It’s Shakuhachi.

It’s like auditory haiku–lots of space and simplicity and longing. It’s often played when one misses another.

Most folks won’t care much, but I love this, grew up around it in the Shambhala Buddhist community. It’s the sound, to me, of unrequited love—yes love held within dignity…loneliness with precision, not depression…raw, unmanaged emotion. ~ ed.

You know the Shakuhachi, or Japanese flute? It’s the most beautiful sad sound I think I know.

“Just a relaxing song from the famous japanese flute…the Shakuhachi.
The name of the player is MIYATA Kohachiro, and the piece is called ‘Honshirabe’, from an album called ‘Shakuhachi – The Japanese Flute’, on the Elektra Nonesuch Explorer series. Many thanks to edosan2 who gave me the information. =)

The piece is actually called Choshi (maybe Honshirabe is another name). It belongs to the category of honkyoku music, the solo zen music everyone thinks of when they hear the shakuhachi (sankyoku is the genre of chamber music). Choshi literally means tuning music, and this piece was traditionally played as a way to warm up and set the mood for a longer honkyoku piece. Many thanks to cannedmoose for the extra information. =)”