Alcvin Ryuzen Ramos is a shakuhachi teacher, performer, composer, and maker based in Canada. Born in Japan, Ramos has also lived in the United States and now lives in Western Canada. In 2003, he founded the Bamboo-In Shakuhachi Space on the Sunshine Coast.
Ramos studied shakuhachi in Japan under several teachers, including Kaoru Kakizakai, Teruo Furuya, Atsuya Okuda, Yoshinobu Taniguchi and more recently with Takashi Tokuyama. He received his shihan (master) license from Kaoru Kakizakai and Katsuya Yokoyama. Ramos received an honorary Dai Shihan (grand master) title from Yoshinobu Taniguchi, taking the name, "Ryuzen" (Dragon Meditation) making him the first Canadian and one of only a handful of non-Japanese to receive this honor. He also cites Watazumi Doso, teacher of Yokoyama, and his Dokyoku honkyoku repertoire as a strong influence.
In addition to teaching, performing and composing, Ramos is a shakuhachi flute craftsman, specializing in the hocchiku variety of jinashikan (natural bore flutes, "without ji" or paste). Ramos is currently studying jiari shakuhachi construction with Miura Ryuho in Akita Prefecture.
Ramos also plays shinobue (a Japanese side-blown flute), Shinkin (three-stringed fretted, Chinese lute), and Tsugaru Shamisen (Japanese spiked lute). He is the inventor of the Tenkan, a shakuhachi/didgeridoo hybrid flute.
Ramos latest release (2021) is called "Kitsune" with Italian ambient music producer, jarguna (Marco Billi) on Projekt Records.
Ramos is married to the ceramic artist, Sandra Ramos.
Discography
"Japanese Traditional Koto and Shakuhachi Music". Satomi Saeki (koto) & Alcvin Takegawa Ramos (shakuahchi). Oliver Sudden Productions Inc. 2005.
A shakuhachi is a Japanese and ancient Chinese longitudinal, end-blown flute that is made of bamboo.
Watazumi DosoRoshi was a master of the end-blown Japanese bamboo flute. He studied Rinzai Zen, attaining the title of roshi.
The hotchiku, sometimes romanized as hocchiku or hochiku, is a Japanese aerophone, an end-blown bamboo flute, crafted from root sections of bamboo. The bamboo root is cleaned and sanded, resulting in a surface patterned with many small, circular knots where the roots formerly joined the stalk. The same part of the bamboo plant is also used to produce the shakuhachi but, unlike the shakuhachi, the hotchiku's inside (bore) and outside surfaces are left unlacquered, and an inlay is not used in the mouthpiece. The membranes at the nodes inside a hotchiku bore are generally left more intact than those of a shakuhachi, though older komuso shakuhachi also share this trait. Together, these characteristics make for a visibly and audibly raw and organic instrument. Hotchiku are sometimes referred to as jinashi nobekan, meaning "without ji [a paste made of clay and lacquer, used to smooth the bore on modern shakuhachi], one-piece"; hotchiku are not cut in two pieces for crafting or storage, unlike modern shakuhachi that are used as musical instruments.
Fuke-shū or Fuke Zen was, according to the legend, a distinct and ephemeral derivative school of Japanese Zen Buddhism which originated as an offshoot of the Rinzai school during the nation's feudal era, lasting from the 13th century until the late 19th century. There are however no historical records to support this. The sect, or sub-sect, traced its philosophical roots to the eccentric Zen master Puhua, as well as similarities and correspondences with the early Linji House and previous Chán traditions—particularly Huineng's "Sudden Enlightenment" —in Tang Dynasty China. The connection to the Zen master Puhua has not been established in historical records, except for a text that was published in 1795 but is most likely a made-up story in order to institutionalize the monks of the Fuke sect.
Atsuya Okuda is a Japanese-born master player and teacher jinashi shakuhachi, an unrefined bamboo flute. Prior to dedicating his efforts to the bamboo flute, he was a professional jazz trumpet player from approximately 1965 until 1985.
Suizen (吹禅) is a Zen practice consisting of playing the traditional Japanese shakuhachi bamboo flute as a means of attaining self-realization. Suizen was traditionally practiced by the Komusō, the Zen Buddhist monks of the Fuke sect of Japan who flourished during the Edo period.
Katsuya Yokoyama was a Japanese musician who played the shakuhachi, a traditional vertical bamboo flute.
