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A Study of Transmission in the Shakuhachi Honkyoku Tradition

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A Study of Transmission in the Shakuhachi Honkyoku Tradition YEARNING FOR THE BELL: A STUDY OF TRANSMISSION IN THE SHAKUHACHI HONKYOKU TRADITION RILEY KELLY LEE ABSTRACT This thesis looks at past and present processes of transmission within the tradition of the shakuhachi honkyoku (尺八本曲, shakuhachi ‘original pieces’). The shakuhachi, an end-blown bamboo flute, has existed in Japan since the eighth century. Since at least the fifteenth century, it has been used as a tool for spirituality, and has been particularly associated with Zen Buddhism. The honkyoku were composed, performed and transmitted within that spiritual context, especially during the Edo period (1600- 1868) by mendicant priests called komusô (虚無僧, ‘priests of nothingness’). An understanding of the nature of the honkyoku was expressed in such concepts as honnin no kyoku (本人の曲, ‘one’s own piece’), zettai no ma (絶対の間, ‘absolute timing’), tettei on (徹底音) and ichi on jôbutsu (一音成仏, ‘one sound becoming Buddhahood’). A piece-specific genealogy chart for the honkyoku “Reibo” (鈴慕) of the Ôshû lineage (奥州系) is presented, which relies upon written and anecdotal material to trace two main lines of transmission. These lines transmit honkyoku which have become known as “Futaiken reibo” (布袋軒鈴慕, ‘“Reibo” of the Futai temple’) and “Shôganken reibo” (松巌軒鈴慕, ‘“Reibo” of the Shôgan temple’). A comparative analysis of transcriptions of ten performances of these “Reibo” pieces by six shakuhachi players representing these two lines of transmission shows a high degree of variability and a number of patterns of similarities and differences. These patterns demonstrate the oral nature of the transmission, and allude to the process-oriented “essence” of the honkyoku tradition. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The research and writing of this thesis was supported by a University Postgraduate Scholarship from the University of Sydney. Research undertaken for one year in 1988-1989 was supported by a generous grant from the Japan Foundation (a funding agency of the Japanese Government). Grateful acknowledgement is made to Allan Marett, my supervisor, and to members of the Syakuhati Kenkyû Kai (Shakuhachi Research Group) in Japan, including Tukitani Tuneko, Yamaguti Osamu, Simura Satosi, and Seyama Tôru. Acknowledgement is also made to my present shakuhachi teacher, Yokoyama Katsuya, to my former teacher, the late Sakai Chikuho II, and to the many members of the entire shakuhachi tradition with whom I have had the pleasure of meeting. Finally, particular appreciation is due to my family for their support and patience. This UMI edition is a corrected version of the original manuscript successfully submitted to the University of Sydney in 1993. No substantial changes have been made. Many of the typographical, spelling and grammatical errors have been removed. Likewise, numerous unclear passages have been rewritten. The majority of these corrections were suggestions made by Tom Deaver (Nagano, Japan), Prof. Yamaguti (University of Osaka) and Prof. Trimillos (University of Hawai’i). In particular, Tom Deaver, with his nearly three decades of experience in the shakuhachi tradition in Japan, greatly contributed to this more readable edition of the thesis. Blue Mountains, NSW 1992 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FOR REVISED WEBSITE, HARD COPY AND PDF EDITIONS This thesis was originally written on an obsolete NEC Japanese word processor using a now-defunct software program. The original files were prepared for my website by James Jennings, after I had been told by a number of professional data retrieval companies that the floppy discs on which the original files resided were impossible to read and the data lost. This present hard-copy version is a meticulous revision of the James’ website version. The thesis was reformatted from html code into a text-based document, a task I thought impossibly tedious. It also contains many corrections, too numerous to list. This version exists because of Gary Dempsey’s initial prompting and labourious proofreading of the entire thesis a number of times. Thank you James and Gary, for doing the impossible! Manly, NSW 2010 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF CHARTS viii LIST OF FIGURES viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi LIST OF TABLES xi INTRODUCTION 1 1. THE INSIDERS/OUTSIDERS PARADIGM 14 1.1 Concepts and Problems with Insider/Outsider Paradigms 14 1.2 Insiders and Outsiders to the Shakuhachi Tradition 15 1.3 Definitions of Insiders and Outsiders to the 17 Shakuhachi Tradition 1.3.1 Layers of Insiders within the Shakuhachi Tradition 19 1.3.2 Location of Author within the Shakuhachi