Category Archives: Shakuhachi inspiration

Shakuhachi inspiration

Free Online Shakuhachi Workshop!

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On January 25th, 2026, at 5:00 pm (CET), I will be offering a free online workshop to celebrate the fifth anniversary of my virtual shakuhachi dojo on Patreon 🥳🎶🕊️

Virtual Shakuhachi Dojo

I started this dojo in February 2021, during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since then, this intimate space has been home to many meditations, tutorials, stories, and recordings, created to help you discover the shakuhachi, deepen your meditation practice, or improve your playing.

Beyond exclusive content, the dojo is also a place where you can connect with me personally.

This work is my humble legacy to the world. The motto I wrote at the very beginning still guides everything I do:

When you realise that the ultimate happiness is being yourself and that nobody can be better than you at it, then the competitive ego disappears. Remains the deep motivation to do your best at being yourself, for you and for the world. This is what this project is about.

Registration

To register, join the dojo for free and answer the poll in this post.

Registration is required to receive the workshop link and music notation.

The workshop will be held on Teams and will last 60 minutes.

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Meditation, Shakuhachi inspiration, Spirituality

“Why the Shakuhachi matters in a divided World”

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Happy and Healthy 2025!

I’m glad to share another inspiring post about shakuhachi written by the “Komuso Khronicles“: “The Shakuhachi: A tool for Interconnectedness Beyond Words, part 2” (see the original post down below).

A few reflections after reading the post

We cannot be reminded enough to stay connected to the essence of the shakuhachi. Whether it is during a public performance or a lesson with your teacher, what does really matter?
Your competitive mind, your ego, wants you to prove yourself. To prove yourself to yourself. To impress others and get external validation. To be good enough. To be the best.

The technical control on the flute is the way to express yourself the more accurately possible. It is a tool, not a goal.
Your sincere shakuhachi playing, the sounds you dare to share with the world, this is what matters. Breathe.

“Its sound bypasses the intellect and speaks directly to the heart, creating a space where differences dissolve, and unity prevails.”

What if you saw the shakuhachi as a bridge?

“A bridge between individuals, between the self and the universe, and between the personal and the universal. “

What if you saw the shakuhachi as a manifestation of impermanence?

Each note arises, resonates, and fades away, reflecting the impermanence of all things.

What if you saw what you’re experiencing while playing, performing, learning, practicing, breathing, as a tool to grow in your life?

The shakuhachi aligns with the personal dharma (duty or path) of self-discipline and growth. Learning to play it requires patience, focus, and humility, cultivating virtues that bring harmony to one’s life. Additionally, sharing its music can foster connections and peace within a community.

What if you saw the shakuhachi, however humble its international influence, as a profound and universal tool of interconnection?

Playing or listening to it can evoke a sense of unity with the cosmos, serving as a meditative practice that transcends individual ego and dualistic thinking.

“Why the Shakuhachi matters in a divided World?” Continue reading!

Continue reading “Why the Shakuhachi matters in a divided World” →
Shakuhachi inspiration, Shakuhachi Music

10 years of Shakuhachi School!

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Just a quick post in this busy period to celebrate with you the end of 2023 and the seven years of existence of this blog!

I look back on a rich year, the highlight of which was my trip to Japan, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of my shakuhachi school in the Netherlands, the Dutch branch of Hijiri-Kai (Sainte-École), founded by Fukuda Teruhisa in Tokyo, Japan.

What does a shakuhachi school mean nowadays in a Western country?

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Shakuhachi history, Shakuhachi inspiration, Shakuhachi video, Spirituality

Shakuhachi Pilgrimage in Japan – Part 3 – A Komuso story

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I started my trip in Japan visiting my shakuhachi master Fukuda Teruhisa in Tokyo. We practiced lots of music, including some of his compositions. For each piece, I asked him about the meaning and his intention. At a moment, I asked him if there was any particular order to play a set of pieces and he answered with a story, a Komuso story…

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Shakuhachi inspiration

Shakuhachi Pilgrimage in Japan – Part 2 – Nature

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It was very important to me to play in nature during my trip to Japan. There is so much inspiration from nature in traditional honkyoku (solo music for shakuhachi) and in general in Japanese arts and culture, that reading about it was not enough, I wanted to experience it.

