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Dai-Bosatsu

大菩薩

[Genre]Modern Honkyoku

History:

Dai-Bosatsu is a tune produced by the concurrence of the whole mind and body with natural bamboo in the form of the Hotchiku.

Dai-Bosatsu appears on the following albums

Album Artist
Play ButtonArt of the Japanese Bamboo Flute, The Shakuhachi : Watazumi Dōso Roshi
Play ButtonMysterious Sound of Bamboo Flute - 2 Shakuhachi : Watazumi Dōso Roshi
Dai Bosatsu is a piece in which one's entire body and entire soul become one with the natural bamboo to produce a reverberant flow. It was created by Watazumi when he passed 20 years of age.

The foundation of Dai Bosatsu lies in the concrete manifestation of Watazumi's Way of Nature. It elicits an atmosphere of music which breaks down ideas of music itself. Because if requires that one's entire originality be brought to bear in the performance, it is the most difficult of all songs to master, and only one transmission may be made in a lifetime.

In order to accomplish the spiritual training of Dai Bosatsu, first one must train with Reiho, then Saji. After these are mastered, one may take up the challenge of Dai Bosatsu, but up until now all those who have made such attempts have failed, and transmission of the piece has halted with Watazumi.

Watazumi searched long for a hocchiku that would be up to the task of playing Dai Bosatsu, and finally selected a 2.4 shaku hocchiku that looked to have enough power within it. During the playing of the piece, though, the bamboo failed despite Watazumi's urgings, and only a sliver of what Dai Bosatsu should be was able to be recorded here.

Mysterious Sounds of the Japanese Bamboo Flute - Watazumido-Shuso, The Shakuhachi : Watazumi Dōso Roshi
Dai-Bosatsu is a tune produced by the concurrence of the whole mind and body with natural bamboo in the form of the Hotchiku.

World of Zen Music, The - Shakuhachi Music from Kyushu Shakuhachi : Nakamura Akikazu
This is one of three pieces based on the piece Saji, which has been transmitted by itinerant monks in Kyushu since early times. The three pieces are classified in accordance with the classification employed in Japanese calligraphy denoted "orthodox" (shin), "semi-cursive" (gyo) and "cursive" (so) styles, Bo-saji or corresponding to the shin category, Yuri-saji or Saji to the gyo category, and Neri-saji or Daibosatsu to the most unorthodox and flamboyant so category. Daibosatsu makes extensive use of ornamentation and decorative figurations and is the most dramatic, complex and extended piece in the extant repertoire of komuso shakuhachi. It has the alternative titles Neri-saji and So no saji.