Kuge Issoku by Michiko Akao (yokobue, vocal, piano), Gaishi Ishizaka (Kagura drum, percussion)

The World of Michiko Akao: Kuge Issaku
Review by Kiyoko Motegi (Professor emerita - Joetsu University of Education - Musicology)

This CD could only be made by Ms. Michiko Akao.
There is something that is uniquely hers, which I have come to understand as a world of "Suizen" created through the bamboo flute.

Suizen is a practice of Zen Buddhism, where Shakuhachi (vertical bamboo flute) is played in order to silence one's mind, focus on one's breath, and attain self-realization. This breathing - inhalation and exhalation - becomes audible as it passes through the flute.

It was some time in 1977 when I first came across the word. I was working at the National Theatre of Japan and it was from the master of Fuke Shakuhachi, Watazumido Doso that I learned about (Suijo,) his original stlye of Suizen.

At the time, the master had changed his name from Watazumido Shuso to Doso and was in the midst of an ascetic journey in search of the true sound of Shakuhachi. I remember listening intently to his incredible stories.

In May of 2012, I was able to attend the Kuge Issoku recital at the Oji Hall. It had been many years since I last heard her performance, and as I listened to the sounds flow from the bamboos, I thought of Suizen.

Ms. Akao debut at the National Theatre of Japan (for the Sixth "Art of the Middle Ages Performance") was her performance of "Mizu no Shirabyoushi" from Ryojinhisho Kudenshu Vol.12, recreated by the musicologist Kenzo Hayashi. She had just graduated from college. I can still remember the stage director for the show, Mr. Kido, repeatedly telling me that her voice was so wonderful. He even said, "It would be great if you could express yourself like her." Being a new staff at the theatre, I was in awe of Ms. Akao. She was my age, and yet she had already begun her career as a talented artist.

Ms. Akao's work has encompassed many categories, from Edo kagura and Gagaku, to Noh. At a time when musicians stayed within their traditional genres, it must have been a challenge to work so diversely. I could only imagine how difficult it was to study with multiple masters under each genre, as she did. Now there are many Yokobue performers, but Ms. Akao was the first to create a place for Yokobue in the world of music.

I left Tokyo in 1983 and began teaching at Joetsu University of Education. One day during a long car drive, I heard Ms. Akao's flute on the radio. It was a piece by Shigeaki Saegusa called *Prajna Paramita." I was astounded by the sound, which carried the fury and power of Acala, along with synthesizer and Shomyo on vocoder in the background. I stopped the car to listen. It was from the LP World of Michiko Akao, which was entered into the National Arts Festival in the same year. I must have been listening to a program that introduced newly released LPs. It makes me happy to know that this CD includes a piece ("Take no Sonou") from that very record.

After some time, it seems that she moved away from performing on well-known stages. I have wondered why. I knew that her work now involved the ancient Usuzumi flute, and the revival of its sound, but having attended the Kuge Isssoku performance, I think I now have the answer.

The piece "Okashiramai" ("Lion Dance") performed at the recital, still lingers in my ear. It was her sister's father-in-law, an eminent musicologist named Eizo Makino, who recorded *Okashiramai* and sent it to Ms. Akao.

Mr. Makino, a professor emeritus at the Nara University of Education, is known as the collector of various regional folk songs and traditional music. He also wrote Research into the Constitution of the Rhythm and Intonation of Shuni-e in Todai-ji Temple (1986, Yanagihara Publishing) and received an award from the Society for Research in Asiatic Music.

Mr. Makino was originally from Yamagata, and he gave the recording to Ms. Akao as a gift. "Okashiramai" evokes the grounded strength, albeit reserved, of the people of Tohoku. After years of examining the origin of musical instruments through the bamboo flute, perhaps she found what she was searching for in the world of kagura.

I put some thought into why Ms. Akao's music is so splendid, and I have come to the conclusion that she does not simply play the notes but extracts the sound buried deep within the bamboo. By studying the background and history of the flutes, she trains herself until such a sound emerges from the flute I believe this act is precisely Suizen. Is this not Shikantaza of Zen? Her work is defined by the continuous journey in which she reexamines and reshapes the Yokobue.

Having swept the world of contemporary music as the first Yokobue soloist, she has now returned to kagura. Her music allows us to hear the ancestral breaths of the past, scented with the earth. She removes all that is unnecessary and faces the bare bamboo. Her work attempts to reclaim what present-day Japan has lost.

Since the 1980s, many Yokobue musicians saw the importance of playing melody and began to compose neatly along the scale, using the flute as rhythmic instruments and playing clearly timed patterns. Additionally, sessions with electronic keyboards and other melodic instruments increased. In these settings, the energy of the Japanese bamboo flute tends to be reduced and separated from the sound, which is then isolated as a superficial melody.

Ms. Akao performs as a solo, independent, boundless artist. Her Nohkan is not the flute of the Noh or Kabuki; it is undeniably Michiko Akao's Nohkan. She has the ability accentuate the temperament of the flute and deliver the many audible textures to the ears of those who listen. Her music is neither dependent on rhythm nor centered around melody. Instead, she skillfully presents the various tones, timbres, energies and temperaments.

Ms. Akao is a pioneer in establishing the musical instruments of Gagaku, Noh and Matsuribayashi (festival music) outside of their respective genres. It is no exaggeration to say that her work has influenced and altered the course of Japanese music history.

It does not require much skill to combine Japanese musical instruments with synthesizers or folk instruments. Some may simply add computer music to the sound of Yokobue and call it complete. But it is rare to find Yokobue performers, who are able to both preserve the soil from which Japanese instruments grew and also plant new ideas and let them blossom.

The soil, or the foundation, is the original temperaments and the diverse timbres and tones of each individual instrument. This also includes the musical scales that are not uniform. However, all of the elements, under Ms. Akao's hands, become vividly expressed. Her flutes sound freely, while the essential characteristics are kept alive. This is what I find to be wonderful.

Ms. Akao's performances have been the result of earnest and continuous hard Work. I can only imagine it to be demanding and very trying at times.

When I write about Ms. Akao, I only have words of praise - perhaps I need a more critical perspective. But then again, from the day I met her -four decades ago- I have not and will not cease to admire Ms. Michiko Akao.

Debuted in 1972, Michiko Akao is a pioneering artist performing on traditional yokobue bamboo flute in a contemporary context.

She has worked with filmmakers such as Akira Kurosawa and Nagisa Oshima among others. Akao has also performed with notable artists Maki Ishii, composer; Makoto Ooka, poet; Kayoko Shiraishi, actress; Min Tanaka, dancer; and Yasunori Yamaguchi, percussionist.

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