European Shakuhachi Summer School 2014

18 June - 23 June 2014

The 2014 ESS Shakuhachi Summer School kicked off with an evening public concert on the 18th June in the Radolfzell Herrenhaus (political administrative building), located just across the road from the Weltkloster (World Monastery), the main location of the Summer School.

The Weltkloster building itself has witnessed a tumultuous and even sometimes violent history over its nearly 400 year lifetime with various transitions in ownership and residency dating back to 1617 with the arrival of the Capuchin monks in Radolzell. 

Aside from performances by official summer school teachers, the opening public concert also included a guest performance by 7 Komuso mendicant monks from the fuke Zen sect of Buddhism who were on tour in Europe. Interestingly the fuke Zen was flourishing in Japan at around the same time the Capuchin monks were attempting to ground themselves at the Weltkloster in Radolfzell. As can be seen in the photograph, a characteristic feature of the Komuso monks is the Tengai, a straw basket worn on the head to symbolise the removal of ego. Historically, the Komuso monks were permitted by the Shogunate of the time to travel throughout Japan playing the Shakuhachi while begging for alms. While travelling, the Tengai afforded the monks a degree of invisibility, a useful feature for those Komuso who were either Samurai or Ronin (Masterless Samurai) and employed by the Shogunate to travel incognito as spies.

ESS 2014 participants

That said, I think the Komuso who were playing at the opening concert had more innocent and positive intentions, and certainly their presence was appreciated by a large audience, including members of the public from Radolfzell and most of the approximately 40 ESS 2014 summer school participants who had made the journey to Radolfzell from as far away as Japan and Australia, as well as more locally from within Europe.

Furuya, Matama and Kakizaki Sensei's

Principle teachers at the summer school representing the KSK (Kokusai Shakuhachi Kenshukan) School of Yokoyama Katsuya Sensei, included FURUYA Teruo, MATAMA Kazushi and KAKIZAKI Kaoru from Japan. 



The Zensabo and Minyo schools were represented by Kiku DAY (Denmark), the Tozan school by Jean-Francois LAGROST (France), the Kinko school of Yamaguchi Goro by Gunnar Jinmei LINDER from Sweden and, KIKUCHI Naoru from the Sawai school of Koto. Additional teachers at the summer school included: Véronique PIRON (France), Horacio CURTI (Spain), and Vlastislav MATOUSEK (Czek Republic).
 

Group playing Murasaki Reibo

The morning's program started at 8am with a one hour session of Zensabo Shakuhachi meditation with Kiku Day. These sessions were well attended and in addition to exploring the concept of Shakuhachi in meditation, the group worked on traditional pieces such as Kyorei, Shingetsu and Sou Shingetsu over the three subsequent days to practice what they had learned.  


Robuki (Blowing the note Ro as a warm up) then followed in the Herrenhaus at 9am for all participants. These sessions lasted 30 minutes and ran in to the individual school sessions as outlined previously i.e., KSK, Kinko, Zensabo, Tozan, Improvisation and Minyo and Koto. 

I joined the Intermediate and Advanced KSK classes to work on the pieces: Sanya, Mountain Valley, Shingetsu, Daha and Reibo. In addition to these classes, I also joined the Zensabo class to work on Murasaki Reibo, the Kinko class to work on Rokudan in conjunction with Koto player Kikuchi Naoru and then collectively with all summer school participants I worked on a group piece called Gaoru, to be played the following evening at the Evangelical church in Allensbach.

Allensbach am Bodensee

After a full day of workshops, evenings were taken up with concerts in surrounding towns such as Ueberlingen and Allensbach (see photo) providing participants with the chance to not only to see something of the surrounding area, but also to perform in public, many for the first time. 

Allensbach Church, Bodensee

The final event of the summer school was the student concert, a chance for participants to perform pieces they'd been working on over the previous days.