1
The Kokusai Shakuhachi Kenshukan
An informal, introductory essay and personal appraisal
Dr Jim Franklin, shihan
In this essay I wish to provide a brief introduction to the Kokusai Shakuhachi Kenshukan (or
KSK, International Shakuhachi Training Centre or Research Centre) and its music.
Information about the KSK may be found on its own website1, but to the best of my
knowledge a definitive study of the organisation has yet to be written. I base my comments
here primarily on “insider knowledge” as a KSK teacher, on my own observations concerning
the music, and on discussions with colleagues and fellow KSK teachers.
The KSK is a recent entrant into the list of shakuhachi schools and groupings. It was the
brainchild of Yokoyama Katsuya, one of the most outstanding players of the 20th century, and
reflects his thinking and the range of influences he absorbed during his career.
Born in 1934, Yokoyama’s first shakuhachi lessons as a youth were with his father,
Yokoyama Ranpo, an accomplished performer who had trained in the Kinko school as well as
studying with composer-performer Fukuda Rando (1906-76). These two musical influences
became the formative basis of Yokoyama’s playing, and their legacy is reflected in the current
musical orientation of the KSK. The musical area for which Yokoyama is best known,
however, at least outside of Japan, is the specific repertoire and style of honkyoku now
associated with the KSK. This manifested itself slightly later in Yokoyama’s development
through an encounter with Zen-master and shakuhachi-player Watazumi Doso (also known as
Watazumi Shuso, 1911-92), following which Yokoyama learned Watazumi Doso’s honkyoku
repertoire and assimilated his concern with the spirituality of the shakuhachi.
It is a somewhat open question as to where Watazumi Doso obtained his repertoire. It is
generally asserted that he lived as a monk in Itchoken temple, a Myoan temple on Kyūshū,
and internalised the repertoire found there, as well as absorbing other pieces on journeys
within Japan.2 Eventually, he broke with Itchoken and went on to establish his own style,
school and highly individual manner of playing. Yokoyama in turn absorbed this repertoire,
1
http:// www.shaku8.com/kenshukan
2
Various entries on the website http://komuso.com (International Shakuhachi Society) with
reference to Watazumi’s life and recordings mention his association with Itchoken temple.
2
and focussed on the musicality of performance as an integral aspect of the spirituality of the
music, developing away from the brilliant idiosyncrasy of Watazumi’s playing into a
musically refined form which requires a high level of technique as well as a commitment to
the spiritual dimensions of the music. This repertoire of honkyoku as ‘filtered’ or transmitted
by Yokoyama has formed one of the mainstays of the KSK up to the present.
As a player in his thirties, Yokoyama became engaged with the performance of newly-
composed music. He came to prominence in international as well as Japanese new music
circles through the world premiere performance in New York in 1967 of November Steps by
Takemitsu Tōru (1930-96), in which he played shakuhachi alongside biwa player Kinshi
Tsuruta (1911-1995).3 This milestone is exemplary for Yokoyama’s concern not only with
music of the past (honkyoku and sankyoku) but also with the further development of the
shakuhachi and its music through new composition.
As a player who travelled frequently outside of Japan, Yokoyama was responsible for
exposing many non-Japanese to the instrument, some of whom wished not only to hear the
shakuhachi, but also to play it. In the course of time, Yokoyama realized that there was an
urgent need for a training process for non-Japanese as well as Japanese performers, with all
players on an equal footing – something which he perceived as difficult to achieve under the
strongly hierarchical, traditional Japanese iemoto guild system. This was partly in response to
the observation that would-be players outside of Japan tended to be left to their own devices,
resulting in a standard of playing below the potential either of the players or of the instrument
in itself – a situation which he wished to rectify. As fate would have it, the availability of a
teaching space with associated accommodation in the old school hall in the town of Bisei,
situated in the mountains not too far from Yokoyama’s home city of Okayama, enabled the
commencement in 1988 of regular large-group training periods, frequently attended by non-
Japanese players. Bisei thus became the home of the fledgling International Shakuhachi
Training Centre, the KSK. This developed in the course of time to (in effect) a small but
strong school grouped around Yokoyama, which has continued beyond his death in 2010. A
major turning point, effectively marking the “arrival” of the KSK on the shakuhachi scene,
was the first International Shakuhachi Festival in 1994 in Bisei, organized by the KSK. This
was followed in 2002 by a further International Summit in Tokyo, organized by Yokoyama’s
3
A modern recording, but nevertheless featuring Yokoyama and Kinshi together with the
original conductor Seiji Ozawa, can be found on the CD Takemitsu: November Steps; Eclipse;
Viola Concerto (A String around Autumn) (Philips 432 176-2, released in 1991).
