RYU-SHO-KYOKUSUI-FU, for Shakuhachi, 2 Kotos, 17-string Koto （1986）

The Chinese character read shō in the title denotes a liquor cup with reference to a game originally played during China’s Jin dynasty (265-420CE) in which participants would place a cup in a winding stream and the person in front of whom the cup stopped would be obliged to drink the liquor, before which, however, he had to compose a poem.
　　This elegant pastoral scene alludes to our own lives and to the unexpected encounters that occur within them. At the same time it seems to reflect the Buddhist principle of spiral-like spontaneous non-dependence (jinen) which flows between performers of music.
　　The piece begins with a short prelude followed by three sections played without breaks between them entitled Ryū (Flow), Shō (liquor Cup) and Kyokusui (Winding Stream). The prelude evokes the nature of time. The ensuing Ryū section begins with an introductory passage played by the shakuhachi, followed by a flow from stasis to dynamism effected by the kotos. The Shō section involves an encounter between the kotos and the shakuhachi. The final Kyokusui section depicts the transformation of water, with the shakuhachi playing the main role.
(from the composer’s programme notes for the work’s première)