Admittedly, with all of the centuries of music, history and culture related to our favourite flute, there isn't a very extensive collection of books pertaining to it translated into English. Granted, just my personal opinion. Now, in Japanese, there are more options and volumes available to the player and aficionado. Some of us find every book that is available and add them to our libraries, enriching the knowledge as best we can.
So, a few weeks ago I noticed a post on the Facebook groups regarding a new book of shakuhachi history, entitled " Paintings of Bamboo Flutes: A History and Genealogy of Shakuhachi Performance", authored by Izumi Takeo and translated by Philip Flavin. The dealer for these here in the US was KSK North America, and I had an order in to them right away. After a few days, this handsome, no...downright beautiful, book was in my hands. Now, this happened right before the holidays and with family,work obligations, I didn't get a chance to sit down and thumb through it until this week. The plan is a thorough ready next week with a review right here on this blog. Until then, a brief look:
The cover reminds me a lot of the book by Christopher Blasidel, which is one of my all time favourites. Inside I see numerous colour photos and paintings of the shakuhachi over the years in Japanese art. Everything is lined up well and simply magnificent! There are only 145 pages here but that is plenty for us to sink our teeth into.
Here is the link to the distributor in North America:
KSK North America
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