Background
He was born in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1934 and studied Kinko-ryu and Azuma styles of music with his father, Rampo Yokoyama, and grandfather, Koson Yokoyama.
横山勝也
He was born in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1934 and studied Kinko-ryu and Azuma styles of music with his father, Rampo Yokoyama, and grandfather, Koson Yokoyama.
Guided by these two eminent masters, Yokoyama was able to combine the modernism of Rando with the deeply religious traditional spirit of Watazumido in his training. With this foundation, he came to develop a remarkably powerful and creative style that embodied both ends of the continuum. A descendant of the Kinko tradition transmitted down through the generations, he also pioneered a revolution in modern music that swept across post-War Japan.
In 1960, Yokoyama completed his studies at the Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai Japanese Traditional Music Training Center and, a year later, formed Shakuhachi San-Jyuso-dan, a trio devoted to furthering new music for the instrument.
In 1963, he founded the Nihon Ongaku Shudan (Japanese Music Group) and Shakuhachi Sanbon-kai (Group of Three Shakuhachi) with Kinko master Aoki Reibo and Tozan master Hozan Yamamoto. The group helped to establish a new genre of music for the shakuhachi in trio.
Yokoyama died on April 21, 2010.