SHAKUHACHI: Japanese musical instrument

The shakuhachi is a blown flute from Japan. The flute was traditionally introduced from China into the country in the 8^th century and underwent resurgence in the early period of Edo. The musical instrument is traditionally manufactured of bamboo, but versions of the instrument now exist in ABS and hardwoods. The musical instrument was used by the monks of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism in the practice of suizen. The musical instrument is often tuned to the minor pentatonic scale.

The term shakuhachi means ‘1.8 shaku’, referring to the size of the musical instrument. It is a composition of two words: the shaku is an archaic unit of length that is equal to 30.3 cm and subdivided into 10 subunits, and the hachi means eight, eight sun.

Shaku-hachi means one eight sun, the normal length of the musical instrument is approximately 55 cm. other versions of the musical instrument differ in length from about 1.3 shaku to about 3.3 shaku. Although the sizes of the instrument vary, all the instruments are all known as shakuhachi.

The musical instruments are often manufactured from a root end of a bambooculm and are totally versatile musical instruments. Skilled players of the musical instrument can produce virtually any pitch they desire from the shakuhachi and perform a wide range of original Zen music, group music with the koto, biwa and the shamisen, folk music, jazz music and some other modern genres.

Much of the shakuhachi’s subtley depends in the rich tone coloring and the ability for the instrument’s variation. Various embouchures, fingering and mount of meri can manufacture notes of the same pitch, though with subtle or dramatic variations in the tone coloring. The holes of the musical instrument can be closed partially and pitch differentiated by altering the blowing angle.

Unlike the recorder, where the player of the musical instrument blows into a duct, a narrow airway over a block that is called fipple, as such has limited control of the pitch, the player of the musical instrument blows as one would blow across the top of an empty bottle and so have a considerable pitch control. The five finger holes of the instrument are tuned to pentatonic scale without half-tones, though styles known as meri and kari, in which the blowing angle is adjusted to bend the pitch of the sound upward and downward, the player of the musical instrument can bend each pitch as much as an entire tone or more. Pitches may also be lowered by partially covering or shading the finger holes of the instrument. Since most pitches can be gained through many different blowing and fingering styles on the musical instrument, the tone quality of each probability is taken into consideration when playing or composing. The musical instrument has a range of two octaves and a partial 3^rd octave. The various octaves are manufactured with the use of subtle variations of breath and embouchure.

Because of the skill needed, the time that is involved and the range in quality of the materials to craft bamboo shakuhachi, somebody can budget to pay from about US$300 to US$5,000 for a new flute or a used flute.

The bamboo flute was first introduced to Japan from China during the 6^th century. The main musical instrument, shakuhachi is different from the Chinese counterpart.

During the medieval period, the musical instruments were most popular for their function in the Fuke sect of Zen Buddhist monks, called komusō, who used the musical instrument as a spiritual tool. Their songs were paced according to the breathing of the player and were well thought-out to be meditation as much as music.

The shakuhachi has traditionally been played by just men in japan, even though this situation is changing swiftly. Many teachers of the traditional version of the musical instrument indicate that a majority of their scholars are female. The 2004 Big Apple Shakuhachi festival in New York City of United States hosted the 1^st ever concert of international women masters of the instrument. Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin organized and produced the festival.

The first non-Japanese to become a master of the musical instrument is the American-Australian Riley Lee. He was responsible for the shakuhachi festival that was held in Australia and Sydney over 5 to 8 July 2008, based on the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

The main genres of the shakuhachi music includes; Honkvoku, sankvoku and shinkvoku. The sound of the musical instrument is also found from time to time in non-traditional non-Japanese music, from electronica to pop-rock music to jazz music, specifically after being commonly shipped as a contemporary musical instrument on different synthesizers and keyboards starting in the 1980s.