I have recently started looking into this obscure Japanese woodwind and was curious if anyone else had done so yet and what they had found? I found these links: shakuhachi and others , a vendor and international society . I was surprised to hear how deep they sound because the only reference instrument I had heard that looked like one was a pennywhistle. Anyone here play or have some good music suggestions etc..?

"Obscure Japanese woodwind"?
Shakuhachi is THE Japanese woodwind!
I personally play the xiao , which is its Chinese equivalent (and origin). It's a particularly difficult flute to play, and I'm far from being brilliant at it.
But its rich, deep sound is just beautiful... In China, it's considered as the most noble wind, and usually the only instrument to be allowed within the intimacy of China's most emblematic instrument, the guqin (although, as in Japan, it remains a mostly solo instrument).
I have loads of Asian music on my hard disk, including some very good shakuhachi . If you're interested, just PM me your e-mail and I'll send it to you.

Perhaps, a poor choice of words on my part. My favorite instruments are woodwinds and I play the western concert flute myself. I have sent you a pm, thanks in advance.

That is cool, I will have to do some research on it, perfect for a travelling minstrel. Are there some good links out there in english for info on all of this? What would be cool would be to find a duet piece and I could play and record with my flute, you could do the same for the xiao then we could combine tracks into a single piece. Might be an interesting project, time permitting.

As part of my video business I worked on a project for the 2005 New York Shakuhachi Festival and have since been associated with a really fine Shakuhachi teacher Ronnie Seldin in NY

If interested, you can buy the DVDs and other items at this site. http://www.nyogetsu.com/

I love the shakuhachi and wish I had the time to learn more about it. The history, when the only people permitted to play it were ronin samurai who became priests, is very closely intertwined with our martial arts.

Thanks for the link JAMJTX. What is the distance learning stuff like, do you do that?

I haven't looked into the distance learning. But I am sure anything that Seldin Shihan is involved in is going to be quality.
I was very curious the first time I had contacted him when I found out he held the title of Shihan and his "studio" was called a dojo. All these things I thought that were "martial arts terms" are applied to many different arts.

I hope you can pursue some training with him any way you can. If you make contact, please tell him Jim Mc Coy referred you.

Thank you. I will Jim, I appreciate that. Thanks also for all your help too Tashigae, I very much appreciate all the info, help, and resources you have provided. Domo Arigato