Re: Bamboo and Shakuhachi

From: Zachary Braverman (zachary@kotodama.net)
Date: Sat Jan 26 2002 - 19:15:53 PST


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--B_3094978558_6318918

Here are my thoughts on reading Tomユs post:

I can only feel sorry for the kind of people who would prefer a メprettyモ
shakuhachi over a well-playing one. Maybe メdisdainfulモ would be a better
word. Shakuhachi as status symbol or symbol of identification with your
all-inclusive group. Many players are forced to buy defective flutes, for
instance, from the maker their teacher has a mutually-beneficial arrangement
with. To say メno, I donユt want this fluteモ would be unacceptable, as would
going across the street to a different teacher to learn a song only he
knows. (Switching groups has been known to lead harassment at work and
home.)

Unfortunately, this is the kind of thinking that often dominates the
shakuhachi world in Japan. Itユs really too bad. Just part of a larger
picture that makes me believe that the true spirit of the instrument is
either underground here in Japan or moving overseas.

On 02.1.27 7:37 AM, "Tom" <tom-tom@gaea.ocn.ne.jp> wrote:

>>
>>
>> A story is beginning here after reading Stav Tapuch's thoughts...
>>
>> The most expensive new shakuhachi that has ever been purchased, according to
>> reliable gossip, went for issenman (1000,0000) Japanese yen. (The Japanese
>> language counts numbers in units of four rather than three.) Today, 2002,
>> January 24th, issenman yen is US$74,626.87! or 84,745.76 euro! Presumably,
>> all the requirements of the purchaser, whatever they were, were met to his
>> satisfaction. Even so, this is a long way above the traditional standard of
>> one months salary for a good shakuhachi and two months salary for an
>> excellent one.
>>
>> The fellow who made and sold this most expensive shakuhachi is an older
>> brother in terms of shakuhachi lineage who terminated his apprenticeship at
>> the flute shop about six months before my arrival there. His work is
>> remarkable in terms of being visibly magnetic; anyone who has seen two or
>> three of these flutes would spot others in a crowd right off. His prices are
>> the highest of anyone around, commonly ni ka sanbyakuman yen (2 or 300,0000)
>> for mid-range bamboo. If you have looked at lots of bamboo through the
>> process of its' accommodating a shakuhachi, then you will be able to visually
>> pick out those shakuhachi which have their bottom ends, roots and all,
>> stained with urushi to enhance their appearance. These expensive older
>> brother flutes are twice stained with a rather reddish urushi and are
>> polished until they glitter and sparkle. They have gold bordering the
>> mouthpiece inlay and told rings at the nakatsugi. AND the bamboo itself is
>> handsome in the extreme.
>>
>> During days as an apprentice it sometimes happened that a business excursion
>> forced the vacation of the usual work space in order to move merchandise,
>> shakuhachi and accessories, to the location of an assemblage of shakuhachi
>> teachers and their students. These periodic events were (and probably still
>> are) the rank examinations within Tozan Sect Shakuhachi with perhaps a
>> hundred and fifty or more shakuhachi people all at once in the same
>> arrangement of examining spaces and perhaps a hundred and fifty shakuhachi
>> displayed in a wide well lit area so everyone could mill around while
>> fondling and/or playing and comparing different flutes. Through this
>> interaction a general consensus about shakuhachi prices was somehow agreed
>> upon; as low as goman yen (5,0000) and as high as gojuman yen (50,0000) when
>> a US dollar was around 300 yen, with a most popular price of jugo kara
>> nijuman yen (from 15,0000 to 20,0000), which was within the one month salary
>> range at that time.
>>
>> It happened that the most popular items were also very attractive bamboo
>> specimens to begin with, meaning that they had lived long enough to mature so
>> as to be able to not shrink up into wrinkles around the bottom as they had
>> dried, had not emerged from the earth around a stone or root or refrigerator
>> (until quite recently bamboo groves also commonly served as trash dumping
>> places) so as to have grown into a more than less symmetrical shape with
>> thick evenly spaced undamaged roots, had not had their roots severed too
>> short when being dug up, had been cleaned and rough cut expertly, had not
>> been dropped on concrete or asphalt or something to damage their tender green
>> skin (don't just throw it into the back of a pickup), had not been scorched
>> or burnt while being roasted over a white charcoal fire (white charcoal is
>> actually white before burning) to an indescribably pleasant color of green
>> which lasts for about three days, had not split while being bleached for two
>> months in the direct sunlight and, finally, had been placed in long term
>> storage for curing. And the actual shakuhachi construction hasn't even begun
>> yet so there are a great many other ways to damage bamboo for shakuhachi.
>> The fact is that it ain't easy to get a nice looking one. The point is that
>> bamboo pieces which can accommodate shakuhachi are, themselves, highly valued
>> in Japan and that excellent quality, which is another consensual agreement,
>> can contribute significantly to the price of shakuhachi in many cases.
>>
>> The opposite can also be quite true as was evidenced during the three days
>> just before the Great Kobe Earthquake. At that time a shakuhachi exhibition
>> was held at a well known shakuhachi shop in the heart of one of the large
>> cities in Japan (luckily not Kobe), the work of five shakuhachi makers being
>> displayed for immediate sale. Having been fortunate enough to have been
>> invited to display my own work at this sale, putting in a personal appearance
>> there seemed like the appropriate thing to do.
>>
>> Immediately upon entering the sale space the afternoon before the morning of
>> the quake, the promoter of the sale ushered me into his private office,
>> closed the door and stated that almost everyone who had attended the sale had
>> said that a flute from the flute shop here was the best playing shakuhachi in
>> the whole bunch of perhaps 250 flutes. After being asked whether or not this
>> particularly agreeable shakuhachi had been sold, the promoter replied that
>> not one person had been seriously interested in purchasing it because the
>> bamboo itself was extremely low quality and had been deformed in several
>> places, had buckled or collapsed here and there under compression while
>> having been straightened at the very beginning of the construction process.
>> (See what can go wrong now, at the very beginning!) And, yes, this
>> particular shakuhachi could be pointed out, the one right there on the center
>> table, the nanaman yen (7,0000) one lying between the nihyakuman yen
>> (200,0000) and the sanbyakuman yen (300,0000) glittering and sparkling ones
>> polished by older brother. Well, you can guess what became of that ugly
>> shakuhachi and surmise about who finally got it before it was destroyed.
>>
>> As for quality of the shakuhachi as a musical instrument or religious
>> tool...well, not at this writing. Just a quote from a well known and
>> respected now dead shakuhachi maker, "The only person who will know if the
>> flute is really good (acoustically) or not is the person who uses it and that
>> person will not know until having used it for four or five years". Lastly,
>> from a well known and respected not dead shakuhachi maker, "Anyone can be a
>> better player right away simply by getting a better flute".
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Tom Deaver
>

