Takeo Yamashiro

Takeo Yamashiro was born in Hiroshima in July of 1943 and is a registered survivor of the atomic bombing on August 6, 1945 (he was 2 years old at the time.)

Tonight as part of the Blossom Festival, a fundraiser for Japanese earthquake victums, Takeo Yamashiro gave a concert at the studio of Osman Phillips on Saltspring Island.

Takeo plays the Japanese bamboo flute called shakuhachi which is a Japanese end-blown flute. It is traditionally made of bamboo. It was used by the monks of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism in the practice of suizen, (blowing meditation). Its soulful sound made it popular in 1980s pop music in the English-speaking world.

The image quality suffers due to very low lighting in the studio and the fact that I was using my quiet Panasonic FZ50, which has problems with noise anywhere north of ISO 100 (I was shooting at ISO 800).

One year ago today.