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The string is typically made of silk and is manipulated by two plectra made of ivory or bamboo. The tubular plectrum on the right thumb plucks the string while the second, worn on the player's left middle finger, alters the pitch similar to a lap steel guitar. According to Minegishi's great-great-grandfather Tokuhiro Taimu, the founder of Seikyodö ichigenkin, Ichigenkin cultivates a noble character and should be an elegant and refined art that conveys ones compassion, sentiment, and mind. Every nuance of your soul is revealed.
(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.)
Trio Getsuro: Music from Innisfree. Produced by Trio Getsuro and Frances White, CD Baby (Hermit Music), 2022. One CD (1 hour, 1 minute) with liner notes. (CD) $25.98; (online streaming) $9.99, https://triogetsuro.hearnow.com/.
Over the past eight years, the late Minegishi Issui, the fourth hereditary heir to the Seikyodö ichigenkin (Japanese one-string plucked zither), and shakuhachi players Ralph Samuelson and Elizabeth Brown created a singular repertoire of traditional and contemporary works for their ensemble Trio Getsuro ... Getsuro ("dewdrops reflecting the light of the moon") explores the underlying sonic philosophy of both instruments, "the discovery of the world that lies within one note, one sound," and draws from Zen Buddhist aesthetics (liner notes). Their debut album, Music from Innisfree, showcases contemporary music and trio arrangements of traditional works for this rare instrumental combination. Samuelson and Brown are well-known performers of the shakuhachi both trained in the Kinko-ryù tradition. Minegishi Issui was a pioneering performer-composer whose trailblazing work included interdisciplinary collaborations with Butoh dancers and Khmer musicians, with whom she released five CDs, and who received two grants from the Asian Cultural Council.1 Despite her accolades, however, and because of the esoteric nature of her instrument, her work is not well known, even in Japan. Music from Innisfree is named after one of the ensemble 's last concerts at the Innisfree Garden in Millbrook, New York, and is one of three CDs released by the late Minegishi prior to her death in May 2023. These final albums showcase her incredible musicality and virtuosity in one of Japan's most unique instrumental traditions.
The ichigenkin is an obscure single-string koto usually made of paulownia or cedar. The string is typically made of silk and is manipulated by two plectra made of ivory or bamboo. The tubular plectrum on the right thumb plucks the string while the second, worn on the player's left middle finger, alters the pitch similar to a lap steel guitar. The Seikyodö style "follows the idea of Zen practice, which removes all unnecessary vanities" (liner notes). This playing style makes it a natural partner to the shakuhachi, also steeped in Zen Buddhist ideals. According to Minegishi's great-great-grandfather Tokuhiro Taimu, the founder of Seikyodö ichigenkin,
Ichigenkin cultivates a noble character and should be an elegant and refined art that conveys ones compassion, sentiment, and mind. Those who learn it will know the pleasure of its pure sound at the beginning, will feel a kind of emotion in their heart thereafter, and later, will reach the stage of comprehending the great sound of the non-string to eventually form the basis for entering the great [enlightenment] stage. (Minegishi 2022)
The album opens with Elizabeth Browns 2015 Aki Meguri Kite... (Autumn comes round again), written for two shakuhachi (one onstage, one offstage) and the ichigenkin. In this piece, Brown sets tanka poetry by Hangúi Keiko and Hirai Shoichi, survivors of the 2011 Fukushima triple disaster. Unlike in other works for shakuhachi and strings that are often either entirely instrumental or canonic works of the jiuta-sökyoku genre with sung poetry, Minegishi recites the poems instead. This choice recontextualizes the traditionally informed instrumental writing-sung words here do not convey the proper affect that spoken words do. This choice perfectly conveys the feeling of "a town, without voices, without humans . . . as distant as the end of the earth" (liner notes). Despite the intense weight of the poetry, an understated optimism remains within the composition, best encapsulated by gentle undulating glissandi in the ichigenkin and a subtle mode change that happens as Minegishi begins reciting Hirai 's poem.
Yakaika ... (night-blooming cereus) is masterfully performed by Samuelson and Minegishi. The work uses a harmonic landscape familiar to many players of traditional Japanese music. In canonical Seikyodö ichigenkin works, the voice is crucial. Canonic works often set waka poems from compilations such as the Manyöshü and Kokin Wakashü, while contemporary works feature a variety of textual source materials. Seikyodö works revolve around "nature-flowers, birds, wind, the moon, and the heart-rather than romance or love."2 Composer and ichigenkin player Yamada Isshi captures the ephemeral nocturnal blooming and subsequent demise of a blooming cereus flower with the rising sun. The closing, ever-quieter plucked notes of the ichigenkin depict the passage of the cereus flower and transition to daylight beautifully. The extraordinary performance by Minegishi and Samuelson immerses listeners in the timbral depths of these instruments.
