礫川餘光's interview with Tomimori Kyozan 3

Track 4

The interviewer: Is there any kinko player who today transmits the old former of playing?

Tomimori: Ummmmm. When it comes to honkyoku... Masters like Araki Chio-san played both classics and sankyoku well. But usually it is not easy unless they are really great masters. Miura Kindo-san played honkyoku well in kinko-ryu. He was a brother of Miura Kinnosuke who was the jiinokami (servant?) of the meiji tenno emperor. I visited to comfort him after the Great Kanto Earthquake occurred (in 1923) and found him still making shakuhachi including larger bore size flutes. I asked him if kinko people also play such sizes of shakuhachi. He answered, "honkyoku needs to be played on bigger bore flutes." Now kinko shakuhachi are much narrower. I wonder if many people today hope to have Miura Kindo's shakuhachi, cause someone said "if you find Miura Kondo shakuhachi, let me know. I would buy it for 300000 yen." Shakuhachi became quite expensive. Today, kinko-ryu people themselves say that none of kinko-ryu masters play honkyoku well. That should be impossible, as the emphasis is now placed on sankyoku performance. I think that's fine - they play sankyoku. If kinko-ryu people play myoan shakuhachi, then sankyoku players won't be enough in number. Then, this (money) dries up! (laugh) That's why it is impossible. So kinko-ryu honkyoku is like daijo (mahayana), and kinko-ryu people should acknowledge and make good use of it. When it comes to theater music and other kinds of music, kinko-ryu playing is better. When it comes to music offering, myoan would be better. Each has pros and cons....

礫川餘光's interview with Tomimori Kyozan 2

Track 3

So when the shakuhachi began to merge with the strings, the need to study scales emerged. Before the genroku (of the edo) period, people changed the lengths of shakuhachi to play in ensemble. However, after the genroku period, around the time of the first Kurosawa Kinko, 1.8 shakuhachi became the standard size. As a result, shakuhachi pieces needed to be transposed to different scales. Then, five scales of shakuhachi music emerged.

"Mukai Reibo" and "Koku Reibo" in kinko-ryu were transposed to the akebono scale. "Sanya Sugagaki" and "Kumoi Jishi" were transposed to the kumoi scale. These are very precious pieces, as they show traits of transposition and the five scales. The music score(s) of these pieces recorded around the time were also well written, much better than those of myoan shakuhachi. Half tones were also being used in kinko-ryu only after the meiji period. They were not used initially.

[Tomimori doesn't seem to explain well in the first part. He probably wants to point out that prior to the influence of strings, all the shakuhachi pieces were played in the same scale. Not sure about this]

礫川餘光's interview with Tomimori Kyozan 1

This two-hour interview was recorded on October 27 in 1968. He talks really interesting stuff (such as "yabu-garashi," introduced earlier on this blog). I will be translating parts of his interview so that people (especially, my friend who kindly shared the recordings with me) can get a sense of what Tomimori Kyozan was saying.

1 Track 2

Honkyoku has gone through a few hundred years of transformation. The current form of honkyoku is different from its primitive form of origin. Among the oldest pieces are kyorei, murasaki no kyoku (which Ikkyu Zen master is said to have played), and sagariha (which was played during "nenbutsu odori," or chanting dance).

These days people often talk about koku. It is a sophisticated piece. But the initial form of the piece was not that sophisticated. Until the middle muromachi era, the shakuhachi had been 1.6 at longest. It could have been 1.4 to 1.5. Finger holes were also small. Thus, it was impossible to play half tones. There was probably no need to use semitones. The reason for no meri effect in myoan playing derives from that primitive style. In contrast, the kinko music is sophisticated. That's the influence of string instruments such as the koto, kokyu, and also shamisen (after keicho period) of the ensemble context. Hitoyogiri was also used in ensemble with shamisen....

(to be continued in the next track)