Chapter 9: Transmission and notation of honkyoku
9.2 Honkyoku notation
9.2.1 Early shakuhachi notation
Notation for the gagaku shakuhachi is not extant; the earliest known notation for a flute of the shakuhachi family is for hitoyogiri. In 1608, Omori Sokun published a collection of about 70 short pieces for the hitoyogiri in Tanteki Hidengu (tanteki = short flute).23 The notation system used in this collection is called Fu-‐Ho-‐U, named
for the lowest three fingerings of the flute.24 While a form of this tablature system is
still used today by the Chikuho-‐ryū, founded in 1916 by Sakai Chikuho I,25 most
schools use the Ro-‐Tsu-‐Re system instead (again named for the lowest three fingerings of the flute). Hitoyogiri notation appears again in 1664 in the Shichiku Shoshinshu (“Beginning Pieces for Strings and Bamboo”)26 by Nakamura Sosan with
the tablature resources increased from 8 characters to 13.27 No rhythmic indications
are given, but circles indicate pauses.28 The Ro-‐Tsu-‐Re system that would become
the foundation of modern notation for the Kinko-‐ and Tozan-‐ryū was first used by hitoyogiri players in the Bunka-‐Bunsei period (1804-‐1830).29
9.2.2 Kinko-‐ryū notation
The modern Kinko-‐ryū continues to use Ro-‐Tsu-‐Re notation. Although it is claimed that Kinko Kurosawa (1710-‐71) probably wrote notation for his collected
23 Kamisangō in Blasdel, The Shakuhahchi, 86-‐87.
24 Lee, “Fu Ho U,” 71.
25 Riley Kelly Lee, “Blowing Zen: Aspects of Performance Practices of the Chikuho-‐ryu Honkyoku,” in
The Annals of the International Shakuhachi Society, vol.1, edited by Dan E. Mayers (Wadhurst, UK, 1985?), 117.
26 Kamisangō in Blasdel, The Shakuhachi, 86. 27 Berger and Hughes, “Japan, II, 5, Shakuhachi.” 28 Lee, “Blowing Zen,” 117.
honkyoku,30 concrete information about his scores is lacking. Today the various
guilds within the Kinko-‐ryū use their own versions of Ro-‐Tsu-‐Re notation.
Ro-‐Tsu-‐Re notation was developed by Araki Kodō II (1823-‐1908) and revised by his disciples, Uehara Rokushirō (1848-‐1913) and Kawase Junsuke I (1870-‐
1959).31 Kawase had his guild (Chikuyūsha) publish the new notation with rhythm
indications.32 Prior to that time, notation was not standardized and teachers would
write the pieces for their students or have their advanced students do so in their place.33 Miura Kindo (1875-‐1940), another student of Kodō II, also worked to
standardize the Kinko-‐ryū notation in 1928-‐1929. Although many variations on Ro-‐ Tsu-‐Re notation have been introduced by the heads of Kinko-‐ryū sects or guilds since the early twentieth century, notation by both Miura and Kawase is still considered authoritative. Yamaguchi Gorō used Miura’s notation in his guild, Chikumeisha.34
Figure 9.1 shows an excerpt from the last dan (section) of Tsuru no Sugomori, in Kawase’s notation, read from top to bottom.
30 Linder, Notes, 23. 31 Lee, “Fu Ho U,” 71. 32 Linder, Notes, 25.
33 David Wheeler, “A Century of Shakuhachi Feted,” in The Annals of the International Shakuhachi
Society, vol.2, edited by Dan E. Mayers (Wadhurst, UK, 2005), 175.
Figure 9.1 Excerpt from the last dan of Kawase’s notation of Tsuru no Sugomori
In addition to tablature fingerings in the katakana syllabary, Kawase’s notation includes tenpu-‐shiki35 rhythm indications devised in the middle of the Meiji period
for ensemble music: marks to the right of the column for notes on the beat (omote-‐ ma), to the left for notes off the beat (ura-‐ma), although the right and left beats in tablature are not thought of as strong and weak in the Western sense. Instead, “the unit conceptually has two sides, front (omote) and back (ura), just as a coin has two faces.”36 Lines drawn vertically through the katakana tablature are an influence of
Western staff notation and give an outline of the rhythm. A single line indicates that the notes correspond to eighth notes; a double line to sixteenth notes.37 Because of
the “free-‐rhythm” nature of honkyoku, these indications are merely a guide. They are
35 This rhythm notation is also called futenhō, or “dotted notation.” It was invented by Uehara Rokushirō. (Linder, Notes, 45)
36 Komoda Haruko and Nogawa Mihoko, “Theory and Notation in Japan,” in The Garland Encyclopedia
of World Music, Vol. 7, East Asia: China, Japan and Korea, edited by Robert C. Provine, Yosihiko Tokumaru and J. Lawrence Witzleben (New York: Garland Pub., 1998), 572.
followed more closely in ensemble music, where the instruments play in rhythmic unison.
