Kari and wind

Yes. The more extreme the airier. There are of course always mitigating factors but I think that is basically correct.

Hi veggiepower, Yes, as Jim confirmed, the bigger space between the lips and blowing edge facilitates a windier tone. But it is a matter of choice for many experienced players. They decide whether they want that in their tone. Conversely speaking, some players like to make the windier tone on a meri note. You can hear this done effectively if you can find some on-line samples of the great Watazumi. His meri notes are sometimes windier and turbulent compared with his standard Kari notes (by choice).

Hope this helps.

Hi veggiepower, since I noticed that a previous post of yours was about some frustration with how the shakuhachi is supposed to be angled, I'd like to add that even though kari introduces wind, you can still get better at it. With practice, an angle that at the beginning of your struggles produced an unusable overly-windy tone, will eventually turn into a solid, in-tune, note with the windiness being a part of the tone.

My personal approach is to practice kari starting at a slight angle so that it still sounds good and seeing how far I can stretch it. Over time (and I mean weeks and months), you can get a lot further with the kari before it sounds completely wrong.