji, a paste made of urushi [ ], a Japanese lacquer made from the sap
, powder from ground
of the urushi tree, (rhus verniciflua) and tonoko [
stone]. The application of ji to the bore means that the bore’s shape can be
carefully calculated and modified, and thus controlled, by the maker; this is
an important contrast to the bore of the jinashi shakuhachi, which consists of only
the natural bamboo and at times a thin layer of lacquer applied for protection
against wear (though nodes and other irregularities may be filed down).39 The
manner in which the jinuri shakuhachi is built thus produces a more standardized
instrument with a more reproducible timbre and volume, while the jinashi
shakuhachi is correspondingly less uniform and less predictable.40 These changes
occurred gradually, as the livelihood and environment in which shakuhachi
players and makers lived and worked changed, and can be followed in publications
from the nineteenth century onwards. Surviving instruments remain as testimonials
to these changes.
36
Maru, ‘Shakuhachi seisakuhō’ 6, Sankyoku 19: 53–4.
Maru, ‘Shakuhachi seisakuhō’ 6, Sankyoku 19: 53.
38
Shimura, Kokan shakuhachi, 108–9.
39
TOYA Deiko, Komusō shakuhachi seikan hifu [Secret teachings in the making of komusō
shakuhachi] (Tokyo: Komusō Kenkyū Kai, 1987).
40
ANDŌ Yoshinori, TSUKITANI Tsuneko, MAEDA Masaichirō, ‘Shakuhachi no kōzō ni
tsuite’ [Study of the construction of shakuhachi], in Ongaku to ongakugaku, ed. SUMIKURA
Ichirō et al. (Tokyo: Ongaku no Tomo sha, 1986): 59.
37
272
Nineteenth-Century Music Review
Fig. 3
Fingering chart of Senshū Shakuhachi Kōbō. Reproduced by courtesy of MITSUZUKA Yukihiko, Senshū Shakuhachi Kōbō
Day: The Case of the Shakuhachi
273
Fig. 4a
A modern jinuri shakuhachi with a joint in the middle made by the maker
Bonchiku
Fig. 4b
A jinashi shakuhachi from around the turn of the twentieth century. Only the
joint in the former reveals the difference to the casual observer
Fig. 5a
X-ray of a jinuri shakuhachi
Fig. 5b
X-ray of an Edo period jinashi shakuhachi (Photo by SHIMURA Satoshi)
According to Shimura, the manufacturing differences between the Edo period
shakuhachi and the modern one are greater than are generally recognized and, as
noted above, require a corresponding change in performance techniques as
well.41 Figure 5 shows x-ray photos of a jinuri shakuhachi (5a) and a jinashi
shakuhachi (5b). Note how the nodes of the jinashi shakuhachi make chambers in
the bore while the ji-paste smoothes out the bore of the jinuri shakuhachi. Figure 6
is taken from Shimura’s X-ray studies of approximately 30 modern jinuri
shakuhachi and 100 Edo period shakuhachi. Figure 6a shows a typical Edo period
shakuhachi bore with no ji added. Some bores from the period also have a thin
layer of urushi lacquer applied. The nodes are left intact, so they create three main
chambers inside the instrument. The overall shape of the bore is reverse conical,
with the narrowest point at the lower end of the instrument. Figures 6b and 6c
show two typical bores in modern jinuri shakuhachi. Here the nodes have been
filed down and the inner shape of the bore has been built up with ji paste (often
the lower end hole of the bore is also enlarged). Not only does this enable the
maker to better control the tuning, it also produces greater volume, as the
41
Shimura, Kokan shakuhachi, 88–90.
274
Fig. 6
Nineteenth-Century Music Review
(a) the bore of a typical jinashi shakuhachi from the Edo period (b) Jinuri
shakuhachi type 1 (c) Jinuri shakuhachi type 2 (From SHIMURA Satoshi, Kokan
shakuhachi: 74)
bamboo cylinder does not absorb as much sound when coated with ji.42
Moreover, since the bore is smoother, the modern shakuhachi produces less noise
and fewer partials than the jinashi shakuhachi did.43 These changes have almost been
forgotten and many contemporary shakuhachi players are unaware that the
instrument they play is by no means a precise replica of the Edo period shakuhachi.44
The shakuhachi became a musical instrument, rather than a religious one; it
was played not to achieve enlightenment, but to entertain.45 The instrument was
increasingly played as a hobby, and it’s use in ensembles grew. The shakuhachi
also entered the min’yō [folk song]46 world as an accompaniment to song.
