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Fumon told me that he was to perform with shakuhachi player Christopher Yohmei Blasdel at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo.

There needs to be improvisation [or sokkyosei 即興性]. Without this, the music is dead.

Singing Satsumabiwa became an adventure in the completest sense of the word. The first song Fumon began to teach me was Horaisan.

He plays the first phrase on the instrument,  I attempt to follow, gritting my teeth at the pain in my shoulder from holding the instrument

Among the topics that we spoke about were embodied knowledge, information that is preserved in lived experience

For English.... このブログに興味をもって、 ここまで足を運んでくださり、ありがとうございます。 このブログでは、薩摩琵琶のことをお話ししていきたいと思っています。 トーマス　蘭杖　（Photo by Fran Marshall) 薩摩琵琶は、...

The face board was made of mulberry wood. The grain of the wood caught my attention because it had black lines through it.

The timbre of his voice made it so unlike anything I was familiar with. I could not call it song. Nor would I describe it as chant.