Schedule 4

Christopher Yohmei Blasdel studied under Living National Treasure Goro Yamaguchi from 1972 until 1999 and received an MFA in ethnomusicology from Tokyo University of the Arts I 1982.

In his musical activities, Christopher balances the traditional and modern, improvisation and cross-genre work with musicians, dancers, poets and visual artists. A selection of his CDs is readily available on the usual streaming platforms. Christopher performs around the world and has taught at various colleges and universities around the world. He co-organized the Boulder World Shakuhachi Festival ’98 and assisted the Sydney World Shakuhachi Festival in 2008.

His semi-autobiographical book, The Single Tone—A Personal Journey through Shakuhachi Music and The Shakuhachi, A Manual for Learning” (both available on Kindle) are two of the most important English language resource books on the shakuhachi.

Christopher presently lectures at University of Hawaiʻi, and holds a fifth-degree black belt in Aikido. His recent publication, Jiuta Sōkyoku Lyrics and Explanations—Songs of the Floating World (2024, Routledge Press SOAS Music Series), presents detailed translations and explanations of 75 commonly performed sankyoku pieces.

Martha Reika Fabrique has been an active performer and scholar of the Japanese shakuhachi (bamboo flute) for over 30 years. She gave performances at the World Shakuhachi Festival 2008 in Sydney, Australia and presented the lecture New Horizons: Women and the Japanese Shakuhachi which was later published in the Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies.

In Texas, she was featured locally as a soloist in performances at the San Antonio Museum of Art, Japan America Society of San Antonio, and at many universities. Her doctoral thesis is titled Crosswinds: Interpreting Flute Literature Influenced by the Japanese Shakuhachi and she has lectured on this subject at the National Flute Convention, the World Shakuhachi Festival and the International Conference of the College Music Society in Kyoto, Japan. Her teachers include world-renowned shakuhachi masters Yodo Kurahashi II (Kyoto, Japan), Stan Kakudo Richardson (Dallas, Texas), and David Kansuke Wheeler (Boulder, Colo.). Martha received the shihan license in 2018 and the name Reika from Yodo Kurahashi II of the Mujuan dojo. She focuses on performing and teaching the Jin Nyodo repertoire.

Zenyoji Keisuke was initiated into komusō shakuhachi at the age of six. He graduated from Tokyo University of Fine Arts from the Department of Japanese Traditional Music. While studying at the university, Zenyoji studied under ‘Living National Treasure’, Yamaguchi Gorō.

He performed his first solo recital in 1999. In May 2002, Zenyoji received The Award of the Japan Traditional Culture Foundation. And in October 2002, he was invited to perform at the International Religious Conference organized by the World Bank at Canterbury Cathedral in the UK. In 2018, he received an Award from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for Arts.

Zenyoji won the prestigious Grand Excellence Award of the Arts Festival of the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs in 2017. He published a shakuhachi practice book Shakuhachi for the First Time (published by Ongaku no Tomo Sha). In addition to his performance activities with focus on traditional music, Zenyoji is also active as a shakuhachi teacher across the Kanto region.

More information at: www.zenyoji.jp

Fench-born flutist Suizan J.-F. Lagrost studied concert flute in Mulhouse and Paris. Winner of several national and international competitions, he plays repertoires ranging from baroque to contemporary music, jazz and improvisation. He also studied Musicology in Sorbonne University, where he achieved a DEA in 20th century music.

He began shakuhachi in 2000 with Grand Master Sōzan Kariya (Tozan style). Mitsuko Nakao, the granddaughter of the founder of the school, awarded him in 2014 the title of dai-shihan. He has since completed his apprenticeship by meeting masters from different schools.

The diversity of his expertise results in him to appear in a variety of musical contexts : flute recitals, as a soloist with large classical ensembles as well as with the best traditional musicians on European stages and beyond.

Suizan teaches both concert flute and shakuhachi in the conservatories of Le Kremlin-Bicêtre and Gentilly near Paris. In 2013, he released a Japanese traditional music CD entitled “Kyoku” with the koto player Mieko Miyazaki. Official representative of the ShinTozan-ryū school in France since 2023, he enjoys an international career in traditional, contemporary or mixed repertoires.