Greetings to all lovers of shakuhachi and Japanese culture!
I would like to introduce the 15th International Shakuhachi Festival Prague. Our festival is held every two years in Prague and hosts top Japanese shakuhachi and koto players from Japan and around the world.
ISFP 25 brings five days of concerts, workshops, study groups and lectures related to traditional and new music for Japanese instruments.

From Tokyo to Prague

For the 15th edition of our festival, we managed to bring a unique guest to Prague – The Shakuhachi 5. A five-member ensemble of star shakuhachi players. Each member represents a different style of playing, each has a great solo career, and each has a unique sound. Together they represent a new generation of players with contemporary musical thinking and unprecedented virtuosity.
In Japan, there is a tradition of similar eclectic ensembles bringing together top players, such as the Shakuhachi Sanbon Kai Trio (Hōzan, Yokoyama, Reibō) or Tokyo Sanjūsōdan Trio (Miyata, Muraoka, Yokoyama). For the first time in history, however, a top five-member ensemble was formed.
As there was virtually no repertoire for five shakuhachi flutes at the time of the ensemble’s formation, its members approached a number of top composers, Japanese and international. Our festival contributed to this creative mission. Together with James Nyoraku Schlefer, a prominent player from New York, we co-commissioned a new work by the British-Japanese composer Dai Fujikura. The piece was premiered at the first concert of The Shakuhachi 5 in 2020.
The collaboration between The Shakuhachi 5 and ISFP continues. Their concert in Prague will feature a new composition by the exceptional Czech composer Miroslav Srnka accompanied by a short film by Marek Matvija.

Japan, young and passionate

I’m very happy that we are able to present distinctive Japanese music imbued with passion for sound. It doesn’t discriminate against so-called “non-musical” sounds, but rather observes them, stages them and gets carried away by them.
I am already anxiously awaiting the recital of the Japanese koto player Naoko Kikuchi, who is returning to our festival to perform her recital arranged especially for our festival. She will be accompanied by her students and together they will perform an energetic ensemble piece for koto Homura by Tadao Sawai, never heard in the Czech Republic before.
Energetic jazz drawing on Japanese folk aesthetics will be presented by John Kaizan Neptune and Akihisa Kominato together with Czech jazz musicians.
The dramaturgy of the final concert, organised together with the BERG Orchestra, WAKAMONO (Youth) was prepared by its conductor Peter Vrábel. As the title suggests, the concert will feature works by great young composers from Japan and the Czech Republic. Vrábel’s musical experience and bold dramaturgical imagination I find very appealing and inspiring. Since 2016, we have had five concerts together. Each of them had exceptional dramaturgy, set design and venue. I dare to say that the work of Peter Vrábel and Eva Kesslová from the BERG orchestra is world-class, and the response to these concerts from our international guests matches this.

Teaching and perception

It is a rule of our festival that the main guests both perform and teach. The main guests of ISFP 2025 are the following shakuhachi and koto players: Ken-ichi Tajima, Naoko Kikuchi, Akihito Obama, John Kaizan Neptune, Reison Kuroda, Kizan Kawamura, Akihisa Kominato, Gunnar Jinmei Linder and Dietmar Ippu Herriger with others to be confirmed.
I am pleased that we have been able to greatly expand the teaching of joint compositions for koto and shakuhachi. John Kaizan Neptune, a legend of jazz shakuhachi, and Naoko Kikuchi, a top Sawai School koto player living in Germany, will collaborate on this program. Neptune is the author of many successful compositions that are accessible to both Japanese and Western musical thought. He will personally teach a selection of these compositions.
We also try to offer our visitors an outlook beyond the realm of Japanese music. In collaboration with HAMU Prague and its teacher Tomas Reindl, a symposium on Music, Therapy, Meditation, Spirituality will be held on June 19. Academics, composers, therapists and performers will present their research and experiences.

The festival centre and official partner of the festival is the Faculty of Music of the Academy of Performing Arts (HAMU). All courses will take place in the Renaissance palace of HAMU in the historical centre of Prague. HAMU will host community matinees from the Curated Open Mic series featuring professional and amateur players. Other concerts will be at the New Town Hall and other venues that are currently under negotiation.

Events such as ISFP are an incentive to the growth of European shakuhachi. I hope to see you there.

With kind regards,

Marek Kimei Matvija
Artistic director
International Shakuhachi Festival Prague 2025