History

The Shakuhachi is a vertically played flute (traditionally bamboo) with four holes in front and one in back. It is tuned to a pentatonic (five-tone) scale, yet not in any way limited to this scale; special fingerings and head movements enable the player to play the Western chromatic scale and more. Sound is produced by blowing across a diagonal cut in the top end of the flute. This unusual mouthpiece enables the player to subtly bend and shape the sound and achieve fine microtonal differentiation. Unusual too is the tapered bore, wide at the top, narrowing toward the base and finally widening again at the end. This gives the Shakuhachi a uniquely haunting and sonorous sound.

The story of the Shakuhachi is a blend of speculation, legend, and history; so it is to the tradition itself that we must turn to discover the living thread coming through time. Doing so, we discover that the underlying spirit of the Shakuhachi is Zen.

According to this tradition, the Shakuhachi was created in China in the 9th century by a follower of Zen Master Fuke as a means of continuing the sound essence of the Master's begging bell. This practice was passed into the 13th century, at which time it was transmitted to a Japanese priest studying in China who returned with it to Japan. In Japan, the yet formless practice of blowing the Shakuhachi gradually became formalized, loosely at first, by flute-playing mendicant monks called Komusu or "monks of emptiness" and finally into a sect of Rinzai Zen, the Fuke-shu. By the 17th century the Fuke-shu was a recognized religious sect, using the Shakuhachi for group chanting and individual meditation.

The strictly religious tradition of the Shakuhachi came to an end under the Meiji government which disbanded the Fuke-shu in 1871. Until this time the Shakuhachi had been played solely as a religious instrument. It became considered a musical instrument, an instrument of entertainment, only as the flute players merged with the general culture following the sect's prohibition. At this time classical and folk melodies were added to the religious repertoire, and the Shakuhachi became an ensemble instrument with Koto and Shamisen. The contemporary Shakuhachi student may train in both the religious and secular styles as well as join with those players attempting to merge Eastern and Western musical sounds.