Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Josh wrote:

Sorry, I guess nobody has heard of it. It looks 1970's-ish and seems to be part of an introduction to Japan video. I'd guess there might be one shakuhachi song or snippets of a few.

I passed on that one and got this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00008 … ss_product

It only has one shakuhachi piece in it but it's by Watazumi and has an interview with him too. Simply awesome. The rest is all 80's Japanese pop music including taxi-cab karaoke. It has some interesting stuff about researchers saying that Japanese people listen to Japanese music with their left brains and Western music with their right brains, while Westerners listen to all music with their right brains so they just can't get it. They point out that, however, a Japanese listener will listen to Western music on a shakuhachi with their left brain. Later in the DVD a Japanese electronic musician suggests the left brain/right brain stuff is racist and it's all about experience. I think most here on the forum would like it.

radi0gnome wrote:

It has some interesting stuff about researchers saying that Japanese people listen to Japanese music with their left brains and Western music with their right brains, while Westerners listen to all music with their right brains so they just can't get it. They point out that, however, a Japanese listener will listen to Western music on a shakuhachi with their left brain. Later in the DVD a Japanese electronic musician suggests the left brain/right brain stuff is racist and it's all about experience. I think most here on the forum would like it.

So called Nihonjinron writings on music can be intriguing, especially from a clinical perspective. For example, Tadanobu Tsunoda, author of the bestseller "The Japanese Brain", claims that the Japanese have a congenital affinity for Western music (though not if played on Japanese instruments) and are fatigued or worse by the sounds of traditional Japanese music. Musicologist and professor emeritus of the National Museum of Japanese History, Tomiko Kojima,  in her book "Thoughts on Japanese Music" maintains that the rhythmic sense of the Japanese people has been historically determined by their footwork in the paddy fields, "so the fundamental beat in Japan is a quiet, simple duple time, with no strong or weak beat", whereas those peoples who lived largely on horseback developed a "lively...forward moving, up-and-down rhythm."  Professor Kojima also assures us that Louis Armstrong's singing voice revealed his African roots, while the speaking voice of Italians clearly shows their natural gift for opera.