Tradition 21 2. SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE 25 2.0 Four Types of Literature 25 2.1 First Type of Literature: Authored and Read by Insiders 27 2.1.1 Musical Scores in Shakuhachi Notation 27 2.1.2 Other Written Historical Documents, Including the 36 Kyotaku Denki Kokuji Kai 2.1.3 Limited Edition Publications 41 2.1.4 Non-Scholarly Periodicals and Articles 42 2.2 Second Literature Type: Authored by Insiders for 44 Outsiders 2.2.1 Historical Documents 44 2.2.2 Books and Other Publications 45 2.2.3 Scholarly Publications 46 2.2.4 Non-Scholarly Periodicals and Articles 51 2.2.5 Beginner Manuals 53 2.2.6 Descriptive Notes Included in Commercial Recordings 54 2.2.7 Concert Programme Notes 55 2.3 Third Type of Literature: Authored by Outsiders for 56 Insiders 2.3.1 Modern Compositions 56 2.3.2 Government Documents 57 iii 2.4 Fourth Literature Type; by Outsiders for Outsiders 58 2.4.1 Historical Sources 58 2.4.2 Scholarly Publications 59 3. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF SHAKUHACHI AND HONKYOKU 60 3.1 The Shakuhachi of the Nara (646-794) and Heian 62 (794-1185) Periods 3.1.1 Shakuhachi of the Shôsôin and Hôryûji 63 3.1.2 Pictorial and Written Evidence of the Nara and Heian 66 Shakuhachi 3.2 The Shakuhachi of the Middle Ages (1185-1600) 73 3.2.1 Literary References to the Shakuhachi in the Middle 77 Ages 3.2.2 The Shakuhachi and Buddhism in the Middle Ages 79 3.2.3 Classification of Shakuhachi of the Middle Ages 86 3.3 Types of Shakuhachi in the Edo Period 90 3.3.1 The Hitoyogiri 91 3.3.2 Tempuku 98 3.4. From Komosô (薦僧) to Komusô (虚無僧) 102 3.5 The Fuke Sect 110 3.5.1 The Early Fuke sect 110 3.5.2 The Keichô no Okitegaki and the Ordinance of 1677 115 3.5.3 The San’in Sangu 122 3.5.4 The Organization and Activities of the Fuke sect 128 3.5.5 The Decline and Demise of the Fuke sect 135 3.6 The Shakuhachi as a Secular Musical Instrument 139 3.7 Suizen after the Abolition of the Fuke Sect 149 3.8 Transmission of Honkyoku from the Meiji Era to the 153 Present 4. TRANSMITTING “THE BELL”; A CASE STUDY OF THE PIECE 165 “REIBO” 4.1 The Word “Reibo” and Related Terms 165 4.2 Classification of “Reibo” Titles 170 4.3 The Ôshû Family of the “Reibo” Piece 173 4.3.1 “Shôganken reibo” Lineage 178 4.3.2 “Futaiken reibo” Lineage 183 4.3.3 A Third Lineage of Transmission of the Ôshû Family 189 of the “Reibo” Piece 4.4 Lineage Chart of the Transmission of “Ôshû kei 191 ‘Reibo’” 5. ONTOLOGY OF TRANSMISSION; THE NATURE OF THE REALITY 197 OF HONKYOKU TRANSMISSION 5.1 Concepts of Subjectivity, Objectivity, and Sound 198 iv 5.2 Orality, Zen and the Shakuhachi Honkyoku 210 5.2.1 Orality and Music 218 5.2.2 Orality and the Transmission of Shakuhachi 224 Honkyoku 5.2.3 Dreams 230 5.3 Documents and Performance 237 5.4 Three Formal Elements of Transmission in the 249 Honkyoku Tradition: Lineage, Lessons, and Notation 5.5 The Fourth Formal Element of Transmission: 260 Performance 5.5.1 The Aspect of Timbre 261 5.5.2 The Aspect of Pitch 271 5.5.3 The Aspect of Rhythm 282 5.6 Ideologies of Transmission 287 5.6.1 The Ideology of Honkyoku as Sacred Object 288 5.6.2 The Ideology of Honkyoku as Music 292 5.6.3 The Ideology of Honkyoku as Transcending ‘Object’ 295 and ‘Music’ 6. AN ANALYSIS OF SHAKUHACHI HONKYOKU 305 6.1 Musicological Approaches 306 to Honkyoku Analysis 6.1.1 Transcribing Honkyoku 310 6.1.2 Existing Musicological Analyses that Use 316 Transmission 6.1.3 Analyses of Honkyoku Scores 326 6.2 Tradition-Based Approaches 331 to Honkyoku Analyses within the Shakuhachi Tradition 6.2.1 Informal Oral Analyses 342 6.3 Methodology of Transcription and Analysis 346 6.3.1 The Recordings 348 6.3.2 Transcription Method 353 6.3.3 The Orthographically Simplified 358 Transcription 6.3.4 Lining up the Orthographically Simplified 359 Transcriptions 6.4 Comparative Analysis of “Reibo” 369 6.4.1 Establishing a Common Identity for the Ten 371 Pieces Using Data from the Transcriptions 6.4.2 Comparison of the Two Groups, “Futaiken 376 reibo” and “Shôganken reibo” 6.4.3 Comparisons within a Single Lineage within 384 One Group v 6.4.3.1 Jin-Sakai Lineage 385 6.4.3.2 Uramoto-Watazumi-Yokoyama-Iwamoto 387 Lineage 6.4.3.3 Watazumi-Yokoyama-Iwamoto Lineage 389 6.4.4 Comparison between the Transcriptions of 397 Uramoto and Jin 6.4.5 Analysis of the Uramoto-Watazumi Lineage 403 7. CONCLUSION 417 FIGURES 429 TABLES 503 APPENDIX 1. Transcriptions 509 APPENDIX 2. Orthographically Simplified 569 Transcriptions APPENDIX 3. Lining up of the Orthographically 595 Simplified Transcriptions APPENDIX 4. Okamoto’s Analysis of the First 636 Six Phrases of “Reibo” in the Original Japanese APPENDIX 5. Scores of the “Reibo” Pieces in 638 Traditional Shakuhachi notation BIBLIOGRAPHY 651 APPENDIX 6. List of Recordings of Pieces 684 vi LIST OF CHARTS Genealogy chart 1.
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