42
Kiku Day, ‘Remembrance of Things Past: Creating a Contemporary Repertoire for
the Archaic Jinashi Shakuhachi’ (PhD diss., University of London, 2010).
43
Day, ‘Remembrence of Things Past’, 75–88; shimura, Kokan shakuhachi, 103–13.
44
Based on interviews conducted by the author in Japan in 2007.
45
The Myōan kyōkai (Myōan group) is a loose organization of shakuhachi players
that continued the praxis of shakuhachi playing as a religious act.
46
Folk songs are often accompanied by shamisen, shakuhashi and taiko (Japanese drum).
Day: The Case of the Shakuhachi
275
However, the players of folk songs and those from the shakuhachi groups
that came directly out of the heritage of the Fuke, represented especially by
the three main groups Kinko, Myōan and Tozan had and still have almost no
contact, as their performance environments are almost completely isolated from
each other.
Today, the Tozan and Kinko schools dominate the world of shakuhachi in Japan.
Both schools begin teaching with gaikyoku, or ensemble pieces, and only as an
accomplished player is one allowed to enter the realm of honkyoku. In this way, the
transmission strategy and method has departed not only from that of the komusō
monks during the Edo period, but also from the Myōan players, who continued to
play shakuhachi as a spiritual praxis and therefore only play honkyoku.
In order to trace in detail the development of the shakuhachi from a solo
instrument for honkyoku pieces, and a tool for spiritual training of monks, to a
musical instrument on concert stages, I shall here follow a series of publications
from the late nineteenth century which show the rapid changes in attitudes
toward shakuhachi playing and the ways in which ideas from the newly
secularized world were assimilated.
Shakuhachi Publications: Self-Teaching Manuals, Scores and Music
NAKAO Tozan’s47 (1876–1956) manual for self-study, published in 1908, is
regarded as a pioneering and even revolutionary book as it broke with the
tradition of strict oral transmission.48 However, already in 1892, only 21 years
after the abolition of the Fuke sect and 16 years before the publication of Tozan’s
work, a manual entitled Kyokufu: Shakuhachi hayashinan49 indicated the direction
in which the shakuhachi was heading with great strides. The introduction to this
manual explains that there are good reasons for taking up the playing of
shakuhachi, as it improves health due to the positive effects on posture and lung
capacity.50 The promotion of health as a reason for playing the shakuhachi
indicates the beginning of the instrument’s dissemination to the general public
and the move away from its use as a sacred tool. The fact that the book is a
manual for learning shows the rapid change in attitudes not only toward playing
the instrument but also toward transmission, which earlier had been strictly
limited to oral transmission from master to disciple and – at least officially –
restricted to Fuke sect members. Like NAKAO Tozan’s later self-teaching
manual, Kyokufu: Shakuhachi hayashinan consists of pieces to study and play.
One surprising characteristic of early shakuhachi manuals is that honkyoku pieces
are rarely included; the majority of the pieces in the manuals from the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries were pieces for shamisen or koto transcribed to
47
NAKAO Ri’ichirō (Tozan). Shakuhachi suisō hitorigeiko [The solitary learning guide to
shakuhachi playing] (Osaka: Kashiwara Keibundō, 1908). NAKAO Tozan founded his school,
which would later to be called Tozan Ryū, in 1896 in Osaka. Nakao’s school grew to be the
biggest of the shakuhachi group in the hōgaku world, if we do not count the min’yō (folk
music) shakuhachi players. The Tozan players do not play honkyoku from the Edo period,
but they have their own set of honkyoku, mostly composed by NAKAO Tozan himself.
48
Takahashi, Tozan-ryū, 142.
49
KAWASE Fukudō, Kyokufu: Shakuhachi hayashinan [Score book: Quick guide to
learning the shakuhachi] (Nagoya: Shinonone dō. 1892).
50
Kawase, Kyokufu, 2.
276
Nineteenth-Century Music Review
shakuhachi notation, as well as popular and military songs.51 Evidently, for some
time after the abolition of the Fuke sect, honkyoku were not in vogue; indeed, the
early Meiji manuals would seem to indicate that the tradition of teaching
ensemble pieces first comes from this phase of shakuhachi history.