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senior students, among them Kakizakai Kaoru, Matama Kazushi and Furuya Teruo; at that
event, following a series of strokes in the years before, Yokoyama was unable to play, but
was guest of honour. Between these two events and in the years following the Tokyo summit,
World Shakuhachi Festivals were held (Boulder, Colorado, 1998; New York, 2004; Sydney
2008; Kyoto 2012). An International Shakuhachi Forum was held again in Bisei in 2007. In
particular in Boulder and Sydney, the KSK had a central role, and in Kyoto, a special KSK
concert was held, commemorating the life and work of Yokoyama-sensei.
Yokoyama’s musical interests and background led to a confluence of diverse areas in the
repertoire of the KSK. Its core is found in the body of honkyoku which he learned and
transmitted, sometimes referred to as Chikushinkyoku (“bamboo-heart pieces”; the name
derives from one of the designations sometimes used for the KSK, Chikushinkai, “bamboo-
heart association”). Amongst these honkyoku are also pieces derived from the Kinko
repertoire, such as Shika no Tōne. A second major strand of the repertoire is the body of
sankyoku, also borrowed from Kinko. In contrast to the usual Kinko training programme,
however, in the KSK the honkyoku and sankyoku pieces are learned in parallel – at least in my
experience.4
Apart from these ‘traditional’ repertoire elements, the pieces of Fukuda Rando represent a
third strand within the KSK. I recall Yokoyama-sensei, in one of my first lessons with him,
presenting me with an envelope containing the then current versions of the Rando scores and
admonishing me to learn them – which, of course, I did. One of the most complex of these
pieces, Wadatsumi no irokono miya5 for shakuhachi trio, has become more or less a standard
work, making an appearance at most festivals or shakuhachi gatherings involving the KSK.
Its technical firework, outside of a honkyoku context, makes clear the standard towards which
KSK students are expected to strive – technical proficiency which should be applied to the
honkyoku repertoire as well.
A fourth layer of repertoire is open-ended, in contrast to the fundamentally closed body of
honkyoku and sankyoku pieces. During Yokoyama’s formative years, Japanese composers
4
As part of my training in Japan, it was required that I work with sankyoku, but not as a
precursor to working with honkyoku.
5
“Paradise in the Ocean”, a reference to a painting of the same title by Rando’s father, Aoki
Shigeru (1882-1911). Rando was very moved by this painting, which his father painted in
1907, the year following Rando’s birth. (Private e-mail from Kakizakai Kaoru, 30th July 2012;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shigeru_Aoki)
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were seeking a voice and an identity in the space between Western concepts of new music and
Japanese concepts of tradition and instrumentation. The works of Takemitsu Tōru are just one
example of this compositional development. Yokoyama matured into this milieu, and
furthered it. Not only did he himself compose for shakuhachi; he also encouraged students
with a gift for composition to do so.6 The KSK has commissioned shakuhachi performer-
composers in and outside of Japan such as Seki Ichiro and myself to write for the instrument,
and has provided at various festivals, such as the International Shakuhachi Summit in 2002
and Forum in 2007, a platform for our efforts to be heard publicly.
The importance of composition in the conception of the KSK was underscored in discussions
I had with senior KSK teachers Kakizakai Kaoru, Matama Kazushi and Furuya Teruo in
Kyoto on June 4, 2012, during the 2012 World Shakuhachi Festival. They emphasised the fact
that the tradition of the shakuhachi is not an immutable body of music. Instead, they embody
Yokoyama’s progressive attitude, that the tradition is a living entity and must rejuvenate itself
perpetually through the development of new material which respects the old, without
supplanting it or negating its significance.7 They also expressed a clear recognition of the fact
that only a small proportion of newly-composed music for shakuhachi will survive the test of
time to become part of the standard repertoire. This is nevertheless not a reason to reduce the
amount of compositional activity for the shakuhachi; on the contrary, there must be much
material composed, to ensure that a (probably small) number of repertoire-worthy pieces are
created.8 In contrast with a Japan-centred attitude, these senior teachers see no principal
difference in terms of quality between the work of composers (with an understanding of the
instrument) in Japan and outside it. As a corollary, the KSK actively encourages non-Japanese
composers to create new material for the shakuhachi as an important means to its further
development.
