Hotchiku

Hotchiku(Jp: k. 法竹 h. ほっちく, "bamboo of [the] dharma"; lit. "dharma bamboo"), sometimes romanized as hocchiku or hochiku, is a Japanese end-blown flute (a fue), crafted from root sections of bamboo. After cleaning and sanding, the heavy root end of the bamboo stalk reveals 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 its mouthpiece is not inlaid. The membranes at the nodes inside a hotchiku bore are generally left more intact than those of a shakuhachi. 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 shakuhachi), one-piece" (hotchiku are not cut in two pieces for crafting or storage, unlike shakuhachi).