Kawase’s notation also indicates meri-‐kari techniques (lowering and raising the pitch via embouchure and head position; timbre is also altered). The small メ
symbols to the left of the tablature in the above example are meri, which lower the pitch of the tone. Special fingerings are also given. The first set of fingerings in Figure 9.1, combined with a particular blowing technique, creates the special koro-‐ koro wing-‐flapping effect of the cranes, an important element in Sokaku-‐Reibo and Tsuru no Sugomori.
Today, all major schools and guilds of shakuhachi playing use printed
notation.38 The notation has not only a practical function for learning the repertoire,
but also a political one. When a shakuhachi master leaves his ryū to form his own school or guild, he must find ways to legitimize his new school. Creating and publishing his own notation asserts his authority and hastens the dissemination of the repertoire—important factors if the school is to survive.39 Older schools publish
notation to prevent deviation from their accepted performance practice.
Figures 9.2a-‐e show variations in notation style for the Sokaku Reibo/Tsuru no Sugomori family of nesting crane pieces.
38 Lee, “Yearning,” 29. 39 Ibid., 34.
Figure 9.2 a. Sokaku Reibo, opening.
Notation by Aoki Reibo II, Reibo-‐kai guild of Kinko-‐ryū.
b. Sokaku Reibo, opening. From Jin Nyodō Honkyoku: Notation by Kurahashi Yodo.40
c. Sokaku Reibo, opening. Notation by Sato Seibi, student of Miura Kindo. From Honkyoku Zenshu Book 6.
d. Koden Sugomori, opening. Notation by Taniguchi Yoshinobu. From Koden & Koten Honkyoku: Chikuzen Shakuhachi Series Sheet Music.
e. Tsuru no Sugomori, opening. Notation by Yokoyama Katsuya, student of Kinko-‐ryū and Watazumi’s dokyoku. From Shakuhachi Koten Honkyoku, No. 16: Tsuru no Sugomori (Willits California: Tai Hei Shakuhachi, n.d.).
40 Jin Nyodō did not publish his scores; instead, he usually gave hand-‐written scores to his students. Kurahashi was a student of Jin’s. (David Sawyer, “The Life and Work of Jin Nyodo.”)
According to Riley Lee, shakuhachi notation is “neither prescriptive nor descriptive,” and “‘authentic’ realizations of historical scores… are impossible.”41
Scores offer the player an outline of the piece, but not everything is notated. Some symbols can even have multiple meanings in a single score, depending on context.42
Despite these limitations, an outline of pitch content based on fingerings can be extracted from scores. Likewise, rhythmic and phrasing clues are usually given in graphic or metric form.
In the above three examples of Sokaku Reibo notation (Figure 9.2a-‐c), the fingerings for the opening melodic line are: Tsu meri-‐Re-‐Ro (repeated) in kan (甲), the upper octave, corresponding to E♭5-‐G5-‐D5:
ツﾒ レ ロ
Relative note lengths are shown graphically in the Aoki Reibo notation by vertical lines, whereas Kurahashi and Sato use forms of tenpu-‐shiki dots. Sato’s notation combines hollow and filled dots to show rhythm, while Kurahashi uses only solid dots along with vertical spacing of the notes to show time relationships. Where no dots are written to the left of the katakana, they are implied. In later phrases, Sato adds vertical lines through the katakana symbols to indicate shorter durations, as seen in Kawase’s notation in Figure 9.1. Kurahashi does likewise. Aoki instead adds occasional vertical lines next to the characters.
41 “Yearning,” 28. 42 Ibid., 239.
Additional indications include short horizontal lines as breath phrase markers (in the Sato and Kurahashi scores), bracket-‐like vertical markings to show repeated figures (in the Sato score, and later in others), instructions on how to move from the first to the second note using head position and finger articulation (in all examples), and instructions on how to end the phrase (in the Aoki and Kurahashi scores). Some of these notes on performance practice have no corresponding
symbols in standard Western staff notation. Timbre and special fingerings cannot be accurately depicted on the staff either; nor are they necessarily indicated in
shakuhachi tablature notation. Nonetheless, transnotation can offer insight into variations in basic melodic content from ryū to ryū.