Shakuhachi – Japanese bamboo flute
Jon Kypros, 2014
Welcome to my website. Teaching shakuhachi is my sincere passion and vocation. I teach traditional shakuhachi lessons to people in person and online using video chat. It is my wish to help you on your journey with the shakuhachi. Here on my website you will find a wealth of free information such as my video, “How to play shakuhachi“. I welcome you to contact me for help with any of your questions. I also offer my handcrafted shakuhachi for sale. I teach traditional honkyoku music and all aspects of playing the shakuhachi. I greatly enjoy helping my students to get their first sounds as well as nurturing them as they grow. I focus solely on regional honkyoku music which was mostly composed by anonymous komuso monks across Edo period Japan. These distinct regional honkyoku are not to be confused with the homogeneous styles created by individuals such as Jin Nyodo, Watazumi, etc. As my student, you will begin your studies with the original honkyoku of the Seien ryu from Fudai-ji (temple).
My free video, “How to play shakuhachi”
I began making shakuhachi at the age of eighteen. In 2006 at the age of twenty I moved to New York City to study shakuhachi music full-time in the Jin Nyodo style. Upon reaching the end of the Jin Nyodo repertoire I decided that I rather learn and teach the original versions of the honkyoku pieces which Jin Nyodo and other masters edited to form their styles. I was able to begin studying these pieces under Justin Senryu in December of 2011 at age twenty-five (just before turning twenty-six). I currently study and teach the various regional styles of honkyoku that I learn from Justin Senryu. As for shakuhachi making I am pioneering the use of Japanese Madake bamboo (Phyllostachys Bambusoides) growing in The US which I personally harvest from established groves. In 2009 I found my first grove of madake in The US. In the winter of 2011 I harvested from some of the oldest madake groves in America. In 2013 I made the first ever plastic replica of a bamboo jinashi shakuhachi which I named The Bell.