Kyokufu: Shakuhashi Hayashinan begins the section of scores with the national
anthem, ‘Kimigayō’, another indication of the zeitgeist of the early Meiji era. The
majority of the manuals from this period seem to begin in this way (See
Example 1a). ‘Hotaru no hikari’ [Light of fireflies], is the Japanese version of the
Scottish song ‘Auld lang syne’, and had been included in ISAWA Shūji’s
songbook in 1881 (Example 1b). ‘Hotaru no hikari’ was to become an extremely
popular song in Japan. It was used for school graduation ceremonies and is
today often played at any event that is drawing to a close, from the closing of a
fitness centre for the day to the 5pm signal that it is time for children to go
home played over a village’s municipal loudspeakers. ‘Hotaru no hikari’ is an
excellent example of a song imported by Isawa and his team that is still heard
in modern Japan and continues to have symbolic meaning there. ‘Ake no kane’
[Bells at dawn] (Example 1c) is a song from the nagauta52 repertoire – a song
text accompanied by the shamisen. Songs, koto and shamisen pieces transcribed
for shakuhachi, and the national anthem compose the typical content for
manuals of the time. As seen in Example 1, scores are written from right to left
and top to bottom in traditional Japanese style. Below the title of ‘Ake no kane’
(Example 1c), it is noted that the shamisen is to be played with a tuning called
]. This means lowering the third string one note from the
san sagari [
] mode, where the first and third strings are usually tuned an
honchōshi [
octave apart and the second string a fourth apart from the first string. Here the
third string is lowered a step and the strings are tuned, for example, D–G–C.
The score thus shows the tuning the shamisen player is to use when
accompanying somebody using this manual to learn the shakuhachi. The
melody is transcribed to a shakuhachi notation often referred to as ro tsu re
] (the first three mnemonic names of the sounds of a shakuhachi), and
[
there is also an indication of rhythm.53 The first notes at the top of the first line
form an upbeat before the song begins. They have each half a note value,
which is indicated by the vertical line to the right of the notes. Notes with no
accompanying line have a full note value. Rhythm in shakuhachi notation is
relatively novel in this period, as honkyoku pieces had been in free rhythm, but
some notation of rhythm became necessary when the instrument became part
of an ensemble. In the upbeat beginning to the piece, we see a Western concept
already entering the shakuhachi world.
The notation systems and the iemoto seido [guild system]54 of the shakuhachi –
and all Japanese traditional instruments – can be challenging, and this may have
51
This observation is based on research on the large collection of shakuhachi manuals
from the nineteenth and early twentieth century at Hosshinji Temple and National Diet
library in Tokyo, in May 2012.
52
Nagauta is a music genre used in the kabuki theatre, although it is also used as
music for voice and shamisen.
53
The solo repertoire of the komusō monks, honkyoku, is usually in free rhythm.
54
Traditional Japanese art is still taught in the iemoto (guild) system, where the iemoto
(master or head of a school) has a style that all pupils follow. Studies with another master
are generally frowned upon. The ryūha or schools may have their own variation of the
notation system.
Ex. 1a
‘Kimigayō’ 1b ‘Hotaru no hikari’ [Auld lang syne] 1c ‘Ake no kane’. From Kayufo: Shakuhachi hayashinan: 36–9. Reproduced by the
courtesy of Gekkai Bunkō, Hosshinji Temple
Day: The Case of the Shakuhachi
277
278
Nineteenth-Century Music Review
been one reason why the Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari and later the Tokyo
Academy of Art chose to adopt Western musical notation. Choosing the notation
system of one particular ryūha [school] would have given that school an
advantage compared with other schools; even today, many composers choose to
write contemporary pieces for Japanese instruments in Western notation, which
is considered more ‘neutral’.
In the late nineteenth century, no standard notation system was yet in use and
the non-uniformity of the notation systems used becomes clear when searching
through the publications of self-teaching manuals for shakuhachi. Some use the ro
tsu re system,55 attributed to the early Kinko ryū masters,56 which with a few
exceptions dominates today.57 Other books use numerals, perhaps to simplify the
notation for the general public. The use of numerals – both Arabic58 and SinoJapanese numerals59 – equal the do re mi system and have been derived from the
Galin–Paris–Chevé method.60 Octave changes are represented with dots above or
].61 One
below. Other manuals use the Japanese syllabic system iroha [
example of the non-uniformity of notation systems in publications from the late
], printed in 1892. Here
nineteenth century is the Kokon zakkyoku shū [
the fingering is represented by Arabic numerals.
The tune of ‘Sassatsu shigure’, for example, is here notated from left to right –
the opposite direction to that of traditional Japanese writing (see Example 2).
