Kinko-Ryu Shakuhachi Honkyoku
I have run hard and fast into a writer’s block as big as a horse’s leg. Rather than trying to put something out there out of desperation, I’m going to share a chapter from my dad’s thesis from his time at Wesleyan. Kinko ryu was once the undisputed, dominant force in shakuhachi music. It has now been relegated to the fringes…
In the central Edo branch of the Fuke temples Ichigetsu-ji and Reihō-ji, the head monk dealt mainly in the politics between the Bakufu (government) and the Fuke sect. It wasn’t necessary, therefore, for him to be a shakuhachi player. They did, however, need a professional player to teach. Thus the position of shinaban (teacher) was formed and to this professional teacher fell the duty of keeping the tradition (Tanabe 1954 pp.227 and 231).
Kurosawa Kinko was a Kuroda clan samurai of Fukuoka Prefecture. He became a komusō at the age of nineteen and studied five pieces including the “traditional three” from komusō Ikkeishi of the Shōju-ken at Nagasaki. He also wandered all over the country and later became a shinaban for the Edo branch of the above mentioned temples. One of his students, Miyaji Ikkan, advocated his own style as Ikkan-ryū and so Kinko’s style began to be called Kinko-ryū. In shakuhachi music, this was the early beginnings of the trend away from the spiritual and towards the musical style of performing. Since then, the shinaban has kept Kinko’s tradition and this tradition has remained in Edo.
Even though the “blowing Zen spirit" was still the basis of Kinko's style, the tradition of komusō was fading. In his collection, besides Hachigaeshi, all other komusō “password" pieces were dropped out and the sugagaki pieces, which were closely related to urban music, were added. (See chap. II)
Another interesting point concerns the change or adaptation of solemnization of ro, tsu, re, chi, and ri, from that of Fuke’s hu, ho, u, e, and ya. The ro-tsu-re system seems to have been an already popular one before Kinko’s generation. In Matsu no Ha (published 1703), the collection of short songs of the early Edo period, we see a song about the shakuhachi with its solemnization in the ro-tsu-re system.
The solemnization of shakuhachi music, including hitoyogiri, does not normally employ tonguing or "lip explosion" (the “P" sound) that seems to go naturally with Ha-gyō-on (the H line of the syllabary: ha, hi, hu[fu], he, ho). It is completely reasonable that hu (an aspirated sound in Japanese), should be the most important root note in the Fuke system. The ro-tsu-re system may have been influenced by some other instrument like the transverse flutes shinobue, nō-kan, and ryūteki, or even the koto, shamisen, and kokyū. The solemnization scheme for transverse flutes generally employs ha, pa, ra, ta-gyō-on; however, the tsu in the Kinko system, never found in transverse flutes, is common in koto and shamisen solemnization. As a matter of fact, kuchi-jamisen (shamisen solemnization), even though it is not as much a pitch solemnization as is the shakuhachi’s, is the most similar to it, as seen in the following table of shamisen solemnization.
Moreover, tsu, both in shamisen and shakuhachi, is used for the note between the tonic and the fourth. Even though further study of the history of solemnization of shamisen and all other instruments is required, it is quite possible to imagine that the kuchi-jamisen was very influential in the early stages of the shakuhachi’s development as an ensemble instrument.
In the Keikosho-sadame (written 1793), a rulebook of komusō behavior, one of the regulations states that ensemble playing with the koto and shamisen is prohibited. One could logically conclude from this that some ensemble playing must have taken place in order for it to have been prohibited.
In the early half of the 17th century, Edo was quickly developing into the cultural center of the country, and every type of instrument and music was in active use there. Kinko had already been influenced by existing city music in the process of his arrangement of the honkyoku pieces and in his solemnization adaptation. Originally, the Fuke shakuhachi did not have the characteristics of city music. Kinko-ryū shakuhachi is the joining of the spiritualistic komusō music with the music of the city.
After the abolition of the Fuke sect in 1872, Kinko-ryū developed sankyoku (ensemble music with koto and shamisen). This development brought about certain technical improvements. One of these improvements was in the making of the shakuhachi. The third hole from the bottom was slightly reduced in diameter. In order to keep the finger holes equidistant and yet to correctly maintain the slightly wider interval between the third and second finger holes, its diameter was reduced. Also the back hole was moved towards the mouthpiece exactly the diameter of one hole. The reason for this was that the second octave tended to be either sharp or flat, according to the fingering, when compared with the first octave. This gave it better balance. Both of these innovations were initiated by Araki Kodō II. These made no radical changes but were merely improvements upon the established instrument.
Even though the above mentioned changes were made, the Kinko musicians still kept strongly to the Fuke tradition and, even when playing in ensemble, kept to the style of honkyoku, whether suitable or not, and considered honkyoku pieces superior to sankyoku ones. They also prefer the virile, more masculine style of honkyoku as opposed to the refinement of the sankyoku music. This masculinity of the instrument is exemplified by the fact that shakuhachi is the only Japanese instrument that women do not play.
Ever since the establishment of Kinko-ryū in the city, the Kinko musician has attempted to enter the main stream of Japanese music. Consequently, when western music came into vogue, after the Meiji restoration, it became popular to imitate, both in composition and technique, the western flute. This was, at best, merely an imitation. The real change did not come about until as late as the 1960s. We then see modern composers taking their impetus from honkyoku pieces and a revival and a rise in popularity of traditional honkyoku. This recognition was long in coming and when it did come, it came not from the work of the shakuhachi musician himself but from the western-style composer (e.g. Miki Minoru, Takemitsu Tōru, and Hirose Ryōhei).