Kyushu Kei

Justin studied the honkyoku of Kyushu primarily with Otsubo Shido. While Otsubo-sensei’s repertoire is the most complete, some Kyushu pieces also survive in other schools’ repertoires. Justin studied those from Takahashi Kuzan’s lineage with Fujiyoshi Etsuzan; Jin Nyodo’s lineage with Sato Jokan; and Watazumi’s lineage with Furuya Teruo and Yokoyama Katsuya.

Otsubo Shido is the inheritor of Yamaue Getsuzan‘s lineage. Yamaue was a native of Kyushu and studied from a number of Kyushu players, gathering together the remaining Kyushu honkyoku most of which are extremely rare now. Justin learned each of the pieces which Yamaue carefully preserved, which even includes the specific versions of the same pieces in the cases where Yamaue learned the same piece from different teachers.

Listen to Itchouken Kokuu:

This piece is one of the honkyoku unique to Kyushu. Instrument: Senryu Jinuri 2.0[weaver_youtube http://youtu.be/5YBHPX-os38 sd=0 percent=80 ratio=.5625 center=1 rel=0 https=0 privacy=0]

Listen to Kumoi Netori:
This piece has uncertain origins but ended up in the repertoire of Kyushu, where Justin learned it. Unusual for the genre of shakuhachi honkyoku which is the religious music of the Fuke Zen sect of Buddhism, this piece has much influence from minyou, the folk music tradition.
Justin plays this piece on a very old 1.3 sized jinashi shakuhachi made around 1750. [weaver_youtube http://youtu.be/SV77ke4Yn0Y? sd=0 percent=80 ratio=.5625 center=1 rel=0 https=0 privacy=0]

More information coming soon…