Thus, just 25 years after the Meiji Restoration and only 11 years after the
publication of ISAWA Shūji’s first songbook, in some publications the direction of
music writing had been modified to the European standard. ‘Sassatsu shigure]
has a time signature , and a European concept of rhythm. To the left of the time
]. As scales have
signature, they key of D major is indicated by writing nichō [
not been a part of Japanese musical theory (apart from court music), this also
indicates the pace with which Western musical concepts were being absorbed
into traditional music. 0 is notated if there is a rest, and a note held for longer
than a beat is represented by a horizontal line after the first beat. All songs in
Kokon zakkyoku shū and Shakuhachi hayashinan are notated in or , and surely
one of the reasons rhythmic indication became important was the change in
shakuhachi playing from a solo tradition to ensembles.
In 1894, a new page in the dissemination of shakuhachi playing through
self-teaching manuals was turned, when fingering charts began to appear with
55
YAMAZAKI Akasaburō, Seisoku shakuhachi jizaihō [Systematic Shakuhachi self-learning
manual] (Tokyo: Kokkadō, 1897).
56
KUROSAWA Kinko I (1710–1771) was a komusō monk who wandered around Japan
collecting 36 pieces that became the basis for the Kinko Ryū shakuhachi school’s repertoire.
At some point in the eighteenth century the ro tsu re system began to be used for the Kinko
repertoire. It is not clear exactly when nor who the inventor of the system was.
57
The Chikuho ryū (school) still teaches in the fu ho u [
] system, used during
the Edo period by the komusō monks.
58
SHIKAMA Kodatsu, Kokon zakkyokushū [Collection of past and present music]
(Tokyo: Kyobons shōsha, 1892).
59
MACHIDA Ōen, Ongaku dokushū zensho: Shakuhachi dokushū [Complete self-study of
music: Shakuhachi self-study] (Tokyo: Kubota Shoten, 1915).
60
A French notation system for sight-singing, based on a system proposed by
Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1742 and modified by Pierre Galin, Aimé Paris and Émile Chevé
in the nineteenth century.
61
MOMOTARI Noboru, Ongaku zenshō, dai ni hen: Shakuhachi no shiori [The complete
book on music, Volume 2: Guidebook to shakuhachi] (Tokyo: Hakubunkan, 1984).
Day: The Case of the Shakuhachi
Ex. 2
279
‘Sassatsu shigure’ [Patter of the drizzle], from Kokon zakkyoku shū (1892): 54.
Reproduced by courtesy of Gekkai Bunkō, Hosshinji Temple
explanations of playing techniques and pitch. On page six of the Ongaku Zensho
Dai ni hen: Shakuhachi no shiori, of 1894, a fingering chart shows the fingerings of
the Western twelve-note chromatic scale (see Example 3a). The three upper holes
on a shakuhachi are the circles above the line in the middle. The top circle
represents the thumbhole, the circle below it the top hole on the front of the
instrument, and the circle below the second top hole on the front of a shakuhachi.
The two circles below the line are the lowest two holes on the shakuhachi,
normally held with the right hand. To the left of the chart, is indication that the
top three holes are held with the left hand and the two lower with the right hand.
To the right of the chart, the fingers used to cover the holes are explained. The
notes on the lowest line are Japanese mnemonics for the pitches. The fingering
chart is not helpful to a modern shakuhachi player, as partial fingering and head
positions – meri and kari (see below) – are not yet notated. However, fingering
charts for shakuhachi must have been a striking novelty at a time when
transmission had recently been an exclusively oral transmission between master
and pupil. This manual thus represents a new stage in self-teaching. From the
same work, Example 3b shows a pitch chart, with an octave divided into a
chromatic scale. To the right, the pitches are written in columns with the Japanese
solfège system, numeric representation is shown in the middle and the Western
equivalent pitch is on the left. The notes D, C, F and G each have a sharpened
note above them represented by ] signs. Above A, a B with a ‘p’ to its left is seen.
This is most probably a typographic mistake for B[. The numerals also have
sharps. D is the lowest note with C above it and thereafter E and F and so forth
above, which is also thought to be a typographical error, as C ought to have
(a) fingering chart and (b) pitch explanation with Western, numeric and one of the Japanese notations, Ongaku Zensho Dai ni
hen: Shakuhachi no shiori (1894): 6 and 16. Reproduced by the courtesy of Gekkai Bunkō, Hosshinji Temple
280
Ex. 3
Nineteenth-Century Music Review
Day: The Case of the Shakuhachi
281
been below D.62 How this translates into practice is seen in the score for ‘Omae
machi machi’ [Waiting and waiting for you] written in Japanese solfège in
Example 4. The need of pitch control in order to play a chromatic scale on a fiveholed flute also ignited a greater demand for well-tuned instruments that could
compete in volume and accuracy in pitch with other instruments or in unison in
Ex. 4
62
Ongaku Zensho Dai ni hen: Shakuhachi no shiori (1894), ‘Omae machi machi’: 26.
