Christopher Yohmei Blasdel

Christopher Yohmei Blasdel (クリストファー遙盟、 born 1951 in Canyon, Texas) is a shakuhachi performer, researcher and writer specializing in the music of Japan and Asia. In 1972, while on foreign study in Tokyo, he was introduced to the Kinko Style shakuhachi master (later designated "Living National Treasure") Goro Yamaguchi, whom he studied with until Yamaguchi’s death in 1999. In 1975, Blasdel began learning Aikido under Yasuo Kobayashi and performing with the butoh dancer Akira Kasai at his studio, Tenshikan. Blasdel presently holds a 4th degree black belt in Aikido.

In 1978, Blasdel entered the Musicology Faculty at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts (Geidai) with a scholarship from the Japanese government. He studied traditional Japanese and Asian music under the pioneering ethnomusicologist Fumio Koizumi and the Noh scholar Mario Yokomichi. He studied the ancient Myôan Style shakuhachi from Chikugai Okamoto and ensemble techniques from shamisen/koto master and Living National Treasure Kunie Fujii and gagaku ryûteki flute under Sukeyasu Shiba. Blasdel graduated from Geidai with an MFA in 1982. In 1984, he received his shihan master teaching license and professional name, Yohmei, from Yamaguchi—the first of only two non-Japanese ever accredited by Yamaguchi.

Blasdel began working part-time at the International House of Japan in 1988 as advisor to their arts program and curator of the Japan-US Friendship Commission Creative Artists’ Exchange Program. In 2005, he was promoted to Artistic Director of the International House. He taught Japanese music at International Christian University from 2001 to 2006 and at Temple University, Japan campus from 2002. He also taught as guest professor at Earlham College in 1988 and Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok in 1991.

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