Or if you don't want to worry about cracking you can do what I did: buy a
flute that has already cracked profoundly and then bound by the maker as a
part of the original crafting.
Uncracked flutes may look nice, but cracked and bound flutes (that still
have the sound you want) make for a little bit more peace-of-mind.
Zachary Braverman
Kyushu, Japan
> From: Bruce Jones <bjones@weber.ucsd.edu>
> Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 08:21:03 -0800 (PST)
> To: shakuhachi@weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: Re: oil
>
>
> Observations, notes, ramblings on bamboo, shakuhachi and cracking:
>
> Rambling #1:
>
> A couple of years ago I returned from a trip to China. One of the
> items I brought back was a Budai (Japanese Hotei) carved from a
> large bamboo root. When I got it it was already cracked, and was,
> on being brought into the desert of San Diego, cracking even more
> than it had in the rainy mountains of southern China.
>
> I asked one of my teachers, an artist who works with bamboo, how to
> prevent it from cracking. Should I use oil? If so, what kind?
>
> Her reply was, "Impermanence is the nature of Buddhism."
>
> Rambling #2:
>
> A few more years ago than that trip to China, I bought my first
> root-end hasun, and it began cracking. I showed it to a different
> teacher, and asked how to prevent the cracking (not yet having
> learned the lesson in #1 above). He sat there with his ~100 year
> old hasun in hand - dark as ancient mahogany from the oil of the
> hands that have played it daily over the decades, and as full of
> cracks as a schoolyard playground - and said, "bamboo cracks. Try
> to keep it from rapid changes in humidity, but it will crack. Just
> superglue up the cracks and go back to playing".
>
> [ASIDE: I've heard that superglue is not the preferred method of
> crack repair and I'm not recommending it here (altho I use it
> myself)]
>
> Exception that proves the rule:
>
> Recently I've been having a chat with Tom Deaver, not related to
> this discussion, but apropos nevertheless, about a really nice
> hasun that Teacher #2 (above) lent me.
>
> I said: [Teacher #2] said that the flute was likely made in the
> 1920s and, aside from a few cracks around the roots (none
> of which are deep and all of which look like they've been
> there for most of those 75+ years) the flute is solid.
>
> I showed this hasun to Riley Lee and he said that it probably never
> will crack any more. Given that it's been in LA for more than 60 of
> those 75+ years, I suspect he's right.
>
> Point to all this:
>
> Maybe your shakuhachi will crack (likely) and maybe it won't (luck?).
> Meanwhile, that well-cracked flute mentioned above produces some of
> the sweetest and most profound sounds I've ever heard from a 22"
> piece of bamboo.
>
> Maybe all that's needed is to worry less, blow more,
>
> and learn to bow to the inevitable.
>
> bj
>
> -
>
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