The nesting of cranes

There are many versions of Sokaku Reibo/Tsuru no Sugomori. In some schools, there are treated as the same piece, in other schools, as two separate pieces.

Like Sokaku Reibo, Tsuru no Sugomori shares melodic material and the same extended techniques of koro-koro, tamane, multiphonics, etc. The program material is identical, both pieces describing the life-cycle of a family of nesting cranes, with similar sections depicting building the nest, rearing their young, watching them take flight, eventually leaving the nest, with the parent cranes being alone again to live out the remainder of their lives together. The extended techniques used in the piece create an impression of the flapping of wings and the calls of the cranes. (source The International Shakuhachi Society)

In the Hijiri school, we play the version recorded and handed on by Miyata Kohachiro in this CD:

Here is my humble interpretation of this beautiful evocation of the cranes.

 

In this video you can hear real a Japanese Crane calling (Hokkaido, 2017)!