Chichibu Jinga (Shrine)

On Wednesday at Kakizakai Sensei's, I met French flautist and shakuhachi player, Véronique Piron, who together with Jim Franklin organised the European Shakuhachi Festival in summer. Despite being an intensely hot day, after the lessons, we went on a small Chichibu tour guided by Megumi and Achi. This included an enormous and fascinating antique shop that had sword cases doubling as shakuhachi cases from Japanese patterned fabric and indigo dyed, as well as more bizarre items like an old armadillo, stuffed fox, giant dragonhead-shaped woodblocks that were impractical but very cool, endless trinkets, a taiko drum, beautiful old wooden chests of drawers, furniture, swords, crockery and so on, followed by the main shrine of Chichibu. Given that this is a 'shrine town' in which pilgrims can tour a vast number of shrines and temples, some much more virtuous to reach than others, on steep mountain-tops and more remote parts, we were fortunate that the main one is in town and very accessible, guarded by a host of loudly singing cicadas.





[Commemoration stone with Tanka by Kakizakai Senior. The poem inscribed is a dedication traditional Japanese poem by Kakizakai Sensei's father].

The motifs used on the walls and sculptures are animals and characters of Japanese mythology. The most famous, a dragon and tigers, are attributed to Master sculptor, Hidari Jingoro (who may in fact be a legendary figure). The building was reassembled due to a typhoon in 1966 and restored in 1970. Major events at the Chichibu Shrine include Setsubun in early February, the Rice-Planiting Festival on 4 April, Kawase Matsuri in July, and the great night festival culminating on 3 December. This is considered one of Japan's three biggest festivals of float (along with Gion in Kyoto and Hikiyama of Takayama). The architectural plan of Chichibu Shrine is oriented towards Mount Buko. It is dedicated to 3 gods of Japanese mythoology and to the late Prince Chichibu, though the shrine might also lead back to animistic worship of Mt. Buko (according to Sumiko Enbutsu's Chichibu: Japan's Hidden Treasure book). Many Shinto shrines were dedicated to the worship of prominent mountains, rocks or trees. The forest was called Hahaso-no-mori and Mt. Buko was formerly called Mt. Chichibu, thus the forest and the mountain's names including the terms 'haha' and 'chichi' (for 'mother' and 'father'). This dualism, common in ancient religions, is celebrated in the finale of the December festival. In historic times, there was also a Buddhist temple, Zofuku-ji, around this location and for a long time the shrine was called Chichibu Myooken-Jinja. The nearby streets used to be the locale of the nineteenth century silk merchants right into the Meiji area, when the silk trade brought prosperity to the region.

On the way home, at Shibuya Midori Souhonten, Véronique and I had delicious a la carte sushi of the most fresh and artfully created kind.

From Véronique's web site ...
Véronique PIRON, born in 1961, is a professional French flutist, and a Shakuhachi player since 1992. She started to work in France with IWAMOTO Yoshikazu and then in Japan with YOKOYAMA Katsuya and FURUYA teruo, and practiced there with many shamisen and koto players as she got a “Lavoisier” scholarship from the French Foreign Affairs Ministry between 2000 and 2002. She has a SHIHAN licence from YOKOYAMA Katsuya, and got a French State Degree in 2004 for teaching Shakuhachi and Japanese Music. From 2004 she created a workshop about Japanese Traditional Music and a Shakuhachi Class in the State Music School where she is teaching flute, and is trying to extend this teaching into appropriate places in France as those concerned about traditional music. Veronique presents regularly the Shakuhachi inside the Music Museum (Cite de la Musique) in Paris, gives concerts in her country and participates in International Concerts as the International Shakuhachi Summit in Tokyo in 2002. Presently as she is leaving in West part of France from Celtic culture, she is starting a creative and sharing work with representative musicians there. She has an actualite (activity) shakuhachi blog - nipponflutes.

Frogs, shrines, mountains + Japan travel

This shak blog is nominally concerned with shakuhachi entries. For more about travel experiences in Japan, such as Mie prefecture, Ise Jingu, Okitama-jinga (frog shrine) at Futamigaura and Meoto-iwa (wedded rocks), or Mount Ishiwari near Fuji-san, escapades around Tokyo, and art galleries, see the sonic-yoshi travel+photography blog and photos are on Flickr.

Shakuhachi gambatte

On Saturdays I go to Tachikawa (pictured above) in the west of Tokyo and from there catch a bus for 30 more minutes to the Tabata house (Megumi's parents') for lessons with the other students from Tokyo area, whereas Wednesday lessons are in Chichibu countryside. Tachikawa is quite a transport hub and a gateway to Takao on the Chuo line and the mountainous hiking areas of the west.

[pictured: Kakizakai Sensei and Takahashi Toyomi-san; below Horacio and Takahashi-san]



It is quite usual to turn up early and sit through (and learn from) the lessons of others and for them to listen to yours. In this way the 'clan' can benefit as a group from the plights and perils of others and particularly more advanced students are inspirations to the newer members. Some of Kakizakai Sensei's students have been learning for quite some years and, of course, you never stop!



[pictured] Kakizakai showing us his 3.2 lengthed shaku! Not many people could get their fingers and mouth around this beast and Richard Chenhall on his 2.7 - lovely G fundamental and beautiful sound.

We have been experiencing some more earthquakes swaying the bed and the chair. I was awoken by one this morning - not a very nice sensation. The weather is something remarkable. I comment sometimes how hot it is (after sweating my way through the no-tree-lined streets to a shaku lesson, for instance) and Japanese people seem surprised because everybody heard on the news last year that our Sydney New Year's Day was 40 degrees. But that's just it! We had two isolated instances of forty degree days some distance apart. Here it is now consistently 32-35 degrees every day, hotter in Kyoto and Chichibu! The humidity does not drop, there is no afternoon coastal breeze and most surprising of all is that overnight it falls only perhaps to 30 or 29 sometimes so it is quite weird to be walking home from dinner late at night in the darkness in such heat.



