Katayama Yūzan
片山雄山
2/10/1892 - ????
Shakuhachi
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Katayama Yūzan was born February 10, 1892 Okayama Prefecture in Shikanobu-cho, a fishing and farming village. Though his family were medicine merchants, it was a good musical environment, and at the age of 11 or 12 he began teaching himself music by learning to read scores. At the age of 20 he heard a shakuhachi player at an elementary school in the village and fell in love with the instrument. At first he was mostly self-taught, but thanks to a recommendation from a family friend, Katayama was accepted as a student of Nakao Tozan in March of 1917. Within two weeks, Tozan recognized Katayama’s talent and work ethic and accepted him as an uchi-deshi (live-in student) at his hime in Osaka. In the span of only a few years, he received his associate teacher’s license (Jun-shihan) and then, in 1922, his master’s license (Shihan) and performance name, Yūzan. Later that same year he accompanied Nakao Tozan to Tokyo to lay a foundation for a Tokyo branch of the Tozan-ryū. They returned a year later to open the Tokyo dojo but, because of the Great Earthquake of September 1923, started with only 4 students. He moved to Tokyo and excelled as both a teacher and a performer. The number of his students grew quickly, and included pupils from Tokyo as well as outside the region. Over the next few years Katayama performed throughout Japan and began a prolific recording career, with recordings on the Victor, Columbia, and Nipponphone labels. In later years he was made a member of the Tozan-ryū Master’s Selection Committee.
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| Also Known As 片山清治 (Katayama Seiji) |
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Teachers Students
Nakako Gyokuzan 1886 - ???? |