--B_3094978558_6318918

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Re: Bamboo and Shakuhachi</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<FONT FACE=3D"Arial"><BR>
Here are my thoughts on reading Tom&#8217;s post:<BR>
<BR>
I can only feel sorry for the kind of people who would prefer a &#8220;pret=
ty&#8221; shakuhachi over a well-playing one. &nbsp;Maybe &#8220;disdainful&=
#8221; would be a better word. &nbsp;Shakuhachi as status symbol or symbol o=
f identification with your all-inclusive group. &nbsp;Many players are force=
d to buy defective flutes, for instance, from the maker their teacher has a =
mutually-beneficial arrangement with. &nbsp;To say &#8220;no, I don&#8217;t =
want this flute&#8221; would be unacceptable, as would going across the stre=
et to a different teacher to learn a song only he knows. &nbsp;(Switching gr=
oups has been known to lead harassment at work and home.) <BR>
<BR>
Unfortunately, this is the kind of thinking that often dominates the shakuh=
achi world in Japan. &nbsp;It&#8217;s really too bad. &nbsp;Just part of a l=
arger picture that makes me believe that the true spirit of the instrument i=
s either underground here in Japan or moving overseas. &nbsp;<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
On 02.1.27 7:37 AM, &quot;Tom&quot; &lt;tom-tom@gaea.ocn.ne.jp&gt; wrote:<B=
R>
<BR>
</FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE=3D"Palatino"><BR>
<BR>
<FONT COLOR=3D"#800000">A story is beginning here after reading Stav Tapuch's=
 thoughts...<BR>
<BR>
The most expensive new shakuhachi that has ever been purchased, according t=
o reliable gossip, went for issenman (1000,0000) Japanese yen. &nbsp;(The Ja=
panese language counts numbers in units of four rather than three.) &nbsp;To=
day, 2002, January 24th, issenman yen is US$74,626.87! or 84,745.76 euro! &n=
bsp;Presumably, all the requirements of the purchaser, whatever they were, w=
ere met to his satisfaction. &nbsp;Even so, this is a long way above the tra=
ditional standard of one months salary for a good shakuhachi and two months =
salary for an excellent one.<BR>
<BR>
The fellow who made and sold this most expensive shakuhachi is an older bro=
ther in terms of shakuhachi lineage who terminated his apprenticeship at the=
 flute shop about six months before my arrival there. &nbsp;His work is rema=
rkable in terms of being visibly magnetic; anyone who has seen two or three =
of these flutes would spot others in a crowd right off. &nbsp;His prices are=
 the highest of anyone around, commonly ni ka sanbyakuman yen (2 or 300,0000=
) for mid-range bamboo. &nbsp;If you have looked at lots of bamboo through t=
he process of its' accommodating a shakuhachi, then you will be able to visu=
ally pick out those shakuhachi which have their bottom ends, roots and all, =
stained with urushi to enhance their appearance. &nbsp;These expensive older=
 brother flutes are twice stained with a rather reddish urushi and are polis=
hed until they glitter and sparkle. &nbsp;They have gold bordering the mouth=
piece inlay and told rings at the nakatsugi. &nbsp;AND the bamboo itself is =
handsome in the extreme.<BR>
<BR>
During days as an apprentice it sometimes happened that a business excursio=
n forced the vacation of the usual work space in order to move merchandise, =
shakuhachi and accessories, to the location of an assemblage of shakuhachi t=
eachers and their students. &nbsp;These periodic events were (and probably s=
till are) the rank examinations within Tozan Sect Shakuhachi with perhaps a =
hundred and fifty or more shakuhachi people all at once in the same arrangem=
ent of examining spaces and perhaps a hundred and fifty shakuhachi displayed=
 in a wide well lit area so everyone could mill around while fondling and/or=
 playing and comparing different flutes. &nbsp;Through this interaction a ge=
neral consensus about shakuhachi prices was somehow agreed upon; as low as g=
oman yen (5,0000) and as high as gojuman yen (50,0000) when a US dollar was =
around 300 yen, with a most popular price of jugo kara nijuman yen (from 15,=
0000 to 20,0000), which was within the one month salary range at that time.<=
BR>
<BR>
