Hotchiku
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The hotchiku ( Hotchiku have four holes down the front for fingers and one hole on the back for the thumb of the upper hand. The instrument is capable of a range of at least two octaves, and more if the instrument is well-crafted and in the hands of an experienced player; they can be fashioned to any length, suitable bamboo permitting, with longer instruments having their frequency range shifted proportionally lower. Hotchiku are typically longer than other variations of the shakuhachi, and almost always thicker and heavier.
The techniques for playing the hotchiku are similar to shakuhachi techniques, although the sound resulting from hotchiku is more fragile and possibly less well tuned to musical scales than are modern, refined (ji-ari, or tuned ji-nashi) shakuhachi. The angle of the utaguchi (歌口, lit. 'singing mouth'), or blowing edge, of a hotchiku is closer to perpendicular to the bore axis than that of a modern shakuhachi, but this is mostly a choice of the maker depending upon the size of the bamboo. Older komuso and myoan shakuhachi also share this trait, though unlike hotchiku they usually have an inlaid blowing edge. This property, along with the unlacquered bore, results in a rough and breathy timbre.
Because of its extremely natural construction, the hotchiku is commonly used for The term hotchiku was popularized by Watzumi Doso.[
Distinctions between hotchiku and traditional komuso shakuhachi
Lacking urushi and a mouthpiece inlay, hotchiku gradually take on moisture as they are played, making the tone less stable. Though komuso shakuhachi were not tuned to a precise scale either, they could generally be played together. As their hole positions were either calculated or copied from another shakuhachi, a particular honkyoku piece could be played roughly the same way on any shakuhachi. Hotchiku take even more freedom; some of Watazumi Doso's instruments were literally a piece of bamboo cut down with some holes seemingly randomly bored into it.
Distinguishing hotchiku from shakuhachi in general can be difficult, as there are many types of shakuhachi. In addition to komuso shakuhachi, there are also modern ji-nashi nobekan shakuhachi, such as those made by John Kaizan Neptune,[who?] which are tuned to be played with modern (Western) musical instruments. Again, since the abolition of the Fuke sect in 1871, modern shakuhachi have been made in two halves in order to tune them more precisely, but shakuhachi used for Zen practice have been primarily "nobekan" shakuhachi since the beginning. The term shakuhachi encompasses all of these, including komuso shakuhachi, and should not be understood as referring only to the modern, more musical iteration of the instrument.
Famous hotchiku players
- Watazumi Doso Roshi
- Nishimura Koku
- Atsuya Okuda
References
- ^ Deaver, Tom. "HOCHIKU vs. SHAKUHACHI". shikan.org. Archived from the original on 5 July 2013.
External links
- Close up of Hotchiku, by Kinya Sogawa
- Article detailing differences between hotchiku and shakuhachi, by Tom Deaver
- One of several messages in a thread on shakumail, describing the history of the term and concept of hotchiku, contrasted with shakuhachi
