Jounal

The shakuhachi is an instrument whose sound every Japanese person can easily imagine, yet it remains distant from everyday life.
In truth, only a handful of people have ever experienced a true shakuhachi performance up close.
I myself was unusually fortunate — an old friend of mine was a shakuhachi performer, and through him, I had several opportunities to listen to the instrument firsthand.
In the world of traditional Japanese music and performing arts, true recognition demands either being born into a musical lineage or mastering the art and culture through rigorous training at a prestigious institution such as the Tokyo University of the Arts, ultimately becoming acknowledged as a "master."
The sight of a performer in traditional Japanese attire, wielding the shakuhachi, exuded an air of noble formality, and listening to such performances demanded a certain level of cultural refinement — it felt like a world belonging to the upper echelons of society.

In the spring of 2024,
I heard a rumor about a strange monk who played an extraordinary flute, and driven by curiosity, I set out to visit his temple.
What I found was a place deeply weathered by time, its modern elements all but swallowed by nature — a setting so rich with atmosphere that it felt almost otherworldly.
I was astonished and overjoyed to discover that such a place still existed.
And there, I encountered him — KOKOU, a master of the Kyotaku.

──KYOTAKU──
The sound was unlike any shakuhachi performance I had ever known.
It was as if nature itself were breathing.
At times, I even sensed something cosmic, reminiscent of a synthesizer.
Having grown up immersed in rock, punk, mixture culture, hip-hop, disco, techno, and house music, the experience struck me with vivid freshness and originality.
This was not music meant to entertain.
It simply existed.
It was unconnected to Billboard charts, pop culture trends, or the narrative drive of rappers and singer-songwriters.
It was simply sound, unfolding quietly and steadily.
And yet, it was unquestionably a complete work of musical art.

KOKOU encountered his master, Koku Nishimura, in his early twenties, and has since dedicated over thirty years of his life solely to this path.
He is both a Kyotaku performer and a Buddhist monk.
In fact, one must ordain as a monk in order to pursue the way of this flute.
Only by embodying the world of Zen as a Komusō can one truly produce its sound.
It is a realm utterly distinct from commercial music and even from traditional shakuhachi performance —
a world of sound, created solely for the sake of one's own Zen practice, played in complete solitude.
KOKOU’s music is said to embody the spirit of the Buddhist sutras themselves.
Each morning, in a natural ritual marking the beginning of his day, he quietly places his hands together in reverence to the Buddha, and then, alone, breathes life into his Kyotaku.

Throughout Japanese history, the shakuhachi of the Komusō monks lived without fanfare, quietly passed down through the shadows of time.
The Kyotaku draws from this lineage, perfected by Koku Nishimura himself, based on the long bamboo flutes once used by his master, the Komusō monk Kyotake Tani.
Detaching themselves from all worldly hierarchies, drifting together with the sound of the flute, these monks formed a hidden strand of Japanese outsider culture.

A music completed only through resonance with the natural world.
A sonic manifestation of the meditative consciousness that Zen and mindfulness now bring to global attention.
It was from the desire to preserve and share this rare sound, in its purest form, that this project was born.
The timeless resonance of this bamboo flute will surely awaken within us, modern beings, a deeper sense of awareness —
and reveal a new way of seeing the world.

28 April 2025

Yukinari Takamura