Dozan Fujiwara

Dozan Fujiwara

The shakuhachi is a traditional Japanese five-holed bamboo flute played by blowing against the sharpened but reed-less mouth. On February 10th of this year, the master shakuhachi flute player Hozan Yamamoto, who pioneered new possibilities for the shakuhachi during the first contemporary boom in traditional Japanese music ( Hogaku ) popularity in the 1960s and later rose to the rank of Living National Treasure, passed away at the age of 76. He collaborated with jazz musicians from Japan and abroad, including Gary Peacock and Yosuke Yamashita and created new music fusing Hogaku and Western music, like the epoch-making work Ginkai done with the Kikuchi Trio. As a student of Hozan from his middle school years, Dozan Fujiwara (born 1972) acquired exceptional technique and became the leading new face among shakuhachi performers in the world of traditional Japanese Hogaku music from the 1990s while carrying on the spirit and legacy of that great master. Since his days as a student at the Tokyo University of the Arts, Dozan has been involved in a variety of collaborations, and since his debut as a performer in 2001, he has not only been active as a live performer of the traditional repertoire but also performing in units including KOBUDO with cellist Nobuo Furukawa and pianist Takeshi Senoo and a marimba unit with SINSKE, and with orchestras in Japan and abroad and worked with contemporary music composers in experimental performances, actively spreading the appeal of the shakuhachi to a growing audience.