page_title: Hotchiku
section_title: Distinctions between Hotchiku and traditional Komuso Shakuhachi
hierarchical_section_title: Hotchiku / Distinctions between Hotchiku and traditional Komuso Shakuhachi
caption_attribution_description: English: Root end of a Hocchiku style all natural Shakuhachi instrument.
context_page_description: Hotchiku, sometimes romanized as hocchiku or hochiku, is a Japanese end-blown aerophone, crafted from root sections of bamboo. After cleaning and sanding, the heavy root end of the bamboo stalk reveals 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 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, one-piece".
  Hotchiku have four holes down the front for fingers and one hole on the back for the thumb of the upper hand.
context_section_description: Hotchiku is a term that was popularized by Watzumi Doso. Traditional Komuso shakuhachi were quite similar, with three primary differences. First, Modern Hotchiku performers such as Doso and Okuda often prefer exceptionally long shakuhachi, while Komuso shakuhachi rarely exceeded 2.1 shaku. Second, Komuso shakuhachi had an inlaid mouthpiece, which protects the blowing edge from taking on excess moisture and rotting out. Thirdly, though ji is not used, the inside is painted with urushi, a natural lacquer made from the sap of the urushi tree, used in Japan from antiquity. Like the mouthpiece inlay, this protects the bore from taking on excess moisture and contributes to the flute's longevity. 
  Lacking urushi and a mouthpiece inlay, Hotchiku gradually take on moisture as they are played, making the tone less stable. Though Komuso shakuhachi were not tuned to a precise scale either, they could generally be played together. As their hole positions were either calculated or copied from another shakuhachi, a particular honkyoku piece could be played roughly the same way on any shakuhachi. Hotchiku take even more freedom; some of Watazumi Doso's instruments were literally a piece of bamboo cut down with some holes seemingly randomly bored into it. 
  Distinguishing Hotchiku from shakuhachi in general can be misleading, as there are many types of shakuhachi. Komuso shakuhachi are described above; in addition, there are also modern ji-nashi nobekan shakuhachi, such as those made by John Kaizan Neptune, which are tuned to be played with modern (Western) musical instruments. Again, since the abolition of the Fuke sect in 1871, modern shakuhachi have been made in two halves in order to tune them more precisely, but shakuhachi used for Zen practice have been primarily "nobekan" shakuhachi since the beginning. The term "shakuhachi" encompasses all of these, including Komuso shakuhachi, and should not be understood as referring only to the modern, more musical iteration of the instrument.
caption: Natural bore, root end.
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