One of Yokoyama’s main concerns was the musicality of the pieces, particularly of the
honkyoku, and this concern has become a prime directive within the KSK. While an intuitive
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Yokoyama was overjoyed when, in my first lesson with him, I presented him with a CD
containing a recording of my work Heart for shakuhachi and live electronics (Anthology of
Australian Music on Disc: CSM26: Electroacoustic Music, Canberra School of Music, 1996).
He said that for him, it represented a meeting-point of composition and spirituality, a
confluence which he considered to be of central importance.
7
Concerning concepts of “tradition” and “transmission” of the music of the shakuhachi, cf.
the doctoral dissertations by Gunnar Jinmei Linder (2012) and Riley Kelly Lee (1993).
8
This is, of course, true in all compositional musical cultures; of the collective compositional
output of an era in any culture, only a small proportion becomes part of the established canon
of works.
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feeling for the pieces, a connection of the heart as it were, is a necessary prerequisite, this
rapport must be learned and deepened, and cannot be divorced from technical proficiency.
The latter in turn must be nurtured and practiced, and perpetually refined; simply playing
from the heart is not enough. In discussions with me during the Kyoto World Festival in 2012,
Kakizakai Kaoru recounted his experience with students who thought they had learned a piece
adequately and wanted to change it deliberately to suit their perceptions, playing it in
accordance with their own whims or “heart”. It is necessary, as a teacher, to encourage
students to seek the depths of the pieces not in one’s own perceptions, but in accordance with
what the (certified and experienced) teacher can transmit, letting the pieces come to fruition in
their own way and time.
A chief element of technique, to which particular attention is paid within the KSK, is pitch.
Firstly, the kari tones (in this case, the open-hole tones played in normal position) must be
accurate, and this assumes a flute which is within itself accurately tuned.9 Secondly,
Yokoyama always emphasised the importance of correct pitch of meri notes (notes played
with the pitch shifted downwards), and in particular of what he called the “double meri”: for
instance, that tsu no dai meri (tsu with two meri steps) must accurately reach the pitch of ro.10
Only with attention to such detail is it possible for the pieces to blossom fully at all levels –
going beyond individual sounds to create phrases in which the cycle of timbres between meri
and kari and the correspondences between tones of identical pitches but different timbre are
clear, and from there, to delineate the overarching forms of the pieces. These forms are often
highly refined structures, whose unfolding within the playing time of a piece is just as
important to the meditative or spiritual depth of the pieces as the blowing of single note from
the heart. Technical skill, learned over the course of years and perpetually deepened, is
necessary to facilitate this detailed shaping of phrases and forms, and is thus integral to the
spirituality of the pieces. So, students as well as teachers must continually strive to deepen
their technical abilities with the instrument in parallel with and as a means towards the
deepening of their spiritual connectedness with the music. Even at the height of his
performing prowess, Yokoyama emphasised his own quest for improvement of his technique.
9
The tuning of a flute is a matter of the skill of the flute-maker, and within the KSK one notes
a tendency away from self-made instruments, in which tuning is often questionable, and
towards flutes from practiced, skilled makers. This is not to say that a performer cannot also
be a skilled maker, but there is no a priori assumption that players will necessarily be able to
make flutes of acceptable quality.
10
On a standard 1.8-shaku instrument, tsu has the pitch F, tsu no meri with one meri step has
the pitch Eb, and tsu no dai meri and ro both sound as D.
6
Within the KSK, the honkyoku tend to be viewed as the peak of the music of the shakuhachi.
In Kyoto in 2012, Kakizakai Kaoru and Furuya Teruo both stated to me that the honkyoku are
pieces that engage with the most essential questions of humanity – life and death, and how
one relates to these. It is here, in the confrontation with these questions, that the meditative or
spiritual depth of this music emerges.
The honkyoku repertoire, however, is a form of music which goes beyond a ‘spiritual’ label,
and beyond being Japanese. During a panel discussion at the International Shakuhachi Forum
in Bisei in 2007, I made the observation that the honkyoku are not simply a music form from
Japan, but a cultural treasure which belongs to the whole of humanity. (To my surprise, this
remark earned a spontaneous round of applause from the listening audience.) It is within this
context that the KSK becomes “international”. If one transmits a music which is viewed as a
cultural treasure of all humanity, then it follows that one must make it possible for all
humanity to participate in this music, either by hearing it, or by learning to play it. Of course,
it is clear that not every member of the human race will feel a connectedness with the
honkyoku, just as not every member of the human race feels a connectedness, for instance,
with the body of Western classical music or North Indian classical music, to name just a
couple of other cultural treasures. It is equally clear that not every person who feels an affinity
with the music of the shakuhachi will actually have the wish or the talent to play it.
