Thanks Tom, some really interesting stuff in there.
Best,
Toby
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom" <tom-tom@gaea.ocn.ne.jp>
To: <shakuhachi@weber.ucsd.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2001 8:12 AM
Subject: Tozan vs Kinko
> OK Toby, here goes although this may not be of much help in answering the
> question.
>
> I didn't get to Tamai's sweatshop until late 1970. Tamai was primarily a
> maker of Tozan sect shakuhachi with about 10% or less of his flutes made
> with a Kinko mouthpiece inlay. This was still very slightly before the
time
> that shakuhachi players in both sects began to demand flutes that were
more
> accurately in tune to the equal temperament scale. That began to really
> happen because of the work of Nagahiro Shinzan (also one of Tamai's
> apprentices) and his relationship with Yamamoto Hozan in the mid 70's.
>
> As far as the color of the finish urushi used for shakuhachi is concerned,
I
> think that there is no hard and fast division between Kinko and Tozan.
> Rather, it seems to be the preference of the flute maker. Tamai did use
> red, or rather vermilion, for Tozan and black for Kinko flutes. Yokoyama
> Ranpo, who was still active around that time, preferred red for his flutes
> which were mostly Kinko. I have also seen some Miura Kind flute, and
these
> would be fairly old by now, that were red. I don't know whether the red
> color was the original as applied by Miura or that of some other person
> doing repairs. I did see once upon a time a Yuko (Kurosawa Kinko's
teacher)
> flute that belonged to Yamaguchi Goo and sort of remember it as red. It
> often happens that during repairs the finish color will be changed, or
> rather the original color painted over with a different color.
>
> I don't know what system Tamai used for finger hole placement. He had a
> long flat bamboo stick made from what you would call a yard stick or a
meter
> stick (in this case a 3 shaku stick cut off to about 2 shaku) which had
> marks on the back side of it. There were marks for the total length of
the
> flute, the cut for the connecting joint and for each finger hole. The
> finger hole marks didn't seem to mean much as he would move the finger
holes
> well off the marks depending upon how close the bamboo nodes were to the
> marks. He really got on my ass the first time I marked the holes on about
> 108 flutes because I took his marks literally. The idea, I discovered
then,
> was to move the holes around so that the balance (distances) between the
> holes and the nodes looked attractive. The third hole was always a little
> smaller in diameter than all the other holes on both types of flutes. I
> also know that on all the older Kinko flutes I have seen the 5th hole is
> bored (or burned for you romantics out there) closer to the top end of the
> flute than was normal for both Tamai's Tozan and Kinko flutes.
>
> Tamai also had a habit of cutting the top end of the bamboo off at nearly
a
> 90 degree angle for his Kinko flutes and not rounding the chin as much as
on
> his Tozan flutes. The angle of this cut and the rounding of the chin both
> seem to be up to the maker. If one looks around at various makers flutes
> these days one will find lots of different angles and roundness. (The
> spelling checker tells me that "roundness" is not an English word. But I
> think you will get the idea.) Currently, Yokoyama Katsuya's idea is to
> round or file away the chin to the extreme so that the players lips get
> closer to the mouthpiece inlay.
>
> Other than this I don't know what I can say about the differences between
> Kinko and Tozan flutes. Most people today make both with, aside from the
> mouthpiece inlay shape, little difference between them. Not so long ago I
> did meet a shakuhachi player and teacher who said that one of my flutes
> which had a Kinko mouthpiece inlay sounded like a Tozan flute.
> Unfortunately, I was not there with him when he made this comment and
> couldn't get more information about this. Hmmmmmmm...I'd like to meet this
> guy and find out more about his special talent for telling Kinko and Tozan
> flutes apart. I wonder how he would perform blindfolded on a small test
of
> nine Kinko flutes and one Tozan flute which he could play himself or
listen
> to someone else playing them.
>
> Oh, yes! There may actually be some differences in the inlay paste with
> which older flutes, Tozan and Kinko, were filled. It is really hard to
tell
> what has been used after the flute has been finished, even if one carves
> some of the finish urushi off to get into the usually much thicker inlay
> material. And I've done quite a bit of that sort of mutilation when
> replacing tenons or mouthpieces. One would expect, though, that in the
> olden days there were not so many different materials at hand to use as
the
> filler. Nowadays it seems that anything goes and rightly so. As Yokoyama
> Ranpo impressed on me one afternoon at his home, "You can do anything you
> want as long as it works".
>
> Best wishes to you all!!!!!
>
> Tom
>
> ----------
> >From: "toby" <kymarto@gol.com>
> >To: <shakuhachi@weber.ucsd.edu>
> >Subject: Re: A simple Kinko/Tozan question!
> >Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2001 12:35:04 +0900
> >
>
> >I do know a few other differences. The Tozan shakuhachi traditionally
used
> >red lacquer for the bore, while the Kinko normally used black or dark
brown.
> >Also the third tone hole from the bottom was the same size as the other
> >holes in the Tozan flutes, while it was .5 mm smaller in Kinko flutes.
> >Modern makers no longer seem to follow these traditions strictly, and
many
> >modern flutes are therefore identical except for the utaguchi.
> >
> >Maybe we can get Tom Deaver to jump in here and comment--he would really
be
> >the one to ask.
> >
> >Toby
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Kenny Forte" <kenny@cs.strath.ac.uk>
> >To: <shakuhachi@weber.ucsd.edu>
> >Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2001 8:24 PM
> >Subject: A simple Kinko/Tozan question!
> >
> >
> >> Hi
> >>
> >> This is something i've been curious about for a while. Is there a
> >> difference between the Kinko and Tozan shakuhachi other than the
> >> aesthetic look of the mouthpiece?
> >>
> >> Cheers
> >>
> >> Kenny Forte
> >>
> >
> >
>
>
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