Shaku Old Flutes

It’s obvious that before the introduction of the Western scale into Japan there was a musical scale in place used to create shakuhachi. But what was it?

This story starts, as good stories do, with a legend. Chinese writings claim that in 2697 BC the emperor Huang Ti sent a scholar, Ling Lun, to the western mountain area to cut bamboo pipes that could emit sounds matching the call of the phoenix bird, making possible the creation of music properly pitched for harmony between his reign and the universe. Lun did so and returned with a pitch pipe which emitted a sound called the yellow bell pitch. The length of the yellow bell pipe became the standard measure and the amount of rice which filled the pipe became measures of weight and volume. Thus Lun made an early measure of Aspect Ratio.

By way of some clever iterative math Lun generated, from the yellow bell pipe, 12 notes—the Lu notes. Although their exact frequencies are not known their relationships are. And these, handed down and over time, made their way to Japan where they became the foundation for the scale of the shakuhachi. Anyway, that’s the way one version of the story goes.

Was the scale used to create the old flutes and was the original honkyoku based on the Lu notes? Circumstantial evidence tends to indicate that it likely was. If so, this means that modern flutes and modern playing of the original music has departed from the old ways. The sound of that played by the Komuso was different than that which is played today. How much? You’ll have to decide. Below is a table giving the difference in cents.

Note	Lu Ratios	Chinese Lu Scale cents	Western Scale cents	Difference cents
	18/17	98.955	100
	9/8	203.910	200
Tsu	6/5	315.641	300	+16
	54/43	394.347	400
Re	4/3	498.045	500	-2
	27/19	608.352	600
Chi	3/2	701.955	700	+2
	27/17	800.910	800
	27/16	905.865	900
Ri	9/5	1017.596	1000	+18
	36/19	1106.397	1100
Ro	2/1	1200	1200	0