Schedule 4

SCHEDULE & CONTENT

EVENT#4

Intermediate/Advanced

with Kawamura Kizan, 
Véronique Piron,
Gunnar Jinmei Linder, Cornelius Boots

SATURDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2026

Session 1.1	10h00 – 11h30	Kawamura Kizan Kogarashi Explanation of techniques and piece analysis (Tozan-ryū)
Session 1.2	11h45 – 13h00	Kawamura Kizan Iwashimizu Explanation of techniques and piece analysis (Tozan-ryū)
BREAK
Session 1.3	14h00 – 15h15	Véronique Piron Tabibito no Uta (Rando Fukuda)
Session 1.4	15h25 – 16h30	Véronique Piron Mii Yama Higurashi / Mushi Tsuki Yo (Rando Fukuda)

SUNDAY 15 FEBRUARY 2026

Session 2.1	10h00 – 11h30	Gunnar Jinmei Linder Sayama Sugagaki (honkyoku, Kinko-ryū / Chikumeisha)
Session 2.2	11h45 – 13h00	Gunnar Jinmei Linder Sayama Sugagaki (honkyoku, Kinko-ryū / Chikumeisha)
BREAK
Session 2.3	15h00 – 16h20	Cornelius Boots Blues Elements & Style: Green Swampy Water (Black Earth Shakuhachi School/dokyoku)
Session 2.4	16h30 – 17h30	Cornelius Boots Green Swampy Water cont. (Black Earth Shakuhachi School/dokyoku)

About

As we continue our event series we have a dedicated intermediate/advanced workshop lined up for the 14+15 February 2026.

From Japan we welcome Kawamura Kizan (Tozan-ryū, JSPN),  from USA Cornelius Boots (Black Earth Shakuhachi School) as well our European guests Véronique Piron (KSK) and Gunnar Jinmei Linder (Kinko-ryū/Chikumeisha). 

The workshop consists out of a mix of traditional honkyoku as well as modern compositions by Rando Fukuda (Azuma-ryū).

Programme

Kawamura Kizan

Kogarashi Explanation of techniques and piece analysis (Tozan-ryū)
Kogarashi (The Chill Winter Wind) was composed in 1923 by Nakao Tozan the year after he moved to Tokyo. Standing in Shiba Park, which had been totally destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake two months before he wrote the piece, Tozan felt the chill wind marking the advent of winter blow through his body. He composed this piece to express in an improvisational manner the feelings of inconsolable desolation which welled up in his breast on that occasion. This is one of the few pieces in the repertoire of the Tozan school intended for unaccompanied performance, and allows the performer considerable freedom of interpretation. The graphic and lyrical expression which is an important feature of Tozan school honkyoku appears here in the representation of desolation and chill as falling leaves scatter at the mercy of the piercingly cold wind. This scene is depicted through the medium of accessible melodies which make this one of the foremost pieces in the Tozan school honkyoku repertoire. (text from komuso.com)

Iwashimizu Explanation of techniques and piece analysis (Tozan-ryū)
In the middle of autumn the waters begin to swell in Japan and the waterfalls become quite spectacular. The moss on the rocks grows thicker, while the pale sunlight filters through the ancient trees which are losing their leaves. This piece is in three parts: the first one describes autumn deep in the mountains; the second evokes the cascade bounding over the rocks; the third conjures up the foamy waters which form a multitude of rivulets before finally flowing into the river. Nakao Tozan composed this masterpiece of Tozan-ryū at Iwashimizu- Hachimangu shrine in Kyoto in October 1904.

Véronique Piron

Fukuda Randō (1906-1976) is known as a composer. He belonged to the generation of the second half of the 20th century and was part of the Shin Nihon Ongaku movement, “new Japanese music,” or simply Shin-Kyoku. But Fukuda Randō was above all a shakuhachi lover, a shakuhachi player, and then a shakuhachi master. Among his few students were famous Yokoyama Ranpō and his son Yokoyama Katsuya, who performed his compositions and spread his music. His music reveals a Japanese sensibility tinged with a touch of the West, at a time when Japan was encountering Western culture. But above all, its expression and nature are very lively: melodic lines, images of nature, sounds of insects…

Gunnar Jinmei Linder

Sayama Sugagaki is also referred to as Shakuhachi Sugagaki, and the piece was transmitted to Kurosawa Kinko I (1710–1771) by the monk Ikkei, according to the Kinko Techō (Kinko Notebook, probably compiled by Kinko III in the beginning of the 19th century).
Ikkei was from Nagasaki, and he transmitted seven pieces to Kinko I: Mukaiji Reibo, Kokū Reibo, Shin no Kyorei, Shika no Tōne, Namima Reibo, Sanya Sugagaki, and this Sayama Sugagaki.

It is not a flashy piece with a lot of suggestive sounds, but rather “murky” in character mostly moving in the lower, otsu, register. In the interpretation of Yamaguchi Gorō, this piece is approximately 16 minutes in length. We will start learning a shorter version of about half that time.

The XX Sugagaki pieces look very easy, and they tend to be more approachable technically speaking, but as far as mode of expression goes, they actually tend to be quite demanding. Therefore, a piece like Sayama Sugagaki is a challenge both to beginners and more advanced players.

Cornelius Boots

Boots will be doing Deep Blues for Shakuhachi, and using his own compositions as the catalyst for learning the harmonic vocabulary and stylistic elements and approach, including some improvisation instruction.

Deep Blues for Shakuhachi: “Green Swampy Water”

Contrary to the initial, delusional notion that you can “do blues” on shakuhachi just by playing our indigenous minor pentatonic scale — plus some bends and a chi-meri/ou — in reality, blues, like honkyoku, is a lifelong, endlessly nuanced, incredibly deep forest requiring reverent and dedicated practice. Fortunately, shakuhachi is perfectly suited for it.  Yes, partly due to its intrinsic scale and its aptitude at pitch bends, but also due to its extensive timbral dynamism, its connection to nature and its capacity for conjuring a truly personal tone.

Part 1 – Blues Elements & Style; Green Swampy Water

Learn the optimal harmonic vocabulary and stylistic elements for playing convincing, expressive and idiomatically sound blues on shakuhachi.

Using select scales and exercise patterns alongside an extensive listening list, you will have the tools to approach the Way of the Blues in performance, improvisation, composing, arranging, collaboration and beyond.

These scales, gestures and stylistic components will be applied to learning a Boots “solo nature blues” composition, “Green Swampy Water.”

Originally for 2 size flutes (G and D) within a single tune, the new score will present options for playing it all on one flute, in the case of this class, the 1.8 in D.

Part 2: Green Swampy Water continued

Circular breathing is optional for most of the piece, until the final Action Section, for which it is required. The overview of circular breathing for this class will be very brief so that we can get to the finger flurry and forward drive — the actual musical details — that comprise the Action Section, thereby giving the player a very compelling context within which several of the numerous benefits of circular breathing will be made undeniably and crystal clear.