European Shakuhachi Society

10/06/2026

The Spring / Summer 2026 edition of BAMBOO, the ESS Newsletter, has now been published on the main ESS website/

You can download/view the newsletter here:
https://shakuhachisociety.eu/

Happy reading!

18/05/2026

We are very excited to announce a special Watazumido exhibition as part of the ESS Summer School in Athens. Oud maker, shakuhachi player and Watazumi enthusiast Dimitris Rapakousios will present part of his collection of Watazumi memorabilia – rare photographs, original scores and books, as well as some of the actual flutes Watazumi used in his recordings – during the Summer School days (23 to 26. July 2026) at our main workshop venue The New York College.

Find out more about the ESS Shakuhachi Summer School at the event website: https://summerschool.shakuhachisociety.eu/

Hope to see you there!

10/05/2026

Recording of the ESS Athens 2026 Summer School overview and teachers' introductions. Hope you can join us at Europe's largest shakuhachi event taking place from 23. to 26. July 2026.

The ESS "Brunch" event was originally on Zoom on Sunday 3. May.

Summer School website: https://summerschool.shakuhachisociety.eu/

Presentation about ESS Summer School in Athens, Greece. Join us at Europe's largest shakuhachi event taking place from 23. to 26. July 2026.Zoom recording fr...

20/04/2026

Please join us for a special ESS ATHENS 2026 Sunday Brunch on 3. May 2026.

We will meet the guest teachers and their teaching programme for Athens as well as getting a glimpse of the school or style they will represent. Some of our guests will also teach a few representative extracts/lines of relevant pieces or demonstrate what participants can expect to be covered in Athens.

ESS Sunday Brunch with Athens 2026 invitees
3 May 2026 Event
10h00 – 12h00 CEST

Info and free registration (at the bottom of the page) here:
https://events.shakuhachisociety.eu/event-5/schedule-5/

Just sign up and see you there!

ESS events are open to everybody and welcome people of all playing levels including people who want to start up shakuhachi.

Summer School website: https://summerschool.shakuhachisociety.eu/about-athens/

13/04/2026

All day Beginners' Workshops at ESS Summer School in Athens! Great time to discover and get the fundamentals of shakuhachi taught by our invited teachers and performers. Check out our schedule here:
https://summerschool.shakuhachisociety.eu/schedule/

01/04/2026

🐦 Early Bird registration is now open!!
https://summerschool.shakuhachisociety.eu/about-athens/
We hope you'll join us in Athens. 🙂🙏

21/03/2026

🐦 Early Bird registration opening next week!

https://summerschool.shakuhachisociety.eu/about-athens/

We hope you join us in Athens. 🙂🙏

08/02/2026

ESS Online Workshop February 14+15

We welcome from Japan Kawamura Kizan (Tozan-ryū), from USA Cornelius Boots (Black Earth Shakuhachi School)) as well our European guests Véronique Piron (KSK) and Gunnar Jinmei Linder (Kinko-ryū/Chikumeisha). The sessions will feature a mix of traditional honkyoku, modern pieces as well as Deep Blues for shakuhachi. Not to miss, for any level.

Introducing Kawamura Kizan – he studied the shakuhachi under his father, Kawamura Taizan. Master Instructor and Lecturer of the Tozan-ryū. Kawamura is a recipient of the Grand Prize at the Kumamoto National Traditional Music Competition and the Gold Prize at the Tozan-ryū National Honkyoku Competition. Kizan Kawamura is a member of various ensembles including ‘The Shakuhachi 5’.

