The goal of many shakuhachi players, including myself, is to play innovative music: music that is non-imitative, combinations of sounds that are new to the world. So why study the tradition? Why not just strike off on your own and come up with your own unique way of playing?
The interesting thing about honkyoku is that it encourages innovation in two ways:
- Many of the basic techniques are counter-intuitive, due to the original problem of mapping nuanced chromatic and microtonal gestures onto a simple pentatonic instrument. (At times this seems like an epic battle!) On your own you probably wouldn't come up with the myriad tonal adjustments that are central to the traditional vocabulary. Similarly, you might not discover the unusual ways of adjusting dynamics, for instance playing a quiet G as ichi san no u instead of re, or a beautiful soft A as a ri meri with only the fourth hole open. Without this invitation into counter-intuitive technical complexity, many beginning improvisers are stuck in a simplistic world of pentatonic clichés and modal noodling with very little control over dynamics.
- The tradition itself encourages and celebrates innovation -- it is very similar to the world of jazz. A true master is expected to do something unusual and different rather than slavishly following his or her teachers. The tradition has, after all, produced Watazumi-dozo, a musician whose sound was as unique and wildly exploratory as late Coltrane. It's hard to imagine that either Watazumi or Coltrane would have come up with their wild and subtle music "on their own."
In short, if you try to invent without traditional study, you may discover you're limited to your own small bag of tricks. Honkyoku opens the doors to a world of innovation.