Christopher Blasdel
Lecturer in Music, Ethnomusicology
C
hristopher Blasdel was born in Texas and attended Earlham College in Indiana. As part of Earlham’s foreign study program, he went to Japan in 1972 and studied a year at Waseda University, where he met his shakuhachi master, Goro Yamaguchi, with whom he studied until the master’s death in 1999. Christopher carries on Master Yamaguchi’s lineage under the performing name, Christopher Yohmei.
Christopher attended graduate school at Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai) and earned his MFA in ethnomusicology, having studied under pioneering Japanese ethnomusicologist Fumio Koizumi.
Christopher has been guest professor/lecturer at such universities as Earlham College, Chulalongkorn University (Thailand), Charles University (Prague), Texas A&M University, University of Washington, University of Maryland (Salisbury), International Christian University (Tokyo) and Temple University Japan. After living in Tokyo for over four decades, Christopher moved to Hawai’i in 2016 and presently is adjunct lecturer in Japanese music at UH Mānoa and shakuhachi instructor. He has released numerous CDs of both traditional and contemporary shakuhachi music and is the author of The Shakuhachi—A Manual for Learning (Ontomo Press), The Single Tone, A Personal Journey into Shakuhachi Music (Printed Matter Press) and numerous articles and essays. His extensive translation and explanation of Edo Period song texts, Songs of the Floating World, Jiuta Sōkyoku Lyrics and Explanations in English, is scheduled to be published by Routledge Press, SOAS Music Series early next year.