Today was spent visiting Reigando, the cave where Miyamoto Musashi spent his last remaning years and wrote the book, The Five Rings. Jeff Cairns was so wonderful and kind to drive us there with the help of his friend, Richard, a professor of Haiku and English Literature at Kumamoto. It was quite meaningful for Matheus to visit Reigando as he practices Kendo. After Reigando, we visited one of Jeff`s friends, Dan and Mari who renovated a refurbished an old Japanese farmhouse and made a little, cozy cafe with old English decor. Dan did it all by himself which was quite amazing. He`s a really talented builder. Afterwards we went to a very nice rotenburo, outdoor natural hotspring, on top of a mountain. Kumamoto is quite famous for their onsens as there is lots of volcanic activity there and the water is very pure, coming straight from artesian wells. After the onsen, we ate a fine lunch in the adjoining restaurant.
At 3 pm we made it back to the hotel where we were having the gasso (group playing with koto and shamisen) and the enkai, party. It was very interesting and fun to play with the Wakanakai group. The pieces we played were: Kurokami, Kumoi Jishi, Chidori, Rokudan, Ho Shu So, Azuma no Kyoku, and the last piece, the title of which I forgot, was a 200 year old piece from Kumamoto which was played by Tsurugi-sensei and the koto and shamisen players.
Tsurugi is a very accomplished player having started shakuhachi from age 11 and inheriting his father`s shakuhachi making skills. He also is working to add to the traditional music by doing some creative re-arrangements and doing collaborations with traditional performers. He shared one piece he did which was an arrangement of Tsuru no Sugomori for two shakuahchi and two Nihon Buyo dancers. I was really amazed at his ability to memorize long pieces such as Yaegoromo, etc. He admitted to me that sankyoku pieces for him are easier to memorize than honkyoku. He said honkyoku phrasing changes too much so it`s hard to keep it in his mind. We had a very enjoyable time with everyone. The energy of the Wakanakai group is much more lively and conservative than the Nishimura group, but no less warm and kind. It was lovely to experience these two lineages of shakuahchi in Kumamoto! Anyway, many great thanks for Jeff Cairns for organizing the gasso, enkai, and outings in the hills of Kumamoto!
Right after the party I had to rush to the train station to validate everyone`s JR pass and reserve seats for our long train ride tomorrow to Mie Prefecture. We will be visiting Tsubaki Grand Shrine in Suzuka to offer honkyoku to the Kami-sama, do misogi under the waterfall, and do some laundry!
This weekend Kakizakai, Furuya, and Matama senseis will be in Seattle for the concert and workshop. My thoughts go out to them for a great workshop and show. I`m glad some of my students will be going there to see and take lessons with them. I hope we can bring them to BC next year. Look forward to seeing Kakizakai sensei for a lesson again in Chichibu on Nov. 29.
To be continued.....
Alcvin
www.bamboo-in.com
ramos@dccnet.com
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