Yokoyama saw it as his mission to take the shakuhachi abroad, and he frequently performed
and recorded outside of Japan. But he also viewed it as necessary to provide a pathway for
non-Japanese to be able to receive training in shakuhachi at a high standard. This takes place
on a number of levels. Firstly, the senior KSK teachers from Japan also frequently travel
overseas, teaching at workshops, summer schools and so on. Secondly, following
Yokoyama’s example, the teachers are open to accepting foreign students in Japan and
facilitating the way for them without any form of discrimination or assumption that they will
be unable to reach the standards of Japanese players. (In Kyoto in 2012, Furuya told me that
he perceives no difference between good non-Japanese and Japanese players.) Thirdly, the
training camps at Bisei and in other places provide the opportunity for Japanese and non-
Japanese students to rub shoulders and learn from one another – in recognition of the fact that
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the cultural transfer works in both directions, that the non-Japanese players are now
contributing significantly to the development of the shakuhachi.11
Fourthly, and highly significantly, an openness to non-Japanese players has also required a
change in the structure of the school. Traditional Japanese guilds tend to be strongly vertically
hierarchical, comprising an iemoto (head of the guild) at the top of the pyramid, many levels
between beginners and teachers, and with formal recognition (certificates) of the transition
between these levels. Within the KSK, this structure has become more democratic. Yokoyama
occupied a clear place at the peak of the structure, but since his death the organisation is run
more or less by a committee of senior teachers, with decisions taken more on a consensual
than on an autocratic basis. Even during his lifetime, Yokoyama flattened the system of
levels, particularly for teachers. He issued shihan (“Master”) licences to students he
considered worthy, but almost without exception he did not issue dai shihan (“Grand
Master”) certifications. His attitude was that there is really only good playing and bad
playing.12 The licences, with associated title, were only important for Yokoyama as a sign that
the title bearer is certified as capable of transmitting the music faithfully and at a high
standard. He considered the shihan licence issued by him as being perfectly adequate to
signify this. In this way, the “Master” title, which tends to be almost mystically charged in
Western perceptions, returns to its primary meaning of “exemplary teacher”, and the
distinction between “Master” and “Grand Master” becomes meaningless. Yokoyama was also
not concerned with performing names; virtually no-one (Japanese and non-Japanese alike) in
the KSK has received an additional Japanese name. The very rare exceptions would appear to
be cases in which Yokoyama perceived that the student (Japanese or non-Japanese), for
whatever reason, had a personal need for a performing name, and thus went against his usual
practice. But the giving of a name in itself was irrelevant for Yokoyama.13
It is significant that the KSK is also gradually becoming a decentralised organisation. Not
surprisingly, the core remains in Japan. But there are numerous certified KSK teachers
outside of Japan, who have studied directly with Yokoyama or (since his death) with senior
KSK teachers such as Kakizakai Kaoru and Furuya Teruo. Thriving offshoots of the KSK can
11
For further discussion of the shakuhachi in a transcultural context, cf. my article
"Shakuhachi in Transition: a Transcultural Perspective", in Živá hudba 2011 (Journal of the
Institute of Music Theory), AMU (Academy of Performing Arts), Prague 2011.
12
In a personal e-mail to me on 29th July 2012, Kakizakai explained that Yokoyama made the
distinction between “good music” and “not good music”.
13
Personal e-mail from Kakizakai Kaoru, 29th July 2012.
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be found, for example, in mainland Europe, the USA and Australia, and the current generation
of non-Japanese students has received its training primarily outside of Japan. The KSK
attitude to this development is extremely positive. During the 2007 European Shakuhachi
Summer School in France, Furuya and Kakizaki indicated to Véronique Piron and myself (the
two Europe-based KSK teachers who organised the Summer School), that they view the
shakuhachi as a migratory instrument: firstly from China via Korea to Japan, then after a long
period of enrichment in Japan, to Europe, the Americas and Australia. Far from lamenting the
loss of a putative “Japanese” quality, they greet with interest the new development, and the
further enrichment of the music that this can bring.14 In discussions in Kyoto in 2012, they
also indicated that there is a definite sense of reverse cultural transfer, that the playing of non-
Japanese performers at the World Festival 2012 was a surprise and an inspiration to many of
the Japanese participants. They anticipate that this perception, of there being good players
outside of Japan, will have a subtle but significant effect on the players in Japan. Additionally,
they encourage, in typical KSK fashion, the efforts of composer-performers outside of Japan
to extend the repertoire of the music through new composition, while at the same time
expressing the hope that new compositions will respect and integrate the musical and spiritual
bases of the music of the shakuhachi, particularly of the honkyoku. In other words, they
anticipate and welcome a process of transculturation, in which the emergence of the
shakuhachi outside of Japan changes in a subtle way the musical culture outside of Japan, but
where these changes also feed back into the shakuhachi circles in Japan, changing them also
in a subtle fashion.
