Composer: Zou Ye
Conductor: Takuo Yuasa
Magnificent in scope, scale and realisation, this cross-cultural collaboration between China’s Central Conservatory of Music, Japanese conductor Takuo Yuasa and the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir blends stirring and meditative instrumental music with expertly coordinated massed voices to convey the mantras and message of influential Buddhist Kūkai.
Impressed by the prodigious monk’s spiritual devotion, heroic journeys and great societal works, Chinese entrepreneur Yue Yongde made a documentary to improve access to the epic story. The exceptional quality of Zou Ye’s accompanying score prompted the commissioning of this full choral symphony.
In order to share Kūkai’s ethos of compassion and hope most effectively on the Symphony’s world tour, each event has its own pre-show talk. At the Royal Festival Hall, this is delivered by Dharmakārunyā (Ursula Tidd), ordained in the Triratna Buddhist Order, and with a profound interest in Japanese Buddhism. She illuminates Kūkai’s life and legacy in a marvellously concise 20 minutes, beginning with his childhood on the Japanese island of Shikoku, where he was taught by his Confucian scholar uncle.
An enthusiastic learner and truth seeker, Kūkai wished to bring the tenets of Buddhism being developed in the Tang dynasty China to Japan, alongside advances in philosophy, science, engineering, statecraft, poetry and calligraphy. In 804, he joined a Japanese ambassadorial delegation to China, carried on a small fleet of ships.
The journey was perilous – Kūkai’s ship was forced to land in an unexpected location – but he succeeded in finding Master Huiguo, famed for his knowledge of Sanskrit, required to understand the Mahāvairocana Tantra, a work that set out ways to embody Buddhahood in a single lifetime.
The ailing Huiguo was delighted to confer his wisdom and lineage of ‘Dharma’ (spiritual teachings that lead to enlightenment) to the eager Kūkai, whose name, envisioned in a dream, means ‘empty ocean’, a lovely metaphor for a receptive vessel. In three years, under the guidance of Huiguo and Masters in other spheres, Kūkai reputedly achieved levels of skill that usually took decades to acquire.
Returning to Japan, he brought his innovative ideas to bear on the country’s culture. In 812, he established Shingon Esoteric Buddhism, centred at the Jizō-ji temple sanctuary in the Koya Mountains, which, over 1200 years later, remains the movement’s home. Kūkai also set up a school of arts and sciences open to everyone, and managed engineering projects: bridges, roads, reservoirs.
In 835, having done his utmost to share the means to enlightenment, he entered an eternal state of meditative ‘samadhi’ at Jizō-Ji, where his followers can still gather near him.
All the stages of Kūkai’s life are vividly represented in the Symphony’s six movements, using the full array of vocal and orchestral resources: over 250 performers from China and the UK. The invigorating Prologue, based on a sutra (scripture) declaring that all Buddhist practitioners have the potential to achieve perfect wisdom, evokes a temple environment with resounding beats from the enormous Taiko drum, ethereal strings, heartfelt voices and temple bells chimed whilst being walked through the auditorium, an enjoyably mystifying effect.
Kūkai’s studious and ascetic early life is demonstrated in the first movement by steady repetition of the wisdom-endowing ‘Ākāśagarbha Bodhisattva’ and the sounds of nature: birdlike fluttering flutes and percussive tinkling streams.
The surging seas of Kūkai’s voyage to China are summoned in the second movement: stormy rumbling timpani, orchestral rising and falling, quivering strings and blaring brass. A loud gong and heavenly humming signal the meeting of Kūkai and Huiguo, with a joyous choral outburst: “The lineage will flourish with you in the east”, followed by deep chanting of sacred name ‘Vairocana’.
Movements three to five, referring to Kūkai’s return to Japan and his rapid ascendancy, are purely instrumental, featuring Japanese pentatonic music, derived from Chinese ‘yayue’ (traditional court music), purposeful military drumming and hopeful swelling brass. Movement four – Kūkai entering endless meditative ‘samadhi’ – is dreamy, with yearning strings, and a gentle drum heartbeat.
Filled with wordless heavenly singing, extraordinary crescendos and an ecstatic sense of joy, the final movement signifies veneration, gratitude and hope of awakening Buddhahood in all living beings. The volume, sustain and emotional charge are astonishing, with every section of the orchestra and choir fully engaged until the cymbal-clashing finale.
It’s wonderful to see the performances of both English and Chinese players merging seamlessly: the adaptation to oriental sounds has been achieved without any suggestion of hesitancy. Although Kūkai wrote his mantras in Sanskrit, the libretto is in Mandarin Chinese, whose short syllabic structure makes it more staccato than English when sung. Much effort has evidently gone into guiding the singers to achieve optimal, melodic legato: uninterrupted lyrical fluidity.
Conductor Takuo Yuasa – an adherent of Shingon Buddhism – confidently marshals the vast ensemble, ensuring a steady, faultless performance. Projected English surtitles (placed very high above the orchestra) aid in grasping textual meaning, but are secondary to composer Zou Ye’s main intention for the Symphony: to resonate with the soul, to be felt rather than quantified or analysed. He also wanted to make the piece as accessible and sensorily rousing as possible, facilitated by his background in filmic scoring. In every aim, he has richly succeeded.
Dramatic, beautiful and immaculately presented, this moving interpretation does much to promote Kūkai’s healing values of kindness and compassion, as well as strengthening ties between China, Japan and the UK.
Reviewed on 30 January 2026
