Honkyoku Shakuhachi Pieces

To begin learning Honkyoku, see my Shakuhachi Note Charts, and then, Your First Honkyoku Kyorei.

Honkyoku 本曲 are the most venerated pieces of shakuhachi music. They were primarily composed by anonymous Komuso 虚無僧 monks and are considered by most to be meditative or spiritual in nature. Both Honkyoku and the various practices or methodologies of playing them have elements from Buddhism, especially Shomyo Buddhist liturgy 声明, Shinto 神道, and Shugendo 修験道 and Shugyo 修行 or ‘ascetic training’. The genre is thought to have originated from the Southern island of Kyushu, Japan. Over time, distinct regional styles of Honkyoku developed across Edo period Japan. While many Honkyoku are thought to have been lost, the surviving pieces comprise the largest body of solo wind instrument music in the entire world.

Honkyoku – behind the name

The word Honkyoku can refer to a single piece or to the genre as a whole. The Kanji for Hon is 本 which is the image of a tree with branches spreading above and roots below. Finally, Kyoku 曲 means ‘piece/composition/music’.

What makes Honkyoku unique

Honkyoku are unique in a number of ways. Firstly, they are mostly solo pieces with pauses of silence between phrases. Furthermore, the majority of Honkyoku don’t have a strictly set rhythm nor strong melodic structures. Of course, composers of Honkyoku were broadly influenced by Wagaku 和楽 or ‘Japanese music’, which in turn was influenced by music from China and Korea. However, the scale or modes which are used in Honkyoku, often called the ‘Koto scale’, is endemic to Japan.

Honkyoku are also highly nuanced, making it virtually impossible to transcribe them to staff notation. In fact, even the traditional shakuhachi Katakana systems of notation cannot convey many of the subtleties found in Honkyoku. For example, it would be like trying to infer or convey the accent of a regional dialect through written text alone. For this reason, the passing down of Honkyoku must occur between teacher and student.