Bamboo Flute (Shakuhachi)
The shakuhachi is certainly Japan’s most well-known woodwind instrument. A vertically-held bamboo flute, it is made from the root of a bamboo tree about 55 cm long. a five-note scale and has an oblique blowing surface. Bamboo is hollow except for this nodes which are spaced at Intervals along the pipe. These nodes are knocked out to form the complete hollow length of the pipe. Four fingerholes are put on the front of the instrument and a thumbhole on the back. The mouthpiece is the open top of the pipe itself with the front side cut at a slight and angle to facilitate blowing the instrument.
Although the placement of holes and tuning of the instrument is a very delicate process, the instrument itself is of a basically simple construction. It is this very fact, however, which allows for very complex techniques in playing the instrument such as the use of the breath with changes in the blowing angle for great or minute changes in sound quality, or partial-holding of fingerholes to make delicate pitch changes.
The name shakuhachi is derived from the term “isshaku hassun” which means one shaku and eight sun (1.8 Japanese feet). Even though the term shakuhachi refers to the standard size instrument (54.5 cm in length), it can refer to many different sizes ranging from 1.3 shaku (39.4 cm) to 2.5 shaku (75.7 cm) and longer. The shakuhachi is made from the root portion of a thick-walled bamboo called madake in Japanese. Though simple in appearance, the shakuhachi is very difficult to play; its magical quality is revealed to the listener by the purity of its tone.
Tags: Bamboo Flute, japanese Flute, Shakuhachi, wind instrument, woodwind
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