Jinashi Series 19: 下り葉 Sagariha Kimpu Ryû

Another Kimpu Ryu work that features the Komubuki technique.
#fallingleaves #jinashi #shakuhachi
(Taniguchi)
The Japanese characters used to depict this title are "sagaru" . ("fallen" or "falling") and "ha" ("leaves"). The song is easily recognizable because of the sasabuki blowing technique used frequently by the Nezasa sect of shakuhachi. Sasa are the leaves of the small bamboo bushes or thickets. The technique aims to imitate the sound of the leaves rustling against one another as the wind blows through the thicket. Sagariha was played along with another song, Sagari no Kyoku, during the parade procession of the Gion Matsuri in Kyoto. "Sagaru" is also the word used during the Edo Period (1603-1867) to indicate movement away from the capital (Tokyo) and also used to indicate the direction away from a shrine. Since shrines were often built on hilltops, one would be going downhill (sagaru) when exiting the shrine. The words "sagaru" ("down" or "south") and "agaru" ("up" or "north") are peculiar to Kyoto vocabulary and suggests the origin of this song.

(Jin Nyodo)
Nezasa-ha: SAGARIHA ("Falling Leaves")

1-shaku 8-sun
3 min. 52 sec.

1. About the title:

Besides the Nezasa-ha piece, there are also pieces with the same name such as Kinko-ryu Sagariha and Kyoto Myoan-ji Sagariha (with some variations in the Chinese characters), but these are all different compositions. According to the traditions of Nezasa-ha, a famous member of that school received enlightenment while listening to the wind blowing through bamboo brush or the sound of waves, so the piece was also called Sagarinami ("Falling Waves").

2. Structure of the piece

The piece has a two-section structure [A - A - Tsuyuharai]. From the start, there begins immediately a melody similar to the takane section of other pieces; this high-pitched melody lasts for ten breaths. The exact same melody is repeated again and then the piece ends with a three-breath tsuyuharai. (In shakuhachi honkyoku it is a principle that one phrase is played in one breath. Even if one has to take a breath in the middle, one should play with the sensation of one breath.) A tsuyuharai ("brushing away the dew") is a two or three-breath short closing melody.

3. Special features of the piece:

When it is played connected with Shirabe, there is a feeling that, rather than Shirabe being a separately composed introductory piece, Shirabe-Sagariha was constructed as a single piece. That is, Shirabe fills the same role as the honte in other pieces so that we can recognize a structure of [Shirabe (honte) - Takane - Takane gaeshi - Tsuyuharai]. Thus from former times Shirabe and Sagariha were linked together not from simple routine practice but rather because together they had an extremely natural feeling of structural unity.

If one can handle the playing of Shirabe and Sagariha, then one has mastered the basics of the artistic style of Nezasa-ha, and one can comfortably proceed to the other Nezasa-ha pieces.

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