It happened that the most popular items were also very attractive bamboo sp=
ecimens to begin with, meaning that they had lived long enough to mature so =
as to be able to not shrink up into wrinkles around the bottom as they had d=
ried, had not emerged from the earth around a stone or root or refrigerator =
(until quite recently bamboo groves also commonly served as trash dumping pl=
aces) so as to have grown into a more than less symmetrical shape with thick=
 evenly spaced undamaged roots, had not had their roots severed too short wh=
en being dug up, had been cleaned and rough cut expertly, had not been dropp=
ed on concrete or asphalt or something to damage their tender green skin (do=
n't just throw it into the back of a pickup), had not been scorched or burnt=
 while being roasted over a white charcoal fire (white charcoal is actually =
white before burning) to an indescribably pleasant color of green which last=
s for about three days, had not split while being bleached for two months in=
 the direct sunlight and, finally, had been placed in long term storage for =
curing. &nbsp;And the actual shakuhachi construction hasn't even begun yet s=
o there are a great many other ways to damage bamboo for shakuhachi. &nbsp;T=
he fact is that it ain't easy to get a nice looking one. &nbsp;The point is =
that bamboo pieces which can accommodate shakuhachi are, themselves, highly =
valued in Japan and that excellent quality, which is another consensual agre=
ement, can contribute significantly to the price of shakuhachi in many cases=
.<BR>
<BR>
The opposite can also be quite true as was evidenced during the three days =
just before the Great Kobe Earthquake. &nbsp;At that time a shakuhachi exhib=
ition was held at a well known shakuhachi shop in the heart of one of the la=
rge cities in Japan (luckily not Kobe), the work of five shakuhachi makers b=
eing displayed for immediate sale. &nbsp;Having been fortunate enough to hav=
e been invited to display my own work at this sale, putting in a personal ap=
pearance there seemed like the appropriate thing to do.<BR>
<BR>
Immediately upon entering the sale space the afternoon before the morning o=
f the quake, the promoter of the sale ushered me into his private office, cl=
osed the door and stated that almost everyone who had attended the sale had =
said that a flute from the flute shop here was the best playing shakuhachi i=
n the whole bunch of perhaps 250 flutes. &nbsp;After being asked whether or =
not this particularly agreeable shakuhachi had been sold, the promoter repli=
ed that not one person had been seriously interested in purchasing it becaus=
e the bamboo itself was extremely low quality and had been deformed in sever=
al places, had buckled or collapsed here and there under compression while h=
aving been straightened at the very beginning of the construction process. &=
nbsp;(See what can go wrong now, at the very beginning!) &nbsp;And, yes, thi=
s particular shakuhachi could be pointed out, the one right there on the cen=
ter table, the nanaman yen (7,0000) one lying between the nihyakuman yen (20=
0,0000) and the sanbyakuman yen (300,0000) glittering and sparkling ones pol=
ished by older brother. &nbsp;Well, you can guess what became of that ugly s=
hakuhachi and surmise about who finally got it before it was destroyed.<BR>
<BR>
As for quality of the shakuhachi as a musical instrument or religious tool.=
..well, not at this writing. &nbsp;Just a quote from a well known and respec=
ted now dead shakuhachi maker, &quot;The only person who will know if the fl=
ute is really good (acoustically) or not is the person who uses it and that =
person will not know until having used it for four or five years&quot;. &nbs=
p;Lastly, from a well known and respected not dead shakuhachi maker, &quot;A=
nyone can be a better player right away simply by getting a better flute&quo=
t;.<BR>
<BR>
Cheers,<BR>
<BR>
Tom Deaver<BR>
</FONT></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE=3D"Palatino"><BR>
</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE=3D"Palatino"><BR>
</FONT>
</BODY>
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--B_3094978558_6318918--



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