was a master
shakuhachi player, teacher, and craftsman.
Like his teacher, Kyochiku Tani, Nishimura became a ''
komusō
The (also romanized or ) were a group of Japanese mendicant monks of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism who flourished during the Edo period (1603–1867). were characterized by a straw basket (a sedge or reed hood known as a ) worn on the ...
'' (a
mendicant shakuhachi player). Nishimura wandered Japan as a mendicant for ten years.
Kyochiku Tani was trained in the
Fuke sect. After the sect's abolition in 1871, he continued the tradition of shakuhachi playing as a
spiritual practice
A spiritual practice or spiritual discipline (often including spiritual exercises) is the regular or full-time performance of actions and activities undertaken for the purpose of inducing spiritual experiences and cultivating spiritual developme ...
.
The early 20th century saw a revival of the shakuhachi as a secular instrument for ensembles. Amateur shakuhachi flautists formed secular orchestras. Nishimura, however, played an antiquated shakuhachi with no plaster added to the bore. He also favoured long instruments. He decided to call this flute style ''kyotaku'' in order to differentiate it from the shorter, modern shakuhachi tuned to
D minor pentatonic. The name ''kyotaku'' comes from the legend of the foundation of the Fuke sect described in ''Kyotaku denki kokuji kai''.
Nishimura's son, Koryū, continued the study and teaching of kyotaku in
Kumamoto
is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 738,907 and a population density of 1,893 people per km2. The total area is 390.32 km2.
had a population of 1,461,000, ...
.
Nishimura attained the rank of
sixth dan in
Okinawa karate, and of
third dan in
kendo. His other artistic pursuits included woodcarving and painting.
Albums
* ''Fuke Shu Honkyoku; Kyorei''
* ''
Kyotaku'' (1998, remastered from a tape)
See also
*
Fuke-shū
or Fuke Zen was, according to the legend, a distinct and ephemeral derivative school of Zen Buddhism that originated as an offshoot of the Rinzai school during the nation's feudal era, lasting from the 13th century until the late 19th centur ...
*
Buddhism in Japan
External links
Nishimura Koku pagea
komuso.com* Nishimura, Kyoryū. 2007. Kokū. Kumamoto: Self release.
* Yamamoto, Morihide. 1795. Kyotaku Denki Kokuji Kai
apanese Translation and Annotation of the History of the Kyotaku Kyoto: Kōto Shōrin. Reprinted 1981. Tokyo: Nihon ongaku sha.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nishimura, Koku
1915 births
2002 deaths
Shakuhachi players
Performers of Buddhist music
Japanese kendoka
Japanese male karateka
Japanese Zen Buddhists
20th-century Japanese musicians
20th-century flautists