quotation：The Encyclopedia of Musical Instruments the SHAKUHACHI
                 Tokyo Ongaku-sha Co.Ltd 1990

引用：楽器の事典　尺八
         (株)東京音楽社　1990年発行

CHAPTER ７ ： THE RAW MATERIAL
　　　　AFTER HARVEST一KIJI

　Photograph 8 shows the bamboo that has been dug out and cut off. It is bluish-green in color. This color ｗill be maintained for some time, but after several monthes it will naturally begin to turn to yellow, much like a green fruit which gradually ripens to a yellow color.

　As photograph 7 shows the color of bamboo, which is green with bluish-tints. In Japan this is called “blue bamboo”. Both Wang Wei, the poet who is representative of the Chinese, and Japanese people have loved bamboo and its blue color from long ago. This emotion has been expressed in many poems. Ki no Tsurayuki, a representative poet from the early Heian period (10th century) who was also ａ scholar, composed a waka poem that can be paraphrased as folloｗs: “Just like the bambooｌgaze upon with you, which every year grows more abundant and which never changes color, my love for you has changed not at all over the years.”

　The kiji, which was chosen one by one with great caution, will after much time become a musical instrument. It takes 4-5 years from the time the bamboo is harvested until the instrument is finally completed｡

　There are many poems about bamboo in Japan and China where it grows naturally, but we have not found any poems on bamboo in America and Europe where it does not grow.





Photograph 8


photograph7



The Encyclopedia of Musical Instruments  CONTENTS

 ⇐previous page　　  the next page⇒