Araki Kodo: Hankyō
It’s not too often that Japanese music is featured here but Hankyō (Reverberation) is an interesting new album of shakuhachi music by Araki Kodo – the name given to Hanzaburo Araki a sixth generation Kinko-Ryu shakuhachi master based in Seattle, Washington.
The Araki family has been playing and passing down the skills and traditions of Kinko-Ryu shakuhachi since the 19th century. Araki began playing the Japanese bamboo flute when he was 17 and made his debut with his father soon after that in a concert in Shimonoseki, Japan. He has been performing now for more than three decades.
The four pieces played here are mainly traditional and have a special significance for the family. One of them ‘Tsuki no Kyoku’ (Song of the Moon) was a composition of Araki’s great-great-grandfather after whom he is named. The album’s title also refers to the original name of a composition by his father, included here.
With no apprentice, Araki Kodō VI will be the last of the line. He decided to start recording in order “to preserve a style of playing that has been refined by six generations of experience, and to add to a family archive of the music that has been passed from father to son.” He adds: “I hope that you will hear the old stories in the music…and that you will also hear the story that is being written now.”
For anyone interested in the haunting sounds of the shakuhachi, or in traditional music from Japan, this is an essential listen. Fascinatingly, in another incarnation, Hanz Araki also draws on his Irish heritage, and is known for his instrumental work on both whistle and flute as well as being a singer on Seattle’s thriving Irish music scene.
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