Robert Carl's Jyun-on is a three-movement meditation that "explores the focused, direct, and haunting sound of these instruments in conversation" (liner notes). Carl avoids using a harmonic language overtly reminiscent of traditional Japanese music, but the music's pacing here is clearly informed by an understanding of shakuhachi and ichigenkin works (not surprising given Carl's study of shakuhachi). The first two movements present duos with one shakuhachi in dialogue with the ichigenkin, developing distinct characters for each shakuhachi. The third movement combines aspects of both those solos to create a trio with the ichigenkin. As distinct melodic elements gradually enter, we can appreciate how the timbre of each instrument changes depending on the harmonic systems being used. The third movement, however, while beautiful, does not feel like a meditation because of its increased melodic activity. It is nonetheless a tremendous performance that highlights the technical prowess of all the performers.
Following this work is Take no Tomo, an ichigenkin work arranged for Trio Getsuro by Brown, setting poetry by Oi (701-61; liner notes). The poem describes a person who has fled the "sadness and suffering of the world" for the safely and comfort of the "mountain depths." The poet claims that in the end, only the moon understands their heart. Brown's arrangement helps sustain notes in the ichigenkin melody, ultimately conjuring an allusion to the bamboo forest in Oi's poem. Just like the mountains Oi chose to plunge into, the arrangement embraces us in sound. Similarly, Fuji is nature themed and focuses on the sensation of smoke combining with the sky over Mt. Fuji; it is another traditional ichigenkin work that has an added shakuhachi part, which was composed by Akihito Obama. Brown and Minegishi 's combined sounds perfectly capture the attack, sustainment, and release into and out of the poem's transitions into and out of "thoughts . . . into the unknown" (liner notes). Minegishi's writes of her Hifu mi yo that "in the old Japanese counting system, the notes of the ichigenkin are lined up from one to ten. Thus, the simple sounds of the ichigenkin are simply arranged" (liner notes). The work begins unexpectedly with a bell, immediately resetting our ears before returning to solo ichigenkin and voice. The work is in an ABA form, and the text consists of the numbers one through ten recited with their old Chinese readings. Minegishi's recitation of the numbers and plucking of the instruments creates a hypnotic state unlike anything else included on this album and is my favorite work presented here.
Aizawa Shirotomo's Maeboroshi ni Yosete sets text by the twelfth-century princess Shikishi Naishinnö. This work features canonic and call and response and is based on a preexisting ichigenkin work, Maboroshi, by Saitö Ichiyo. Shirotomo's simple text-setting techniques captures the spirit of the text: "the things I have seen and the things I have not seen, in the haze that floats above my pillow" (liner notes). Paradoxically, without the classical Japanese text in front of the listener, the meaning of the piece can easily slip by, and I found myself momentarily confused during the first listening: were the shakuhachi and ichigenkin meant to play that gesture at the same time, or be separate? This type of interplay is consistent throughout the work and in the end I found myself thoroughly enjoying it. The album concludes with an arrangement of the Kinko ryū shakuhachi solo work Sagari На no Куоки (Falling leaves). The shakuhachi duo arrangement by Goro Yamaguchi is combined with an ichigenkin part added by Brown, again showcasing the exceptional virtuosity we've come to expect through the course of this CD.
The album's mixing and mastering is exceptional: the ichigenkin sound is best experienced with the instrument near or directly under one's ear in small venues and locations. Music from Innisfree is mastered in such a way that you feel remarkably close to the musicians and can appreciate the complex sound of the ichigenkins attack, sustain, and release. In a 2006 interview, Minegishi explained,
With only one string, [the ichigenkin] hides nothing. Every nuance of your soul is revealed. It is almost like the voice of life itself. If you can take the time to listen, then the sound of every tree, rock, or cell can be heard within a single note. (Raine-Reusch 2006, 26)
Regrettably, the album features sparse liner notes: all poetry has been translated and the original Japanese text is not included. In spite of this criticism, this album is an extraordinary recording on which listeners can appreciate Brown, Samuelson, and the late Minegishi at the peaks of their artistic expressive capabilities. The works showcased here encapsulate the spirit of Seikyodö ichigenkin and Kinko-ryū shakuhachi in the modern world.
Devon Osamu Tipp Independent Scholar
Notes
1 Minegishi Issui, ... "Seikyodo-Ichigenkin" accessed July 6, 2023, http://www.ichigen kin.tokyo.
2 Minegishi Issui, http://www.ichigenkin.tokyo/song/.
References
Minegishi, Issui
2021 Monochord and song" http://www.ichigenkin.tokyo/song/, accessed July 6, 2023.
2022 Liner Notes for ... "from Gakusen (music hermit) to date" Translated by Matsuzaki Hiroshi and Elizabeth Brown. Seikyodo2202, 1 CD.
Raine-Reusch, Randy
2006 "The Ichigenkin Music of Minegishi Issui," Musicworks, Summer, 22-28.
Copyright University of Texas at Austin (University of Texas Press) Winter/Spring 2024