I had selected a few places I absolutely wanted to go to: mountains, bamboo forests, waterfalls. I practiced several pieces I wanted to play there. Playing in nature means obviously playing by heart.

Improvisation was not my goal, as I wanted to experience the connection between specific honkyoku and its environment.

And May was a fantastic month to listen to birds as well!

My short trip of 16 days was way too short to cover all that I wanted to discover, but the experience was very strong and I took back lots of inspiration.

Whenever, wherever, I play those pieces now, there is some of the memory of the Japanese nature in them.

Here are the highlights of my trip.

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Shakuhachi inspiration

Shakuhachi Pilgrimage in Japan 2023 – PART 1

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Inspiration

I’d been preparing this trip for months, almost for years. I had dreamt it, imagined, looked up, planed, prepared, organised, booked…

As a result, it went beyond expectations.

The three main aspects of this shakuhachi trip were:
1. Study: studying with my master Fukuda Teruhisa in Tokyo and getting my Dai Shihan diploma (Grand Master)
2. Nature: walking and playing in nature on my own
3. Spirituality: going to different important places for Buddhism and meeting Komuso monks in Nara.

There is so much to say about it that I don’t know where to start!

By the beginning I guess, which is INSPIRATION.

So let’s take a deep breath in together…

Continue reading Shakuhachi Pilgrimage in Japan 2023 – PART 1 →
Shakuhachi inspiration

A Shakuhachi Trip to Japan!

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Happy 2023 and Happy New Year of the Rabbit!

Hope you’re having a good start of the New Year. Did you make good resolutions? Do you have a new motto?

My motto for this year is one I took from the online yoga teacher Kassandra Reinhardt, whose videos I’m practicing daily.

🎶 I’m worthy of good things 🎉

Joy, Shakuhachi music in tree pose.

So what is my big project for 2023?

Continue reading A Shakuhachi Trip to Japan! →
Shakuhachi inspiration, Shakuhachi practice

Shakuhachi Blog – 6 years!!

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Since I started this blog 6 years ago, I’ve published more than 150 posts and pages … only about the Japanese Bamboo flute shakuhachi! Which is not really a popular topic according to Google trends, algorithms and all the bunch of digital numbers rating our lives. But this is my life journey with my shakuhachi flute and I’m happy to share it. I’m even more happy if it inspires others – shakuhachi players, flutists, musicians, non-musicians, anyone.

So what happened on my blog in 2022, according to the analytics? What did you, readers, read and like most? Which of my posts written in 2022 became the most popular?

Continue reading Shakuhachi Blog – 6 years!! →
Shakuhachi inspiration, Shakuhachi Music

The Sound of Nature and Shakuhachi

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A Shakuhachi Podcast

In July, my student Christof Zürn, creator of Music Thinking, interviewed me for a podcast about shakuhachi. You can listen to it here .

Earlier this year, we prepared the interview with having an improvisation session in nature, that we recorded.  Christof mixed some moments of it in the podcast and I published a short video on my YouTube Channel.
We had fun with the geese flowing by, pieces of trees falling on us… We also played Kyorei together. Watch it here:

Shakuhachi belongs to nature

A few days after the podcast was released, I found a very interesting paper about Japanese music, written by Akikazu Nakamura. I already had the deep conviction that honkyoku music takes another dimension when played outside. This paper confirms my experience and gives some very interesting insights about Japanese music, that are important to know in order to improve one’s understanding of playing Japanese music. Here is a short summary and analysis of Nakamura’s paper.

I Support Shakuhachi Music
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Daily life, Shakuhachi inspiration, Shakuhachi video

Playing Shakuhachi in Nature

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It’s when I play shakuhachi in nature that I experience the full power of it. Why? How?

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