Yamaguchi Goro's star

I've just bought a copy of a famous shakuhachi CD 'A bell ringing in the Empty Sky' by Yamaguchi Goro, who I've been meaning to blog about for some time.

Yamaguchi Goro (1933-99) was a world-famous shakuhachi player and a Japanese 'living national treasure'.   He was head of the Chikumeisha shakuhachi guild, professor at Tokyo University for the Arts ('Geidai') and recipient of numerous awards.   He was taught by his father Yamaguchi Shiro, himself one of the leading Shakuhachi players of his day and one of the greatest shakuhachi makers.

Yamaguchi Shiro and Yamaguchi Goro

Yamaguchi Goro was also influential in spreading shakuhachi to the west.   During a period as artist in Residence at Wesleyan University (1967-68) he recorded one of the first and most influential shakuhachi recordings in the US 'Bell Ringing in an Empty Sky', one tack of which was selected by NASA to be sent into space on the Voyager spaceship.  He also taught many 'gaijin' students at Geidai and privately, including my own teacher Christopher (see link).

Here is a link to video of Yamaguchi Goro playing 'Sokaku Reibo'.  And another link to video of him playing the sankyoku (ensemble) piece 'Haru No Kyoku' which 13th-next piece I'll be learning (around 2025 at my current rate of progress) .

Yamaguchi Goro lived in Sangubashi (Yoyogi 3-chome 43) until he passed-away in 1999, so he was also a 'neighbour' of ours even though we only started living there in 2007.    In fact, in our family lore Yamaguchi Goro now lives on the evening star with our cat Sasuke, and I wanted to share the story of how this came to happen.

Hannah and I would often bicycle to Shinjuku Central Park or Times Square and would often pass Yamaguchi Goro's house on the way home, as the evening star was rising.  At that time the house still had his illuminated name-plate and seemed to be used by the Chikumeisha guild.

I told Hannah that Christopher's teacher used to live there, but had passed away before we arrived.  Hannah asked if he had gone 'to the sky' (Rika's terminology for heaven).  "Yes".  "Is he living on a star?"  "well.."  "is he on that one?".   And so the evening star became Yamaguchi Goro's star.   Hannah would often point it out, especially if we were passing his house.    

Hannah would often talk about Yamaguchi Goros star, and people passing-on and going to live there with Yamaguchi Goro.   So he seemed to become a sort of St Peter figure to her.  When our cat Sasuke passed away in November 2011, of course he moved-in with Yamaguchi Goro.  She still sometimes talks about them living together on his star, sometimes with other members of the family like Hanaoka-san and Gigi (Rika's father).