Araki Kodo VI, born Hanzaburo Araki, is the head of the Kodo-kai Shakuhachi Guild and the sixth generation of the only Kinko-Ryu shakuhachi lineage to date back to Kurosawa Kinko. The youngest child of Tatsuya (Kodo V/Chikuo II) and Charlotte Araki, Hanzaburo (Hanz) made his professional debut in 1988 in Shimonoseki, Japan where he was given the name Baikyoku. He attained the name Kodo at his father’s retirement ceremony in Tokyo in 2009. 2021 marked the 250th anniversary of the death of Kurosawa Kinko, the founder of Kinko-ryu from which the Araki-style of shakuhachi playing descended. In honor of this anniversary Araki Kodo VI released a collection of music significant to him and the Araki family.
