Workshops

For groups of shakuhachi students who can come together, Justin offers workshops of one or more days of intensive study. Workshops will usually cover two or three pieces, and can include work with improvisation.

If you would like to invite Justin to your area or country, please send a request including which styles you are interested in studying and the level of experience of the participants. For those interested in studying intensively in London, requests are also accepted.

Lectures

Justin has gives lectures and presentations on shakuhachi history and practice in schools, universities and monasteries in Europe and Asia. Lectures can include demonstrations of the characteristics of the different regional styles of honkyoku; presentations of the history and development of the shakuhachi repertoire; the Buddhist background in which the music developed; explanation of shakuhachi making from the Edo period to the present day;  and demonstrations on Edo period instruments from the various regions of Japan, as well as the other instruments of the shakuhachi family. Past lectures include Seien-ryu History given at the European Shakuhachi Festival in 2010; Shimpo-ryu History in the Prague Shakuhachi Festival 2011; ‘Creativity and Spirituality – the connection and relation between my spiritual practice as a Buddhist, and my music‘ at University of the Arts London, 2014; and ‘Zen Buddhist Flute Music of Japan: Lecture and performance of 1300 years of Shakuhachi History‘ at the Buddhist Society in London (one of the oldest Buddhist organisations in Europe), 2014.

With particular focus on the spiritual dimension of the honkyoku, Justin has also accepted various requests to play and talk in meditation retreats and spiritual centres, including those of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Mata Amritanandamayi, Adyashanti, Ajay Singh, and Dhammananda Bhikkhuni.