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A-39.Thinking About “Tradition”思考傳統

A-39.Thinking About “Tradition”思考傳統

"shakuhachi tips"
原作者:柿堺香老師 (Kaoru Kakizakai)
英文翻譯: Zachary Braverman
進階篇39.
January2000

A-39.Thinking About “Tradition”思考傳統


This first month of the year 2000 seems like a good time to talk about tradition.


In order to do this, first I’ll take up the example of the instrument itself.Modern shakuhachi make use of a sliver of ivory, water buffalo horn, or other material harder than bamboo embedded in the mouthpiece. They are also coated with lacquer on the inside.


Now,these things certainly didn’t exist in shakuhachi of long ago. For example, the hard material is thought to have first been inserted in the mouthpieces when long years of blowing wore away the bamboo. Then, at some point, someone came up with the idea of inserting it from the very beginning.


And,as for the lacquer inside the bore, that almost certainly developed as a means to keep the bamboo from rotting. Then, at some point someone realized that if you painted not one but many layers of lacquer, the sound improved. Finally,someone else down the line realized that using ji was easier than painting many layers of lacquer.


What about techniques? Well, it is impossible to believe that techniques like koro-koro, meri-ing Tsu-meri to achieve a pitch of Ro, or the U with only the 3rd hole open existed from the very beginning. These techniques developed gradually over many centuries.


In both of these cases, then, “tradition” is not something which “happened”, but something which “developed”.


The nature of honkyoku is such that 2 people who learn the same piece from the same teacher will invariably end up playing if differently from each other. This freedom of expression and transformation of the song is partially a result of the lack of set beat in honkyoku.


If this is true even in the modern era, when we have video, recordings, and notation to aid us, imagine what things were like only 50 years ago. We can only assume that even a time span as relatively short as 50 years has changed honkyoku immensely.




Yet this is the nature of honkyoku and tradition. Indeed, this is a large part of what makes honkyoku so compelling. Even if you have to intent to change the honkyoku, they change almost of their own volition.


However,the other side of this coin is that actively desiring to change honkyoku almost invariably results in something not very worthwhile. Instead of thinking “I want to change this honkyoku”, what they demand of us is the attitude of “What new level can I bring this to?”, but only after you have stretched yourself to absorb the teachings and techniques of those who came before you.


So,“tradition” and “classical honkyoku” are not museum pieces. Instead, they come to life only when they have relevance to us in our daily lives. In this way.the current age becomes another part of a long, long history.

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