Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

As one of the developers of Taimu flutes obviously I have access to them. I had the first two we made, although one has since moved on.

I have the following lengths:

3.3 (Db) second one made
3.0. (E)  This is the fattest and most massive Taimu yet made.
2.9.  (F) A rare 3 piece version I asked Ken to make for travel.
2.9.  (F) Nobe version
2.7 (F#) massive and hairy sounding foghorn
2.7 (G) Nobe
2.7 (G) Nobe
2.45 (Ab) my favorite for honkyoku
2.3 (A) This flute is called "Choda". It is loud and fat. I use it for jazz.
2.1 (Bb) another massive foghorn, very primitive.

I just got my 2.1 Taimu today so it is too early to give a real evaluation but I will say I am highly impressed at the tone and playability.  The shakuhachi itself is a piece of art and one of the most beautiful I have seen.    As I get more acclimated to it I will post more.  Thanks Ken!!

BrianP

Howdy all,

I recently got a 2.8 that ken calls "the monster".   It is a rather massive, dark urushi clad beast.   It looks a bit like a scimitar, but I have nicknamed it "darkstar" due to its colour.  I'm not sure what the sound is like, as it seems capable of many different types of sounds.  The flute is everthing that ken said it was, but it is also more.  It can be breathy or smoothe and whenever I think I have its "range" figured out I am happily suprised to find that it can do more.  I am sure there are many suprises waiting. 

ken is probably sick of people flattering him, but I must say that the flute is wonderful and complex and enables the player to experiment in a variety of ways.  As others have said, it is loud, and has a much higher volume capability than I was expecting.  This is probably due in part to the massivley undercut (large) holes. 

The thread asks people what they use the flute for.  With just barely over a year of solitary practice I am very new to the shakuhachi world, but I am naturally drawn to large, widebore flutes.  For the moment I tend to use my Taimu for practice, experimentation, breath work, and learning.  I view each flute as an instructor capable of teaching valuable lessons.  I often just pick it up, breath into it, and practice "at random", letting each breath chose its own direction. 

My hope is to use the flute for Honkyoku, (and solo composition), as I will be starting up formal online lessons pretty soon.  The flute is very beautiful (to my eye), and feels great.  The urushi makes the chin rest nice and velvety smooth, and allows for comfortable chin movement.  I look forward to learning from it.   

If I get a bit more courage I may post some sound sample of work done on it in the future. 

Lorka

Last edited by Lorka (2008-01-15 14:27:53)

Thanks for the pics Brian,

that is a beautiful collection.  The 3.0 is particularly sweet looking.  Ken tells me that my Taimu is the 2nd largest one he made so far.  Its the one you did the 2.8 improvisation on (an improv that convinced me to get the flute)Is that 3.0 Taimu the chunkiest of the lot?  It's a beaut.

I may be opening a can of worms here, but just how many flutes do you have?  seems like quite alot.

Thanks for the reply Brian,

I don't actually know what the pitch is in the 2.8 (as I forgot to ask Ken), but what you say sounds right.  I guess this is common with large pieces of bamboo, but I noticed that the thing has a bunch of nodes visible on the inside that are not so visible on the outside of the flute.  I quite liked that hidden quality.. that and  the urushi smell.  Call me crazy, but I really like the smell.  I find it calming.  I don't find it unpleasant in the slightest.  My girlfriend, on the other hand, is not so keen on the urushi smell though, and she hopes the smell will go away with time.  As for me, I wouldn't mind if it stayed... in fact, I kinda hope it does stay. 

the youtube thing is really a good idea.  It helps people get a much better sense of a flute if they can see someone playing it.  You guys should keep doing that.

I am sorry! It is not very zen like, but I am SO jealous!!! I want a Taimu SO bad! But unless I win the lottery, they are out of my price range! Unless somebody wants to trade me for everything I have!

Tairaku wrote:

Here is a topic for players of Taimu flutes. Please post a description of your Taimu and discuss your experiences playing it. The reason for this topic is I'd like to have a clear idea of who has Taimu and what they're doing with it.

OK, I got mine about a month or so ago on Ebay from Ken. When I first got it I thought it was too big for me. Then I figured that I could handle it with one of the holes moved. I talked to Ken via email and he sent me a video of how he would play it. It would work, but I didn't like using that part of my thumb. I decided not to have the hole moved because I was making some progress. So eventually, with a bit of a struggle, I finally got comfortable with it, my thumb positioned pretty much normal, my left hand pinky finger being used for Chi, and my left hand index finger covering the hole with the second joint.

Sounds pretty good, I think: http://www.4shared.com/file/125106966/8 … AKARV.html

ABRAXAS wrote:

Since then I've acquired a huge in-tune tree-trunk Watazumi-style Hocchiku flute (pictured on Jon Shingetsu's website gallery), that is much wider than the Taimu. .

How far up the scale does it stay in tune? Can it play 2 or more octaves? Usually HUGE flutes only go up to about Re in the second octave.

ABRAXAS wrote:

Only up to Re in kan, but thats ok, I knew that going in.

Can't defy physics. Last time I was in SF (on an unscheduled pit stop due to missed flight) Ken showed me some he was working on. He pretty much discovered the ratio at which it is no longer possible to make flutes which will play Myoan honkyoku (for example) in some semblance of 2 octave plus useful tuning.

But it's nice to have something like this just to play the low octave stuff and the few honkyoku that don't stray above re.

Here's a link to the flute ABRAXAS is talking about.

http://www.flutedojo.com/ebay/hocchiku/ … chiku.html