Well, it is coming time to start packing up and organising for returning home, so I have been scanning some of the art from my books before relinquishing them to surface mail.

Chichibu update

One of the attractive facets of Japanese design is the 'ki' wood. It emphasises natural features and natural beauty and weathers with humility, natural faults and knots, considered desirable. The humility of wood is appropriate to remind humans of their frailty and imperfection. Sabi (used commonly in the expression adopted recently by Western design from Japan, 'wabi sabi') referred originally to things withered by age. More recently it has been applied to aesthetics of tranquillity and simplicity or the 'rust of age' that engenders beauty and character, particularly important in the Tea Ceremony, in which rough implements, avoiding adornments and technological sophistication are appreciated. Savouring the 'rust of age' reveres nature, changing seasons, weathering and wearing, aging and naturalness. From 'Elements of Japanese Design' by De Mente, Tuttle Publishing, 2006, VT. Many of the rustic, old buildings in Chichibu embody these notions with delightful rust and faded paint, wooden panels and marks of age.



Yesterday, I visited Chichibu again for a shakuhachi lesson and also had the chance to wander around the small mountain town a little more, always encased by mountains. It has a sleepy village-like atmosphere and neighbourly friendliness, some retiring buildings and is generally flat with low-rise dwellings surrounded by the hills, conveying a different sense of suburbia and visibility for longer distances, a vista that cannot be found in the Tokyo metropolis where a building rises in every direction, hiding the sun and colouring the view. One experiences very little sense of natural formations in Tokyo, apart from microcosmoses of gardens and parks (which are truly beautiful oases) but one looses the whereabouts of mountains or sea, except on the riverside locations. Chichibu seems much more nested in and connected with its natural surroundings. I visited the trailer-home or cyber-caravan as we call it, where an Argentinean couple and their son, Horacio, Vika and Kai are currently living. This is where I will spend November before moving to Youkobo. The internet connection is faster than Sydney Uni's!

Lessons in Chichibu and Tokyo

Shakuhachi lessons at Tachikawa in Tokyo suburbs and in Chichibu (Chichibu Saitama prefecture in the mountainous countryside, 2 hours west of Tokyo) are going well. Kakizakai Sensei never runs out of wisdom and new things for me to learn and it is invaluable having high-frequency lessons concentrating on single pieces per lesson. Currently I am really trying to work on the embouchure thing that Yokoyama and his Kenshukan promote so ardently (for good reason) that produces round strong tone and flexibility for meri (lowered) pitches. Saturdays I go to the Tokyo lessons and Wednesday to Chichibu as research seminars have now ceased for the month of August for summer break. Even after practising several hours some days, the right sound is nowhere to be found. It is very difficult. The lesson in Chichibu (another tomorrow) also meant a welcome diversion into the scenic mountainous countryside by express train from Ikebukuro. The ride takes you quickly out through the sprawling suburbs to agricultural plots giving way to hillside, tea, rice and eventually mountains, occasional mining, steep embankments, mind-boggling retaining walls, groves of bamboo, rivers and steep valleys, shadowed on both sides by monster-sized mountains. Compared to Australian mountains that have lilting rounded contour often in the sandstone mountains, these were aggressively sheer rising sometimes at precipitous 80 degree angles beside the train and visibly crumbling and tumbling where mining has excavated into their sides. It is a completely different landscape from Tokyo and the Chichibu-Saitama National Park is renowned for its scenic trails and walking tours, a circuit of shrines and temples and pathways used for spiritual pilgrimages featuring many mountaintop shrines and views. I am sure that when I live there in November, I will be making a couple of these pilgrimages!





The first lesson I attended at Tachikawa had a serendipitous ending when I caught a 'mystery' bus (not the correct number but worth an experiment) and ended up in Hana-Koganei, a town that just happened to be celebrating its annual matsuri (festival) in flare, colour, noise and festivity with dancing, wheeling out huge odaiko and taiko drums into the streets that were closed for the ceremony. The striking thing about these festivals, most localities have one of some size, while Chichibu's is notoriously one of the most impressive, is that the whole community seriously engage in the activity. It must take weeks, even months for preparation. The taiko-players in Hana Koganei were professional but in many towns, the folk rehearse and prepare their playing. In this town, everybody looked harmonious in their matching outfits, some for dancers, some for carrying the portable shrine through the town, others for drumming and so on such that a real mass of colour and community was visible right down to details. People had clearly put a great deal of time into their appearances and costumes. Grandchildren, parents, grandparents were all involved, through processions, group dances, eating street food from little tents lining the side oft he village centre, painstakingly cooked skewers stretchy octopus, okonomiyaki pancakes, etc. Even family pets were dressed to comply and I was surprised by how many people brought along their dogs: why? Because it was so very loud with processional bells, gongs, transverse flutes of very bright piercing tone, maybe shinobue-like, the thundering taiko, at times concurrently and the chanting, frenzy of the cheerleaders and crowd pursuing the mobile shrine through the crowds, not to mention giggling shrieking children, the excitement of the crowd and it was generally so noisy for several hours - it must have been difficult or a little terrifying for the pets dragged along. This was my first experience of a matsuri and it was amazing to be swept up in the charged atmosphere and feel the energy of the taiko in its 'natural' or original context. It was exhilarating and really cohesive, primal.