Reproduced by the courtesy of Gekkai Bunkō, Hosshinji Temple
The assumption that this is a print mistake has not been confirmed.
282
Nineteenth-Century Music Review
larger shakuhachi ensembles. These two aspects of the development in shakuhachi,
the adoption of Western pitch and instrument making, thus went hand in hand.
The score in Example 4 is written from right to left and top down in a Japanese
mnemonic system. ‘Omae machi machi’ is in and a fast tempo is indicated.
A comma in the score represents a bar line. Vertical lines within the columns are
held notes, and the vertical lines to the right of the columns indicate that the
notes to the left are quavers. Shakuhachi no shiori shows the attempt to add
Western concepts such as time signatures and barlines to Japanese notation. In
Tozan school scores today, a bar is written as a box thus the lines of the box
represents barlines.
The fine adjustments to the notation of shakuhachi scores continue in Shakuhachi
kyokufushū, of 1893, which uses more sophisticated musical symbols from Western
notation. In Example 5 the repeat sign is introduced together with the time
signature, which is here . The pitches are in the ro tsu re system with an older
notation above it as a support, and the score is written horizontally left to right.
The quavers have a horizontal line under the notation and bar lines are vertical
lines. The repeat signs are explained with the Japanese word for repeat above.
A dal segno sign is written in after the first line and explained in the appended text.
The upper octave, called kan ( ], is shown with a dot above the note and the notes
without the dot above are played in the lower octave called otsu [ ].
Ex. 5
Shakuhachi kyokufushū (1893), p. 12. Reproduced by the courtesy of Gekkai
, Hosshinji Temple
Bunkō
The introduction to the 1897 publication Seisoku shakuhachi jizaihō states that
honkyoku did not suit the average person and the instrument had therefore
hitherto been misunderstood. It goes on to state that the shakuhachi has begun to
receive the attention it deserves, due to contemporary music played with koto
, hin ga yoi].63 Notation is then
and shamisen, which is good music [
discussed, and it is mentioned that in some places, such as around Saikyō in
Osaka, shakuhachi is still taught without notation. However, it goes on to say,
notation helps accuracy and prevents mistakes in rhythm;64 it also aids the player
in remembering pieces. Therefore, the author explains, notation is used in this
book.65 Shakuhachi jizai hō presents the fingering by explaining which holes are
closed or open note for note (See Example 6).
63
YAMAZAKI Akasaburō, Seisoku shakuhachi jizaihō [Systematic shakuhachi self-learning
manual] (Tokyo: Kokkadō, 1897): 1.
64
Here I suspect the author is writing about how to play sankyoku pieces with koto
and shamisen, where rhythm and being ‘together’ is a crucial aspect – as it is in any
ensemble playing.
65
Yamazaki, Seisoku shakuhachi jizaihō, 3.
Day: The Case of the Shakuhachi
Ex. 6
283
Shakuhachi jizai hō, p. 6: drawing of meri and kari technique, shakuhashi jizai
hō. Reproduced by the courtesy of Gekkai Bunkō, Hosshinji Temple
Thereafter, and for the first time, the work systematically describes various
techniques other than fingering used in shakuhachi playing. On pages five and six,
for example, it explains how important it is to play the meri and kari techniques
correctly, as otherwise the charm of shakuhachi will be lost and the audience will
not be moved. Meri and kari are the two main head positions in shakuhachi playing,
and the player changes between these positions throughout the performance.
These techniques enable the shakuhachi, which has only five finger holes, to
produce more notes than the five in the anhemitonic pentatonic scale to which
the instrument is tuned. See Example 6 for illustration of the meri kari technique.
284
Nineteenth-Century Music Review
Even before the turn of the twentieth century, the self-teaching manuals had
become increasingly sophisticated. This can be seen in the publication Shakuhachi
sokusei jizai66 where the fingering chart of a diatonic scale becomes easier to
understand and use. Interestingly, however, half-holing is still not depicted as a
half-filled hole. Here the manual provides a textual description of the meri
position below the depiction of the fingering holes (Example 7a).
