Little bit of visuals from WSF12 in Kyoto

Tanaka, the chief editor of the Hogaku Journal with two of his creations!

from the Genpu Iwamizu collection. Genpu Iwamizu was a komuso during the Taisho period (1912-1926)



Some of Genpu's jinashi shakuhachi. The one to the left is 6 shaku!!!



Some of Genpu's very weird and very long jinashi shakuhachi!!! I had no clue of such a komuso with a passion for chokan in the Taishō period. I learned something new:

Hey Kiku, Thanks for the great pics! Looks like Tanaka San enjoys the extremities of shakuhachi!
- Perry

Kiku did you play those weird things? They use some of the same technology didge makers are using now. I wonder how they sound.

Yes, while I was waiting for Shimura to finish the texts I am to translate, I tried them out. They are weird!!! I mean: REALLY WEIRD!!! Some are easy to make a sound ... they do not play that loud. The tuning is... hmmmm.... but never mind. Just looking at them and thinking that this is somebody during Taishō period that made them makes them remarkable enough to enjoy the sight. Come and try them out. I think it is tomorrow everybody can come and play on them - unfortunately clashing with the Master's concert. I have to stay there all day I think. That is my job! So everybody come and say hi and try the weirdest shakuhachi from the Taishoō period (1912 - 26).
The shakuhachi from Hamamatsu museum are yummy!!!

Brian, Pepe, FANTASTIC CONCERT ! ! !

A perplexed member of the old, notorious BBQ forum related a story of seeing a small gathering of monks and members at Myoan-ji temple standing around in a circle with one "really old guy" in the center playing a shakuhachi that was easily 6 shaku in length. The person telling the story said he could not hear a sound coming from the shakuhachi, but everyone around him seemed so reverent and involved!

Hi Chris
really? So someone who had seen him? Or perhaps someone else. It is pretty easy to make a sound out of it. But not that loud unless you make deep sounding wind sounds... then it can be quite loud.
Here is a photo of how it looks when I play the monster:



A few more photos from the Festival:



Intense listening at Myoanji temple:


The Nyoraku group in front of the Suizen stone:


Group photo of the performers:


I played at Myoanji for the first time. It was truly a great experience!

Must be the one! Great pic.

Yes, it was a Westerner who was watching a person (an older man) play the shakuhachi you are playing. The Westerner seemed perplexed by the whole experience.

Thank you for posting the pictures of Genpu Iwamizu and his shakuhachi. Have you made any recordings with them?

> Brian, did you get a chance to play them?

Also are there any known recordings of Genpu Iwamizu -- even wax cylinders?

Are these the earliest off-set hole shakuhachi that we know of?

Mr x moran,

I don't know of any recordings of Genpu... but I might be wrong and perhaps there are loads... If he for example died.... something like 1920... then it may be difficult to find recordings as it is a time where people didn't have the means just to record themselves. Unless he had very good connections, it may very well have been so that it was too precious a thing to make recordings so no-one wanted to make recordings of a nerd... However, it may also depends on whether he was looked upon as modern??? He is just from the period where several of Japan's traditional instruments grew in size or were remodelled... bēsujyamisen (bass shamisen), bass koto, ōkuraulo... So perhaps he was looked upon as an inventor... but I doubt it looking at the quality of the instruments and also the fact that he was a komusō.
These shakuhachi are the earliest off-set I have seen but that doesn't say much. I am not an expert on old shakuhachi. Perhaps some of the antique shakuhachi otaku here on the forum have an opinion.

Brian did come and play them and made Genpu's daughter very happy!

I just thought the Myoanji picture of all the players is too small so I will upload a bigger version. Then you can easily recognise one of the moderators here on the forum!

Great photos Kiku!

I've just arrived back in England and am enjoying the glorious rain.

Really nice to meet so many other shakuhachi players as well as a few members of this forum

One or two, Kiku

I played the flutes. Genpu was definitely a visionary if he was the only one making such strange flutes nearly 100 years ago. I hadn't thought of it but as X mentions they are the earliest offset holes I'm aware of. The dimensions of the flutes necessitated offsetting the holes however............nowadays people do it for no good reason on short flutes. I have an Edo period 2.7 which is already quite rare but it had straight holes.

He also (as you can see) built up the holes, "roots" and mouthpieces with sawdust paste or something, I don't know what it is.

But as we found when developing Taimu you eventually run into obstacles once the dimensions and aspect ratio go beyond a certain point and I think all of these flutes were beyond.............i.e. play in tune somewhat in otsu and go astray in kan.

Doubtful there would be recordings because the amount of sound they emit would be difficult to record today, never mind 100 years ago. They are very quiet.

There were some attentive listeners when I tried them out (playing Choshi and Murasaki Reibo) including a very cute little old lady who was rapt. Shimura Sensei noticed this and introduced her to me as Genpu's daughter. She was very happy that the flutes were getting a workout.

A really amazing experience to see something that radical. They would be radical today........the idea that he was doing it nearly 100 years ago is remarkable. It goes to show how varied and extreme shakuhachi can stretch. LOVED IT!

YES ! ! ! ! ! And luckily we have a space like the WSF to share these rare experiences!

Looked like good fun the WSF!
Thanks for posting the pictures - please post some more or any audio/video links of performances would be great as well of course.