Meditative Flowers (CD)

On this solo CD Junko Ueda sings repertoire from the 1200 year-old Japanese traditional Shomyo Buddhist chanting. This CD is a documentation of this unique tradition, which is succeeded until today continuously.

1. Sange
2. Taiyô
3. Kuyômon
4. Kuhôben

"…The slow melismatic shomyo chanting makes you aware of the considerably extended length of breathing. This resembles to a religious act which gazes at the breathing as the root of human existence. Breathing is equal to the life. In other words, enjoying the breathing every moment is equal to enjoying the life. This seems to me an important message behind the shomyo chanting…"

"…In this CD Meditative Flowers, with four shomyo pieces of the Tendai-shû Buddhist sect, I intended to bring the voice of shomyo out of the Buddhist temple and to express my experience and thoughts about shomyo chanting. This recording is also my gesture to approach to a world of universal sensitivity of human being through the expression of ‘the breath’ that has been nurtured in the Japanese culture…"

Features

title: Meditative Flowers
subtitle: Voice of Shomyo (Tendai style)
category: solo CD by Junko Ueda
performer: Junko Ueda - voice
composer: Japanese traditional music
publisher: E-records, Granada
number: CD-E141
year: 2014
total time: 43 minutes
booklet: 8 pages text in English and Japanese
notes: For more information visit the website of Junko Ueda.