Ex. 7a
Shakuhachi sokusei jizai, 1898,67 fingering. Reproduced by the courtesy of
Gekkai Bunkō, Hosshinji Temple
Example 7b shows and compares the writing of the same pitches in four
different notation systems. From left to right, shakuhachi, sūji (Arabic numerals),
kanshin (a Japanese solmization here named Sino-Korean solmization) and ōshū
(European solmization). The European solmization is the French do re mi fa sol la
si do, although there are minor mistakes in the Romanization, such as po instead
of do, le instead of re, and sor instead of sol. There are also minor mistakes in the
Romanization of the kanshin solmization – hu should be ha, and the ho second
from the bottom should be ro. It is also interesting that the author has chosen to
begin the major scale on the second note on the shakuhachi with the lowest finger
hole open, probably in order to avoid too much cross fingering or partially closed
holes when playing a major scale. Example 7c shows different rhythmic figures.
The column to the right shows the rhythmic figure in Western notation, while the
other two columns represent shakuhachi notation in the middle and digital
notation to the left, written in the same rhythmic figure. The circle in the top of
the right column is a semibreve and below it is a dotted minim. These rhythmic
mixed groups of notes are not simple to notate and they include different length
rests as well.
66
CHIKUSEI Sanshi, Shakuhachi sokusei jizai [Shakuhachi intensive learning guide] (Tokyo:
Kashitarō, 1898).
67
There are no page numbers in this publication.
Ex. 7b and 7c
Shakuhachi sokusei jizai, 1898,68 (b) four different systems of notation compared and (c) rhythmic variations written out with
three different notation systems and compared. Reproduced by the courtesy of Gekkai Bunkō, Hosshinji Temple
Day: The Case of the Shakuhachi
There are no page numbers in this publication.
285
68
286
Nineteenth-Century Music Review
The Establishment of Shakuhachi Ryūha [Schools]
At the same time that these self-teaching shakuhachi manuals were being
published, several new shakuhachi schools were established. Tozan ryū was
established in 1896 by NAKAO Tozan. Sōetsu ryū was established by KONDŌ
Sōetsu in Osaka, and the Myōan kyōkai was established in Kyoto, loosely
gathering the players who continued the praxis of playing shakuhachi as a
spiritual tool. Around 1890 HIGUCHI Taizan established the honkyoku repertoire for
the Myōan kyōkai and applied the notation system, ro tsu re, instead of the fu ho u
system used by the komusō monks during the Edo period. In 1914 KOBAYASHI Shizan
(d. 1934) became the thirty-sixth abbot of the Myoanji. He improved HIGUCHI
Taizan’s notation system and published the 32 honkyoku still used today.
Traditional Japanese music thus continued to evolve, adapting to new
environments and experiencing a period of rediscovery. However – and
significantly – it failed to gain official intellectual support. The emphasis of the
Tokyo Academy of Music was on the advancement of Western music in Japan; the
task of keeping a live and developing hōgaku world was left to the musicians
themselves.69 Note, in contrast, the case of visual arts, where the Japanese
government invited the American art scholar Ernest Francisco Fenollosa
(1853–1908) to teach at Tokyo Imperial University. Fenollosa, together with his
student OKAKURA Tenshin (1862–1913), became influential and valuable advocates
for the revival of Japanese art. As the Japanese music scholar KIKKAWA Eishi puts it:
In the world of Japanese arts, a savior called Fenollosa appeared. He acknowledged
the value of Japanese pictorial arts, as well as its excellence. In addition, nationalists
including OKAKURA Tenshin, succeeded in preventing the decline of Japanese arts and
therefore Japanese arts soon could recover from the crisis. However, the world of
Japanese music, not having a Fenollosa during the Meiji era, was not rescued.
If ISAWA Shūji had been a philosopher like OKAKURA Tenshin, and if Mason [Luther
Whiting Mason] had had Fenollosa’s aesthetic sense, the situation would have been
quite different. Mason was a good music teacher, but he was not able to understand the
heterogeneous beauty of Japanese music. ISAWA Shuji was a thoughtful educator, but he
was not a philosopher capable of penetrating the aesthetic value of Japanese music.70
Thus lacking official support, Japanese music suffered during the late nineteenth
century, when an influential group of intellectuals supported by politicians
one-sidedly favoured Western culture and a concept called Bunmei-kaika
, civilization and enlightenment]. They despised Japanese culture and
[
even discussed the idea of abandoning the Japanese language.71 The result of
leaving the task of maintaining traditional music as a live musical tradition to the
practising players was that the players of the Myōan Kyōkai, who continued to
approach shakuhachi playing not as a musical instrument but as a hōki [sacred
tool], were marginalized. With time, they became to be considered a group of
amateurs, unable to play in tune and only playing simple pieces.72 The players of
69
Takahashi, Tozan ryū, 152.
