Hotchiku

The hotchiku (法竹(ほっちく), "bamboo of [the] dharma"; lit. 'dharma bamboo'), sometimes romanized as hocchiku or hochiku, is a Japanese aerophone, an end-blown bamboo flute, crafted from root sections of bamboo. The bamboo root is cleaned and sanded, resulting in a surface patterned with many small, circular knots where the roots formerly joined the stalk. The same part of the bamboo plant is also used to produce the shakuhachi but, unlike the shakuhachi, the hotchiku's inside (bore) and outside surfaces are left unlacquered, and an inlay is not used in the mouthpiece. The membranes at the nodes inside a hotchiku bore are generally left more intact than those of a shakuhachi, though older komuso shakuhachi also share this trait. Together, these characteristics make for a visibly and audibly raw and organic instrument. Hotchiku are sometimes referred to as jinashi nobekan, meaning "without ji [a paste made of clay and lacquer, used to smooth the bore on modern shakuhachi], one-piece"; hotchiku are not cut in two pieces for crafting or storage, unlike modern shakuhachi that are used as musical instruments.