#1 Tozan's shakuhachi was influenced by his mother｜The founder of Tozan-ryu Shakuhachi, Tozan Nakao

Her mother taught Tozan how to play the shakuhachi

Tozan-ryu is one of the famous shakuhachi schools.

The founder of Tozan-ryu, Tozan Nakao whose real name was Rinzo, and was born in Osaka Prefecture on October 5th in 1876.

His father, Jirobei, ran an oil wholesaler. His mother, Mitsu was the daughter of Kengyo Terauchi（寺内検校）, and taught folk singing  and koto music. She taught Tozan how to play the shakuhachi, and it seems that his tone was quite beautiful.

Tozan started teaching shakuhachi when he was 19

When Tozan was 19 years old, he participated in training as a komuso monk（虚無僧）. On February 15th in 1896, he started teaching shakuhachi in Tenma, Osaka, That is the day of the founding of the Tozan-ryu school.

When he went to the government to register his school, he was asked for the stage name. But he replied " I don't have a stage name yet."

Then he named " 中尾都山（Tozan Nakao）", the character for " 都（city）" from his mother, 三都子（Mitsuko）, and the character for "山（mountain）” in hopes of great development in the future. At that time,Tozan was 21 years old.

References
　田辺尚雄（1977）.「特集1 尺八諸流の流祖をたずねる」『季刊邦楽』10号

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