A 200 Year History
Every modern Kinko lineage can be traced directly to Araki Kodo II. However, Araki’s refinements to the actual construction of shakuhachi may be his greatest contribution. By moving the fifth hole toward the mouthpiece and altering the diameter of the second and third finger holes, the shakuhachi became more balanced and thus possible to play ensemble. These innovations became the standard by which all shakuhachi have been made ever since.
Araki Atsumu (Kodō IV)
Born in Tokyo in 1902, Araki Atsumu showed great musical promise but sadly passed away at a very early age. He collected and arranged many works from the gagaku (early court music of Japan) repertoire for shakuhachi. In addition to his mastery of shakuhachi, he was an exceptional koto and shamisen player. His fascination with the West led him to study piano and violin.
Among his students was inventor and entrepreneur Baron Okura Kishichiro, maker of the okuralo, a shakuhachi/concert flute hybrid that made its debut in the hands of Kodo IV.
Araki Hanzaburō (Kodō II, Chikuō)
Born in 1823 to a samurai-class family in Minakuchi, Omi-goshu (now Shiga-ken), Hanzaburo began his study of shakuhachi at age 14 with a komusō named Yokota Goryū and quickly gained proficiency. Wanting to delve deeper into his studies, he sought out a disciple of Kurosawa Kinko III by the name of Toyoda Kodo, but was rebuked. After weeks of pleading with Toyoda, he was finally accepted as his student— as it turned out, the daily rejection was a test of his resolve to learn the shakuhachi.
During the Meiji Restoration (1868) as the Japanese government rushed to westernize, the shakuhachi, primarily a Buddhist discipline, came under attack and was banned. Araki Kodo II successfully petitioned to lift the ban, siting his work to incorporate the shakuhachi into secular chamber music of the time.
He made many improvements to shakuhachi notation, and with master sangen player Nagase Masaichi arranged the shakuhachi as a third element, weaving between the koto and shamisen.
Araki Shinnosuke (Kodō III)
Araki Shinnosuke was born in Tokyo, in 1879 and is widely considered the greatest player and shakuhachi maker of the 20th Century. His recording, Shakuhachi Tokusen, both solo, in duet with his son, and alongside Fukuda Eika, stand as some of the earliest and finest representations of the genre.
He continued to develop and refine the arrangements and written notation for ensemble music in both Ikuta and Yamada-ryu until his death at age 56.
In addition to his musical career, Kodo III was an accomplished painter and calligrapher.
Araki Tatsuya (Kodō V, Chikuō II)
Araki Tatsuya was born in Tokyo in 1938. The passing of his father, Kodo IV when he was only six years old meant there was tremendous pressure to establish the young Tatsuya as the head of Kodo-kai. He began his studies at 8 years of age under the top student of Kodo III, Kimura Yusai, and took the name Kodo V at his debut at age 12.
A bout of tuberculosis left Kodo V with tremendous scarring of his lungs which led him to believe a career as a performer was unlikely. However, he persevered and in 1964, a former student of his father’s convinced him to accept a visiting artist position at the University of California Los Angeles. This led to stops at The University of Michigan, Columbia University, Wesleyan University (where he simultaneously earned a Masters Degree in Ethnomusicology), and the University of Washington, where he would meet his wife, Charlotte.
In 1995 he recorded the Kinko-ryu Shakuhachi Honkyoku Zenshu for NHK. In 2008, he released the Sokyoku Jiuta Gasso Shu. He retired as Kodo in 2009 and took the name Chikuo II.