Kizan will teach the classic Tozan-ryū pieces Kogarashi and Iwashimizu and give explanation of techniques and analysis of the pieces.
Kogarashi (The Chill Winter Wind) was composed in 1923 by Nakao Tozan the year after he moved to Tokyo. Standing in Shiba Park, which had been totally destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake two months before he wrote the piece, Tozan felt the chill wind marking the advent of winter blow through his body. He composed this piece to express in an improvisational manner the feelings of inconsolable desolation which welled up in his breast on that occasion.
Iwashimizu This piece is in three parts: the first one describes autumn deep in the mountains; the second evokes the cascade bounding over the rocks; the third conjures up the foamy waters which form a multitude of rivulets before finally flowing into the river. Nakao Tozan composed this masterpiece of Tozan-ryū at Iwashimizu- Hachimangu shrine in Kyoto in October 1904.

More details about the pieces taught and schedule is here:
https://events.shakuhachisociety.eu/event-4/schedule-4/

Booking options are at bottom of the page:
ONLINE #4 ESS Member €40
ONLINE #4 ESS Non-Member €50

Hope to see you there!

04/02/2026

ESS Online Workshop February 14+15

We welcome from Japan Kawamura Kizan (Tozan-ryū), from USA Cornelius Boots (Black Earth Shakuhachi School) as well our European guests Véronique Piron (KSK) and Gunnar Jinmei Linder (Kinko-ryū/Chikumeisha). The sessions will feature a mix of traditional honkyoku, modern pieces as well as Deep Blues for shakuhachi. Not to miss, for any level.

Introducing Veronique Piron – originally a French flutist, is a shakuhachi performer and teacher in the style of Yokoyama Katsuya (KSK) who awarded her a shihan licence in 2002 whilst a recipient of a Lavoisier research grant. She is a founding member of the ESS. Based in Brittany, West of France, licensed professor for traditional music, she is currently coordinating professor at the Broceliande Music Conservatory, where she also teaches free improvisation and world music.

Véronique will lead us though three tunes by Fukuda Randō (1906-1976), Tabibito no Uta, Mii Yama Higurashi / Mushi Tsuki Yo.Ra. Randō belonged to the generation of the second half of the 20th century and was part of the Shin Nihon Ongaku movement, “new Japanese music,” or simply Shin-Kyoku. His music reveals a Japanese sensibility tinged with a touch of the West, at a time when Japan was encountering Western culture. But above all, its expression and nature are very lively: melodic lines, images of nature, sounds of insects…

More details about the pieces taught and schedule is here:
https://events.shakuhachisociety.eu/event-4/schedule-4/

Booking options are at bottom of the page:
ONLINE #4 ESS Member €40
ONLINE #4 ESS Non-Member €50

Hope to see you there!

01/02/2026

ESS Online Workshop February 14+15

We welcome from Japan Kawamura Kizan (Tozan-ryū), from USA Cornelius Boots (Black Earth Shakuhachi School)) as well our European guests Véronique Piron (KSK) and Gunnar Jinmei Linder (Kinko-ryū/Chikumeisha). The sessions will feature a mix of traditional honkyoku, modern pieces as well as Deep Blues for shakuhachi. Not to miss, for any level.

Introducing Gunnar Jinmei Linder – Linder began studying shakuhachi in Japan in 1985 with Yamaguchi Gorō (designated Living National Treasure). He obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree as a soloist from Tokyo University of the Arts 1997, and was awarded a shihan and the name Jinmei from Yamaguchi in 1998.

Sayama Sugagaki is also referred to as Shakuhachi Sugagaki, and the piece was transmitted to Kurosawa Kinko I (1710–1771) by the monk Ikkei, according to the Kinko Techō (Kinko Notebook, probably compiled by Kinko III in the beginning of the 19th century). It is not a flashy piece with a lot of suggestive sounds, but rather “murky” in character mostly moving in the lower, otsu, register. In the interpretation of Yamaguchi Gorō, this piece is approximately 16 minutes in length. We will start learning a shorter version of about half that time.

More details about the pieces taught and schedule is here:
https://events.shakuhachisociety.eu/event-4/schedule-4/

Booking options are at bottom of the page:
ONLINE #4 ESS Member €40
ONLINE #4 ESS Non-Member €50

Hope to see you there!