Musical cultures and traditions develop through such processes; without them, the music
tends to become a kind of museum exhibit. Such an attitude, of preserving unchanged a fixed
repertoire, is the antithesis of the perception within the KSK, that particularly the honkyoku
represent a living musical and spiritual depth. Through its openness and embrace of the
shakuhachi as an inter- as well as transcultural phenomenon, the KSK stands as one of the
organisations integrally concerned with transferring the shakuhachi into the future.
**************
14
For further details on the migratory nature of the shakuhachi, cf. my paper "Warum kam die
Shakuhachi in den Westen? ", presented at the symposium Japan im Westen: Literatur –
Kultur – Spiritualität, Weltkloster Radolfzell, Germany, 27 th April 2012 (publication
forthcoming).
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Sources:
General information about Yokoyama Katsuya and the KSK can be found the website of the
KSK itself (http://www.shaku8.com/kenshukan/) and on the site of the (largely inactive)
International Shakuhachi Society (http://komuso.com/people/people.pl?person=700)
The discussion between Jim Franklin, Kakizakai Kaoru, Furuya Teruo and Matama Kazushi
on 4th June 2012 in Kyoto was recorded with permission. At the time of writing, a transcribed
and translated text is in preparation for later publication.
Discussions in France, 2007, between Jim Franklin, Véronique Piron, Kakizakai Kaoru and
Furuya Teruo were not recorded, and are cited here from personal recollection.
Bibliography
Franklin, Jim: "Compositional Encounters with Shakuhachi", in Ročenka textů zahraničních
profesorů (The Annual of Texts by Foreign Guest Professors) Vol.2, Charles
University, Prague 2008.
_________ "Japanese Shakuhachi Honkyoku Tradition and its Reinterpretation into a
Contemporary Composition Practice", in Music of the Spirit: Asian-Pacific Musical
Identity, ed. Atherton, Michael und Crossman, Bruce, Australian Music Centre,
Sydney, 2008.
_________ "Shakuhachi in Transition: a Transcultural Perspective", in Živá hudba 2011
(Journal of the Institute of Music Theory), AMU (Academy of Performing Arts),
Prague 2011.
_________ "Warum kam die Shakuhachi in den Westen?", paper presented at the symposium
Japan im Westen: Literatur – Kultur – Spiritualität, Weltkloster Radolfzell, 27th April
2012 (publication forthcoming).
Lee, Riley Kelly: Yearning for the Bell: A Study of Transmission on the Shakuhachi
Honkyoku Tradition. (PhD Dissertation, University of Sydney.) Distributed by UMI
Dissertation Services, UMI Number 982066, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1998.
Linder, Gunnar Jinmei: Deconstructing Tradition in Japanese Music: A Study of Shakuhachi,
Historical Authenticity and Transmission of Tradition. (PhD Dissertation, University
of Stockholm.) Stockholm University Press, Stockholm, 2012.
****************
Dr Jim Franklin is a master performer of the shakuhachi. He initially studied composition
and musicology in Australia, Germany and Holland. During his studies he encountered the
shakuhachi, and was fascinated by it. After learning the instrument in Australia with Dr Riley
Lee and in Japan with Furuya Teruo and Yokoyama Katsuya, he received his shihan licence
in 1996 from Yokoyama-sensei. As a composer, Franklin is active in the areas of
contemporary and electroacoustic music. He composes for shakuhachi solo and in
combination with other instruments, and frequently performs projects with shakuhachi and
live electronics. The interface between shakuhachi and electronics, and shakuhachi and other
acoustic instruments, is a key field of interest. In the area of solo shakuhachi, Franklin has
specialized in the honkyoku of the school of Yokoyama Katsuya (Kokusai Shakuhachi
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Kenshukan) and in modern music. Since 2004 Franklin has lived in Germany. From 2006 to
2009 he was founding Chairperson of the European Shakuhachi Society.
Contact:
[email protected]
