Folio Presents: The History of Japanese Shakuhachi with Hanzaburo Araki

 This intimate presentation blends historical overview with live demonstration, offering audiences a rare window into a musical tradition with no parallel in Western music. Attendees are also invited to try the shakuhachi themselves. Kodo Araki the 6th is a living connection to this music dating back to the middle of the 18th century.

For the Araki family, the shakuhachi is more than a musical instrument; it is a conduit handed down from father to son for generations, as much a tool for artistic expression as it is for cultural storytelling. Araki will perform on an instrument made by his great-great grandfather, whose family played a direct role in preserving the tradition through the upheaval of the Meiji Restoration.

Named after his great-great grandfather, Hanzaburō, or Hanz as he’s commonly known, made his professional debut in 1988 in Shimonoseki, Japan where he was given the name Baikyoku by his father, Kodo Araki the 5th. He attained the name Kodo at his father’s retirement ceremony in Tokyo in 2009. Hanz performed and taught in Japan until 1992 when he returned to the United States and shifted his focus almost entirely to performing.