KIKKAWA Eishi, ‘Shamisen no sugagaki’ [Melodies for shamisen], Kikan Hōgaku
21 (1979): 58–62. Translated and quoted in Takahashi, Tozan ryū, 153–4.
71
Marius B. Jansen, The making of modern Japan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 2000).
72
Based on interviews with roughly 80 shakuhachi players in Japan, conducted by the
author between 2007 and 2012.
70
Day: The Case of the Shakuhachi
NAKAO Tozan showing the correct performance posture for (a) sitting and (b) standing.
287
Fig. 7
288
Fig. 8
Nineteenth-Century Music Review
Advertisement of a shakuhachi maker in Sankyoku 14 (1922): 5
the Tozan and Kinko schools, on the other hand, came to dominate the hōgaku
(Japanese music) world, as they played in ensemble music and were exposed to
the general public through concerts and, later, through such media as recordings,
radio and television. Thus, the shakuhachi became an important Japanese stage
performance instrument. In NAKAO Tozan’s Tozan ryū shakuhachi onpu: Kaisetsu,73
photos of Tozan himself show good performance postures and explain that placing
the right foot a little forward gives the most stable and elegant standing posture.
Given that generations of Japanese pupils sang the shōka songs in school and
learned Western musical language including pitch sensitivity, it is hardly
surprising that, as Shimura has argued in his work on the old jinashi shakuhachi,74
knowledge of the playing techniques of the old shakuhachi were lost. In fact,
today we can only guess how the old instruments that survive – testaments to the
changes in a tradition –would have been played, or how they would have
sounded during the Edo period.
It is clear that the shakuhachi world changed very quickly – even during the
earliest years of the Meiji period. Ensemble playing as entertainment was
necessitated by the prohibition on begging, and was most probably also seen as
an opportunity for artistic development by some former komusō monks. The
secularization and increasing popularity of the shakuhachi during the early
twentieth century ensured a professional environment in which the iemoto system
protected the repertoire and styles. Iemoto such as NAKAO Tozan collected a large
following, with a pyramidal hierarchy with the master at the top, his top
students below and the magodeshi [literally: grandchild student, which means
students of a student] at the base.
73
NAKAO Tozan, Tozan ryū shakuhachi onpu: Kaisetsu [An exposition of Tozan school
shakuhachi notation] (Tokyo: Jyūjiya, 1908).
74
Shimura, Kokan shakuhachi, 108–9.
Day: The Case of the Shakuhachi
289
Shakuhachi makers also became specialized in the styles of the different
schools. MARU Sadakichi wrote, in 1922, that more and more players wanted
shakuhachi, from makers who had become increasingly specialized in one
particular type of shakuhachi made with a particular school in mind (either
Tozan or Kinko), and that some makers even began making instruments for one
particular teacher and his students. Maru describes in his series of articles in the
Sankyoku journal during 1922–3 that a single maker tended no longer to be
involved in the whole process of shakuhachi making, as they had been before. One
set of workers harvested the bamboo, others made the bamboo into simple
instruments and, finally, the master maker created the finished instrument.75 In
the same volume of the journal, Sankyoku, an advertisement for a shakuhachi
maker can be found on page five (see Figure 8). The advertisement is a photo
from the maker KOMATSU Haō’s atelier and shop, and shows a large amount of
bamboo and shakuahchi. Shakuhachi are stacked on shelves along the walls and
standing on the floor. To the left in the room, a stock of bamboo can be seen.
A person, most likely the maker, is posing in the middle. The advertisement
promises that shakuhachi suited for all schools can be found here, and when
purchase is for more than ten yen, adjustment, fine-tuning and repair will be
provided free of additional charge, and that all wishes will be met.76
MARU notes that despite the fact that the shakuhachi traditionally had been
made by the players themselves, players had now lost confidence in their ability
to make the instrument as well as play it. By 1922, according to Maru, it had
become normal for the professional maker to come to the teaching arena to sell
his instruments.77 In the making of the shakuhachi, the placement of the finger
], in which the fine tuning was
holes according to a formula called towari [
done by the technique of filing away nodes in the bore to tune an instrument,
had, he says, already disappeared around 1910. Thereafter, the technique used to
tune the instrument was to add ji paste to the bore.78
It is worth mentioning that many of the instructional manuals and books with
shakuhachi scores published in the early twentieth century had a nationalistic turn.
