ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the particular soundscape of Kinpu Ryu and its strong connection to Hirosaki, its place of origin, and discusses how players of shakuhachi across Japan relate to it when playing its pieces. It considers how claims to the style and repertoire emerge from notions of how it has been disseminated and absorbed as a subsidiary style of major shakuhachi traditions. The chapter investigates how body techniques come into play, in terms of how shakuhachi performers fashion their links to Hirosaki and conflate these with the komibuki breathing technique. Scholars broadly agree that the vertical bamboo flute that was the forerunner of the shakuhachi was introduced into Japan from China via the Korean peninsula during the Nara period as one instrument in the gagaku ensemble. The chapter identifies a discrepancy between how players identify themselves with the samurai of Hirosaki Castle or appropriate Kinpu Ryu within a general approach to Fuke shakuhachi as spiritual practice.
