Track Listing

1. Jokyoku "Tsuki" - Ranjo
2. Take No Odori
3. Kyu No Mai, Hanagasa No Odori
4. Kurui
5. Inaka-Bue
6. Fumon
7. Genroku Hanami-Odori
8. Take No Uta
9. Sagi-Musume
10. Yuki No Genso
11. Tori-Kagura
12. Kyo No Yoru
13. Rinmon
14. Ukigomo
15. Akebono-Jishi
16. Musashi No Shirabe
17. Dai-Bosatsu
18. Shin-Getsu
19. Nezasa No Shirabe
20. Netori
21. Kyorei

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #278535 in Music
• Released on: 1994-07-18
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

The Source
This recording is of the music of Watazumi Doso, the teacher of Katsuya Yokoyama. Watazumi, who died in the late 20th century, was an authentic eccentric of the Zen Buddhist tradition. Larger than life, he has left us stories of his life that have reached mythical proportions. Watazumi's student, Katsuya Yokoyama has taught the majority of all professional shakuhachi performers in the world today. The music here is not necessarily soothing. It demands your attention. This CD is essential to anyone who wants to hear examples of a primary source of the style and techniques of today's shakuhachi players.Highly recommended.

very bad recording quality
This is an odd re-issue of an old Everest LP (#3289), a recording of the gifted and idiosyncratic shakuhachi player, Watazumido-shuso. Since I own the LP, and love this man's refined, delicate playing, I was looking forward to a cleaner, noise-free CD of the same music. To my dismay, the CD sounds as if it were dubbed using a $20 microphone and a cheap noise-limiter. Sonic levels fluctuate erratically, and most of the time it sounds as if the musician were playing in a distant attic alcove. There are noticeable, regular pops on each track. Much of the sonic richness of the original recording is gone; indeed, were it not for the playing style, one might have trouble identifying the instrument! Moreover, Mr. Watazumido-Shuso's name does not appear anywhere on either the CD itself or the jewel inserts!!! The people at "Legacy International", who produced this disk, should be embarrassed.

What a pity. I'll stay with my slightly scratchy LP.

Brilliant music... bad recording
The performances on this CD are absolutely phenomenal. The music has a raw authenticity that is sometimes missing in more polished recordings of Japanese music by groups like the Yamato Ensemble. Put simply, this is the kind of direct, unthinking [in the Zen sense] music that gets to the heart of Fuke Zen.

Having said that, the sound quality on this CD is just this side of unlistenable. There is all kinds of sound and distortion and, in the higher registers, the tone of the flute is strangely compressed. If someone were to re-master this recording, it would be a masterpiece. As it is, it is, at times, barely listenable/