This can be seen in the frequent publication of scores with military music and an
], a new hybrid music
increasing use of shakuhachi in gendai hōgaku [
combining Japanese and Western music. Virtuoso players such as NAKAO Tozan
and YOSHIDA Seifū (1890–1950) collaborated with other musicians and experimented
with the shakuhachi together with composers and players of other instruments such
as shamisen and koto but also Western instruments. Composer MIYAGI Michio
(1894–1956) wrote Haru no umi for shakuhachi and koto in 1929. According to CHIBA
Yūko, the majority of the Japanese people today think of Haru no umi as
representative of traditional Japanese music, despite the fact that when it was first
heard, in 1929, the reception was negative due to its too-obvious foreign structure.79
This resentment of the foreign music disappeared quickly, and old emotions and
sounds were forgotten; today only a few people with a specialist musical training
can hear the fact that the structure of Haru no Umi is highly influenced by Western
classical music. The changes undergone by the shakuhachi are forgotten, and today’s
instrument and music are often believed to be unchanged from the Edo period.
75
76
77
78
79
Maru, ‘Shakuhachi seisakuhō’ 1, Sankyoku 14: 54.
Sankyoku, 14 (1922): 5.
Maru, ‘Shakuhachi seisakuhō’ 6, Sankyoku 19: 53.
Maru, ‘Shakuhachi seisakuhō’ 6, Sankyoku 19: 54.
CHIBA Yūko, Doremi, 6–7.
290
Nineteenth-Century Music Review
Conclusion
The shakuhachi is an example of how quickly a musical tradition can be renewed
and modified when the conditions for its existence are removed or altered. The
publications discussed here help us to trace the speed and energy with which the
Fig. 9
Cover of Shakuhachi no shiori
Day: The Case of the Shakuhachi
Fig. 10
291
Cover of Saishin shakuhachi onpushū
changes were occurring as early as the end of the nineteenth century. Shakuhachi
players rapidly adapted to the new social environment in the fast-changing Meiji
period. A new world with a secularized and musical shakuhachi quickly emerged,
and there was a surge of interest in ensemble playing and a Western approach to
music. The Meiji government’s policy – specifically aimed at school children’s
singing – of a structured and systematic musical education in the service of the
nation altered the perception of music. This altered perception is surely one
reason that Japanese today often feel alienated from Japanese traditional music.80
Traditional shakuhachi music, in particular, was adapted to suit listeners who
were now being conditioned to new musical ideals. Myōan were the losers in this
change, as they became stigmatized as amateurs unable to play in tune. Today,
they are all but forgotten: in the Hōgaku Journal, the largest contemporary
Japanese music monthly magazine (published since 1987) that focuses on the
music of shakuhachi, koto, shamisen and taiko, the Myōan style is rarely mentioned
apart from a few reviews of CD releases.
Yet, it is important to understand the shakuhachi as a living and constantly
changing tradition, subject to political and cultural changes. Political decisions
during the nineteenth century resulted in the loss of the shakuhachi’s traditional
milieu; but these same changes opened new opportunities, in the form of
ensemble playing and the encounter with Western music. The changes undergone
by the tradition are evident in the visual representation of shakuhachi players.
Figures 9 and 10 show two images of shakuhachi players, from 1894 (Figure 9) and
1916 (Figure 10). In 1894, the cover of Shakuhachi no shiori shows a player who is
no longer a komusō, but who is still clearly a member of the nobility. The image of
shakuhachi as an instrument of the elite thus seems to have still been present and
living in the Meiji era, as the instrument had until 1871 only been played
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See Chiba , Doremi, 5.
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Nineteenth-Century Music Review
officially by men of samurai rank, who had joined the ranks of the Fuke sect.
However, by 1916, the cover of Saishin shakuhachi onpushū (Figure 10) shows an
average man wearing eyeglasses. He is playing outdoors, as many players today
do if they live in metropolitan areas, as either their homes are too small or the
neighbours too close by to play at home. These two covers show clearly
the progress of the shakuhachi from an instrument associated with the nobility,
in the Edo period, to one for the average man in the Meiji. In this way, the
shakuhachi successfully adapted to the rapidly changing society in Meiji Japan to
become today one of the Japanese instruments81 with the largest following
outside that country.
81
Taiko drumming is also popular outside Japan, particularly in the USA, Australia
and UK.