Photo from the booklet accompanying the 10 Disc Honkyoku set of Yamaguchi Goro. Japan Victor, 2002

Hi All, I was just practicing for my next lesson with Ralph and wanted to check a passage on the piece I was working on. Instead of finding the section on my lesson recording, I decided to reference it on the 10 Disc Honkyoku set of Yamaguchi Goro. That little excursion turned into a two-day listening experience that left me both humbled and inspired.  Yamaguchi’s playing reaches beyond music. It has the “x factor”, that unnameable thing that seems to embody the art of all the greats. Perhaps it’s simply just called soul - the unique heart and passion of the player. Yamaguchi’s playing is, for lack of a better description, full of soul. This is not only good shakuhachi music, but truly great music beyond cultural categorization.

See this youtube video uploaded by John Singer. It is Part 2 of Sokaku Reibo. Thanks John, for making these videos available. Yamaguchi Sensei’s playing is deep and full of the rich subtleties everyone talks about. And yetis also penetrating and powerful beyond description : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_nEuAxqHVw

During the two days of listening, I continued work in the shop. Here was a unique commission. I rarely take these on but I’ve been in dialogue with the client over the past few years. He sent a piece of bamboo from a domestic source. The bore was actually too big for the length. This is one of the reasons why I don’t normally take these types of commissions, you never know what will arrive in the mail. The aspect ratio (length X diameter) was not good for conventional Jinashi shakuhachi making.

However, there are ways to make it perform at the highest level the AR will allow with no Spot Tuning . Here, I am opening up the holes and undercutting deeply to match the large bore. I am using a special Japanese carving knife that is half rounded on the back and razor sharp on the edge. It cuts like butter without grabbing the bamboo. Other knives leaves the wall and edge somewhat serrated requiring an electric Dremel tool or sandpaper to finishl.

The end result. The urushi can go right on.

I always take a deep breath when a flute come in like this as one never knows exactly how much work this will take. But, it makes me happy to be able to tell the owner that it can be fixed and it will play like it did before, if not better.

The sticker was old and fixed on quite well so I needed to use “Goo Remover”.

After a few days in the humiode box and topical cord bindings. Next is a coat of urushi to protect from dirt and hand oils.

The hanko of Zenmura.

Even though my shop and teaching was full this week, I (happily) found time to volunteer as an art supervisor for Jet’s First Grade class. Every class in his school creates a piece of art for their annual Earthball Art Auction Fundraiser. I worked as a picture framer in my early years in NYC so this was a piece of cake.

I actually pitched making Yoko Ono’s conceptual Wish Tree as that would’ve been quicker, but I think the other parent’s idea of having the class make self-portraits was better. Had we not done this, the world may never have been blessed with this incredible, beautiful and powerful yin and yang portrait on the right.  I know I’m going to bid!

Lastly, a big Molto Grazie to Fabio in Italy for winning the UNICEF Daily Zen shakuhachi and joining me and hundreds of shakuhachi players, musicians, zen practitioners and plain folks world wide in helping to make the world a better place for our underprivileged children. I am going to make this a weekly thing so here is the next Daily Zen Shakuhachi UNICEF auction on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140676518551

Namaste, Perry