The komusō (虚無僧/こむそう) were a group of Japanese mendicant monks of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism who flourished during the Edo period (1603–1867). Komusō were characterized by a straw basket worn on the head, manifesting the absence of specific ego but also useful for traveling incognito. They were also known for playing solo pieces on the shakuhachi. These pieces, called honkyoku, were played during a meditative practice called suizen, in return for alms, as a method of attaining enlightenment, and as a healing modality.
Traditional Japanese musical instruments, known as wagakki (和楽器) in Japanese, are musical instruments used in the traditional folk music of Japan. They comprise a range of string, wind, and percussion instruments.
Phil Nyokai James is a professional shakuhachi teacher and performer as well as avant-garde composer. Born in New York City in 1954, James studied shakuhachi with Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin and Yodo Kurahashi. After receiving his master's license, he began teaching and performing throughout the United States. His shakuhachi dojo is centered in Portland, Maine.
Kaoru Kakizakai is an internationally renowned performer and teacher of the shakuhachi, a traditional vertical bamboo flute of Japan.
Kokū (虚空) or Koku is a honkyoku, a solo "original piece" of Japanese Buddhist origin for the shakuhachi, a bamboo flute. The title "Kokū" is often translated as "empty sky".
Hōzan Yamamoto was a Japanese shakuhachi player, composer and lecturer.
Oliver Sudden Productions is a Canadian independent record label focusing on traditional music from various parts of the world. The label was founded by music producer Paul Etch in Montreal, Canada in 1993. Highlights of the company's current catalog includes the albums by Chinese erhu player Lei Qiang, Japanese koto player Satomi Saeki, Vietnamese dan bau musician Pham Duc Thanh, Paraguayan harpist Eralio Gill, flamenco guitarist Juan Carranza, Indian sarod player Aditya Verma, Japanese shakuhachi player Alcvin Takegawa Ramos, Chinese yangqin musician and former music professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music Anna Guo, Chinese zheng player Hong Ting, and Chinese pipa player Liu Fang.
Fue (笛/ふえ) is the Japanese word for bamboo flute, and refers to a class of flutes native to Japan. Fue come in many varieties, but are generally high-pitched and made of a bamboo called shinobue. The most popular of the fue is the shakuhachi.
Riley Kelly Lee is an American-born Australian-based shakuhachi player and teacher. In 1980 he became the first non-Japanese person to attain the rank of Dai Shihan in the shakuhachi tradition. He is a recipient of two of the most revered lineages of shakuhachi playing, descending from the original Zen Buddhist "priests of nothingness" of the Edo period. His first teachers were Hoshida Ichizan II and Chikuho Sakai II. A later teacher was Katsuya Yokoyama.
Christopher Yohmei Blasdel is a shakuhachi performer, researcher and writer specializing in the music of Japan and Asia. In 1972, while on foreign study in Tokyo, he was introduced to the Kinko Style shakuhachi master Goro Yamaguchi, whom he studied with until Yamaguchi’s death in 1999. In 1975, Blasdel began learning Aikido under Yasuo Kobayashi and performing with the butoh dancer Akira Kasai at his studio, Tenshikan. Blasdel presently holds a 4th degree black belt in Aikido.
James Nyoraku Schlefer, born 1956 in Brooklyn, New York, is a performer and teacher and composer of shakuhachi in New York City. He received the Dai-Shi-Han certificate in 2001, one of only a handful of non-Japanese to receive this high-level award. In 2008, he received his second Shi-Han certificate from Mujuan Dojo, in Kyoto. In Japan, Schlefer has worked with Reibo Aoki, Katsuya Yokoyama, Yoshio Kurahashi, Yoshinobu Taniguchi, and Kifu Mitsuhashi. His first teacher was Ronnie Nyogetsu Seldin. He holds a master's degree in Western flute and musicology from Queens College and currently teaches shakuhachi class at Columbia University and music history courses at the City University of New York. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Tanglewood, BAM, the Metropolitan Museum, at colleges and universities throughout the US and has toured in Japan, Indonesia, Brazil and counties in Europe. Schlefer has four solo recordings, Wind Heart(which travelled 120,000,000 miles aboard the Space Station MIR) Solstice Spirit (1998), Flare Up (2002), and In The Moment (2008). His music has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered. Schlefer's latest recording Spring Sounds, Spring Seas was released in June 2012 and features his original music for shakuhachi and orchestra.
Rodrigo Rodríguez is a Spanish shakuhachi player.
Minoru Muraoka was a Japanese shakuhachi player. He became well-known for using the shakuhachi to play jazz music, which was influential on popularizing the shakuhachi in contemporary Japanese music.
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