The World Shakuhachi Festival 2025 in Texas will consist of a diverse range of concerts, workshops, lectures, exhibitions, study sessions and informal gatherings which are open to the general public. It is the eighth large-scale international shakuhachi festival to be held. The festival is returning to the USA for the first time since 2004, and is the third festival on this continent. This acknowledges and celebrates the fact that North America is a firmly established territory for the shakuhachi with substantial representation of various schools, styles and approaches to the performance of the instrument and its music.

We invited 40 top players from Japan and a further 40 from other parts of the world, including top koto and shamisen players, to make WSF25 in Texas a unique experience. The festival will feature an opening concert, 4 main evening concerts as well as a further 12 concerts during the day-time. Additionally there will be performance opportunities at open mic slots and informal sessions.

The main styles of performance will be represented to give a broad view of the various lineages and schools, including Kinko, Tozan, KSK (Yokoyama-lineage) and Myōan styles for the shakuhachi and Ikuta, Yamada and Miyagi-kai for the koto and shamisen. Musical genres such as koten honkyoku (classical solo repertoire for shakuhachi), sankyoku (classical ensemble music with shakuhachi, koto and shamisen), shinkyoku (modern ensemble music), gendaikyoku (contemporary music) will be performed and several new compositions will also be premiered. Genres often not heard at international gatherings, such as the shakuhachi in min’yō or folk music and some of the rare and almost unknown Myōan guilds will also be represented for the first time at this festival.