This Kasui is probably a Meiji/Taisho era (perhaps very early Showa) piece.
It is a well loved, well played-in, dark piece of bamboo with seven fushi.
The flute has
a wonderful "old" sound. It should, it's been played more than
almost any flute I've ever seen, and playing good instrments really
enhances them. The notes are evenly in pitch, properly balanced,
and the flute plays easily and sweetly all the way up to dai kan no
re, with each note having its own quality.
It was obviously made
by a master craftsman who had been or was (at the time) making
Kinko flutes, close to
the founding of the Tozan Ryu, and well before the Tozan folks
developed their own specifications for narrow, tight bores.
The only real Tozan detail is the shape of the mouthpice.
The bore and the external aesthetics are strictly Kinko: fairly large
bore, shaved root end (three rings), joint wrapping in the "above the
surface of the bamboo" style of the Edo and Meiji periods.
This is an exceptional flute in a lot of ways. The quality of the
workmanship meets or exceeds any of the instruments I've seen by any
other maker (and I've seen at least 100 flutes in the past 15
years). This has obviously belonged to someone who loved playing it
and
likely did so on a daily basis. The bamboo is that deep red that
only well-handled instruments acquire. The owner(s) also took
especially good care of the flute, and the surface of the bamboo,
particularly the polish on the root end, is what I would expect to
find on an old, valuable string instrument.
The bore has the finest urushi job I've ever seen in a flute (note the
reflection of the flash off the back of the bore in the #1 hole
above). When
dry the lacquer in the bore feels like baby-powdered glass. The bamboo is perfect,
with no cracks and it has never been modified.
It has its original mouthpiece, and all the original urushi.
Inside and out this is a beautiful shakuhachi, made by a master
craftsman at the top of his game.
An excellent honkyoku flute with a lot of character in the sound, this
Kasui has a lovely, old Kinko sound - rich, dark, wabi-sabi. The kind
of sound you only get when a flute has been played a lot. It also has an
incredible about of "space" in the meri notes. One can play Tsu-no-meri,
in pitch, with good volume, in either octave, with the #1 hole completely
open (really nice for those Jin Nyodo honkyoku where he calls for
atari on #1). Ri no meri, san no U, etc., are all easily reachable and
with a great tone color.
This flute demands concentration on embrochure. While the some
flutes will allow for a bit of a more relaxed embrochure, and even
some sloppyness of the lips at times, this Kasui requires and rewards
a carefully and precisely shaped embrochure. It will quickly let you
know if your attention to that detail wanders.
But if you pay attention, you are more than amply rewarded. This is
a flute that would take a player through their entire career. Easy
enough to get a sound out of that a beginner can play it, complex
enough for professional work.
