Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Hi Bas, Welcome to the miraculous world of shakuhachi-playing. I hope it will give you as much joy ( and somtimes fatigue) as the rest of us. There are some more of us living in Holland. Who's your teacher?

Don't bother the proper English; it's the content and the feeling that counts. It's just like shakuhachi playing for that. I'm not familiar with your teachers name. Where/from what school/teacher did he learn the shakuhachi? What music do you like best?
I guess you're pretty lucky having found a teacher that close, I know people traveling to other countries for their lessons. Is there a group of shakuhachiplayers around there? What repertoire?

That was also a good thing I believe in the lesson I had: it was not about being precise about specific technique, as it sounds well it is probably ok. Quite different then my saxophone lessons I had in the past. I dont'know which school my teacher is from, I can ask. Probably Kees Kort I think...but am not certain. They know each other and kees recommended him...Do you have a teacher Dun Romin?
I cannot say which music I like best; I have a cd with honkyoku which I like, but haven't heard much in the field of Shakuhachi. There is no group of of players here that I know of. Where do you live in Holland?
Justin, what you said might be true, the shaku is from Japan, some other member of Kaito, the dutch shaku society goes there I believe and takes home various shaku's to sell. My teacher has other shaku's as well, but smaller and also a Yuu like I do.

Wim said he got it from Ken Tanaka and said Ken had several flutes, so there is where it came from. I don't know what flutes he normaly has. I'll learn on the Yuu and maybe later buy a nice bamboo flute (also due to the price of bamboo).
The ESS is the europian variant? I didn't know it excisted.
Yes I got a mail from Kees about the summerschool, I wil definitely try to be there!
You have many flutes?

The ESS or the European Shakuhachi Society is, as the name suggests, a European shakuhachi society. We strive to be an umbrella organisation trying to make the networking and communication of European shakuhachi players better. And education is one of our main aims as an organisation. Since it was formed at the first Pan European Shakuhachi Summer School in London 06, we have now managed to get it registered as a charity organisation in the UK, although 2 of the 5 committee members have to be from continental Europe in order to keep it... so to speak... European and not British.

You can see our website here, which is mostly just about the Summer School 07: www.shakuhachisociety.eu

We should get a new website up before the end of the year. Slowly we will have it to work in 3 languages, English, German and French. We have a quarterly ESS Newsletter coming out (you can find that on the website), which we also try to keep trilingual as much as possible.

One of our main aims in ESS is to organise these Shakuhachi Summer Schools where people can come and learn different aspects of shakuhachi playing. I organised the first one in London with my colleague Michael Coxall in 2006, then two other members of the ESS committee, Jim Franklin and Veronique Piron organised 2007. Now we are doing what we hoped to be able to do from the beginning: Help smaller shakuhachi groups organise the Summer Schools in different parts of Europe. So, you are right, the next one is going to be in Leiden, The Netherlands in July 2009. It is going to be a part of a 2 year celebration of the contact between Leiden and Japan 08 and 09. Kees Kort is the artistic director and the main local person. I am sure he will announce it officially here. It is going to be great! Details to come soon!