Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Chris Moran wrote:

Aside from hearing Tani Senzan's wonderful cd's "Zen Spirit" and "Evening Snow" and reading the brief description on Ueda Ryu on komuso.com I no nothing about this school. Pretty fascinating music.

Do Ueda players use Tozan shakuhachi or do they have there own peculiarities?

Hi Chris.

If you mean the instrument by 'Do Ueda player use Tozan shakuhachi', as far as I know yes. Regarding music, I have pasted the little section about Ueda school from Tsukitani's chapter in the new book on Japanese music I announced in 'Events and Announcements section' earlier today.


3.3.2 Ueda-ryū honkyoku
Ueda Hōdō, a disciple of Nakao Tozan, left to found his own school in 1917. He left over a hundred honkyoku, often quite similar to Tozan’s. Again, ensemble honkyoku predominate. Some honkyoku classed as ‘new shakuhachi music’ are compositions by Ueda’s friend Fukuda Randō (1906–76) (for example Miyama higurashi, 1927) and
belong properly to §3.4 below. Representative Ueda honkyoku include Samidare* (1911; solo with rhythmic ostinato obbligato), Momiji nishiki (1915; ensemble), Kogarashi* (1917; solo), Ochiba* (1925; solo close to classical honkyoku style), Aoba kage (1931; ‘new shakuhachi music’) and Yuki no yoru* (1932; solo in four dan). The asterisked items are on the LP Uedaryū shakuhachi-dō honkyoku.

And just to show a little of what §3.4 says:

3.4 Shin nihon ongaku, Shin-hōgaku, Gendai no nihon ongaku
The shin nihon ongaku (new Japanese music) movement mentioned above began with a 1920 concert of joint compositions by Miyagi and Motoori Nagayo (1885–1945), composer of Western-style children’s songs. Their collaborator, Kinko shakuhachi musician Yoshida Seifū (1891–1950), called this ‘a concert of new Japanese music’,
giving the movement its name. These new works did not fit neatly into traditional genres. The resulting movement also involved such luminaries as Nakao Tozan, the Yamada-ryū koto musician Hisamoto Genchi (1903–76) and musicologists Tanabe Hisao (1883–1984) and Machida Kashō (1888–1981). The movement spread nationwide via the new media of radio and gramophone records. Shin-hōgaku (‘new national [Japanese] music’) refers to a trend of the 1930s. Both movements involved creating new music involving Japanese instruments, often with non-Japanese instruments as well, by composers from the field of traditional music. Looking mainly at the shakuhachi, the following points characterized these two movements: enlargement of instrumentation; increase in the role of the shakuhachi;
influence from Western classical music; remodelling of the instrument.