I had my shakuhachi lesson today. I'm now learning kyorei the oldest shakuhachi piece in the koten honkyoku repertiore. It uses different fingering and breathing techniques than the sankyoku pieces I've been learning up to now with Kurahashi sensei. The komuso used the shakuhachi for meditation. This piece requires full breaths and simplified yet difficult notes. Two schools of though exist the old meri notes played in modern times; one that the notes should be kept the same; two that they should be modernized as the monks might have wanted them to be. My sensei's school follows the first. Thus instead of normal tsu-meri with the shading on the first hole, only a dai-meri position is taken to create an 'impossible' note. This note is the same pitch as tsu-meri, but with a special tone color. This goes for the other meri notes also. The piece overall is very simple but beautiful in its simplicity. This is one of the three first shakuhachi pieces created. Here is the story of Fuke and the creation of the Fuke-shu from as I remember it: In a small village in China there existed a monk by the name of Fuke. He would walk around town ringing his bell and shouting at passerbyers. Most of the town folk thought fuke to be kind of looney. He did have one disciple who was devoted to Fuke's method of showing people the means to enlightenment. Fuke had one peom that completely summed up his philisophy. Goes something like this 'If you encounter someone bright hit him on the head, if you encounter someone dull, hit him on the head, if you encounter anyone at all hit them like a whirlwind, if you encounter emptyness hit it most severly of all'. Well one day Fuke decided his time was at an end and had a coffin built for him. He took it around town asking the villagers to nail him inside while he was still alive. Of course noone was willing to do this. He left the village and came upon a travelling merchant. He asked the man to do his bidding and the man oblidged. When the merchant reached the village he told the story of what had happened. The villagers were horrified and ran to fetch Fuke's disciple. They ran to where the coffin was and pried it open. When they looked inside no trace of Fuke was to be found, only the distant ringing of his bell. That night his disciple had a dream. In that dream he could hear his master's bell ringing. He cut a length of bamboo and made a flute and played along with the ringing of the bell. When he awoke in the morning he remember the songs and wrote them down. Kyorei (empty bell) was one of these three songs.
After my lesson I took the subway back to my side of town and walked along the river to my practice spot to go over what I had just learned. Then I ran into Naomi san and Mugi the dog. She stopped and let me finish my song. As I finshed a man was listening and gave me a piece of sheet music; sakura sakura. I thanked him and he went on his way. Then she bade me to sit and we talked for awhile. She knows alittle English and wanted to practice and I got to practice my Japanese with her. Mugi went nuts everytime another dog walked by, he is a funny little critter. We talked and talked and then it got dark. She walked back to see where I live and then went on her way home. I think she means to invite me over for dinner or something, she kept asking what food I like and where she lives. Well that might be fun. Now I'm sitting and thinking about the day. Well it was a pleasent day.