Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Hello Shakuhachi Forum! Forgive my late introduction. I'm amazed at how much this forum has grown in such a short time! Thanks so much to Brian Tairaku and Ken Lacosse for making the effort creating this!

Anyways, my name is Alcvin Takegawa Ramos. I teach up in BC, Canada. I've been playing for 15 years (teaching for 8). I started learning Tozan then switched to Kinko after two years. Then eventually settled into the tradition of Katsuya Yokoyama and Watazumi Doso. I consider this my base, but I am very open to learning other styles! (I also studied the jinashi shakuhchi style of Atsuya Okuda for 2 years in Tokyo.) I continue to return to Japan every year to study shakuhachi with my teachers (harvest bamboo and pilgrimage to sacred sites!)

I moved to Vancouver in 1996 and in 2001 founded the Shakuhachi Society of British Columbia, and the Bamboo-In Shakuhachi Retreat Centre, on the Sunshine Coast. I enjoy all aspects of shakuhachi immensely: music, teaching, making, spirituality, history, philosophy, culture, bamboo horticulture, people.....It is such a deep and fascinating world to devote one's life to; it will take many lifetimes to discover it all. But this list is helping with the process!

I make my living as a shakuhachi teacher and performer. Although my specialty is koten honkyoku, I also play sankyoku (with shamisen and koto), gaikyoku, minyou. In addition to shakuhachi I play the biwa, Japanese lute having studied with Yukio Tanaka in Tokyo since 2000. I also have a strong interest in gagaku, but unfortunately there are no gagaku groups here in BC. The most I have is a hichiriki which I play solo. I hope to bring gagaku someday to BC.

I also love free improvisation and new music with shakuhachi, and atmospheric ambient electronic music, eg. Steve Roach, Robert Rich, etc. 

I look forward to learning from this forum. Everyone is a teacher here.

Very best regards,

Alcvin
www.bamboo-in.com

P.s. Hi Darren! Nice to see you here.