KOZAN TANIFUJI was born in Abashiri, Hokkaido, Japan in 1945. In 1974, at the age of 29, he began studying Tozan-ryu shakuhachi under Kozan Takayama and then under Ginzan Suzuki. In 1991, he achieved the rank of daishihan or grandmaster and on February 14, 2004 earned the title of shin-Tozanryu chikurinken, the highest possible level in the world of shakuhachi.

Mr. Tanifuji belongs to a number of hogaku groups and performs many styles of music including honkyoku, shinkyoku, jiuta and modern hogaku. For 19 years, since 1977, he has instructed a junior high school wind ensemble and performed shakuhachi in the piece “Figuration for Shakuhachi and Brass” composed and conducted by Tetsunosuke Kushida of Kyoto. He also conducted “Dokan” in 2001 and “Nichiren” in 2002 composed by Michio Miyagi at the Kitami Art and Culture Hall in Hokkaido, Japan.

Mr. Tanifuji has played the western-style Boehm flute since 1961. In March 2003, he began working with the shakuhachi headjoint for silver flute and gave it the name Shakulute.

S-T8a SHAKULUTE: Live In Concert CD $17.50
Original compositions played on the Shakulute, a new hybrid instrument featuring shakuhachi headjoint and the classical Western silver flute.

1. Impromptu No. 1 (5:36)

2. Impromptu No.2 (6:30)
3. Pastoral (7:23)
4. Wind Patterns on the Sand (7:40)
5. The Bamboo and the Mulberry (4:38)
6. Taken with Dancing Snow (7:16)
7. A Talk with One-Legged Gateway (5:15)
8. In the Space Between the Forest & the Lake (6:15)

Recorded in Hokkaido, Japan.