Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Gishin wrote:

Yes it is a very special instrument and I remeber Kurahashi Sensei telling me that there are very few teachers of this instruments left and that the price of an instrument like this can be very expensive.

It does not tell you much but very expnesive in Japan means usually out of my price range.

I suppose it could be simply because there isn't a whole lot of market for these out there. Looking at the picture, this instrument simply can't be very complicated. I'd be very surprised if the amount of work involved comes even close to koto which is by far more complicated and larger as well. The picture I posted looks simple enough if you ignore all the decorations. The odd thing is that all pictures I've seen seem to contain some strange holes and such around the spot where the string is attached. At first I thought that they are simply decorations but now I'm not so sure.

I suppose I'll have to practice my japanese a bit and send the company an e-mail to see if they make those. I'd be really surprised if they cost more than their koto and shamisen do.

Here is the info from wikipedia

The ichigenkin (kanji: 一絃琴; hiragana: いちげんきん; literally "one-string zither") is a Japanese monochord (single string) zither. Its silk string is plucked with a pointed tubular plectrum placed on the index finger of the right hand while a tubular ivory device similar to a guitar slide placed over the middle finger of the left hand presses the string against the hardwood soundboard to vary the pitch. As with the Chinese guqin, from which it was likely originally adapted, the ichigenkin has no frets, so sliding tones are an important part of the technique of the instrument.

Although the ichigenkin has its own solo repertoire, it is also used to accompany traditional singing. The instrument was once popular among samurai, literati, and priests, but today players of the instrument are very rare. The Canadian multi-instrumentalist Randy Raine-Reusch, perhaps the only non-Japanese ichigenkin performer, has composed and recorded new works for the instrument.


Also there is the following links

http://www.asza.com/iichi.shtml

Gishin wrote:

Here is the info from wikipedia

Wikipedia was the first place I checked. Unfortunately their articles about obscure things aren't always the most comprehensive. Even the shakuhachi article used to be really strange about a year ago. I haven't checked it lately but I'm hoping that it's better now.

The unfortunate thing is that even with the digital age there is still a lot of stuff that you simply have to search on foot. This instrument seems to fall into that category. Thanks for all the information however. If anyone who lives in Japan has seen any of these on sale somewhere, could you let me know what kind of price range they were in.

Gishin wrote:

Here is some ichigenkin for sale.

http://www.koto-uchiyama.com/sub12.html

It is actually quite cheap. I guess what Kurahashi sensei would have been referring could be old and valuable antiques.

Great find, thanks. Again my japanese fails me as I'm not really sure if they'd ship those anywhere. I wonder if I could recruit someone on the forum to ship one for me. That, and a couple of spare strings since I have a feeling that those things are likely to snap occasionally and finding spare silk strings here in Finland is about as likely as finding a guy who makes these things.

I'm a bit unsure if this shop sells the other items required for playing, namely the things you use to pluck the string and hold it down. One of these days I'll get far enough with the language to be able to read these things properly. Quick and dirty translation didn't give me any clues.

I figured that you had to be talking about some actual antique instruments there. Everything I've read tells me that these things were played by priests, samurai and other intellectuels of the time. It would seem likely that they were well made and thus quite valuable if they survived the test of time. I would think that new instruments are by far cheaper than koto are.

edit:

I did a quick translation of everything on that page. Apparently they don't ship anything anywhere or they just forgot to mention about it entirely. They also don't seem to sell supplies apart from what comes with the instrument itself.

Last edited by amokrun (2008-01-05 04:06:21)

Gishin wrote:

Remember this is a Japanese website that looks pretty much homemade to me so most likely they also sell all the supplies but just dont have them on the website. This the same way with many suppliers I deal with in Japan thier website is pretty much just a web business card with a couple of prices etc. for more of their stuff you need to call get the catalogue or just call and ask for what you need.

Also they will ship for sure since they are a shop/maker. Now will they ship out of Japan or will you need someone to do that to see you will need to call.

Thanks for the advice, didn't think of that. I'll have to get some help from someone who groks japanese better than I do.

Gishin wrote:

Also buying it is one thing but playing it will be another you will need to read the scores and also get a teacher and even getting a teacher of this instruement in Japan is quite hard.

It seems to me playing this thing without a teacher is sure to lead nowhere.

I'm not necessarily looking to play this well. Shakuhachi is plenty of challenge for the next fifty years or so for me. I just found the instrument to be interesting and I'd love to give it a try. I like japanese music in general and try to explore as much as I can. I figured that it shouldn't be impossible to find out the basics through simple trial and error. With just one string you really have limited number of things that can happen. Figuring out pitches is just a matter of trying them out. I have no scores to begin with and most likely won't be finding any anywhere. There appears to be just a couple of schools that teach this to begin with and they are obviously all in Japan. Something that might be worth a visit once I get myself there somehow but certainly not something that I'd dedicate myself to in same seriousness as with shakuhachi. I think something like this could be fun to do when I'm about to hit myself with a shakuhachi after trying to memorize a piece for hours.

Worst case scenario, I can teach myself to play Sakura on this. I did it with an ocarina just beacuse I could and happened to have one of those and about an hour to spare.

Last edited by amokrun (2008-01-05 04:31:52)

barokgs11 wrote:

[
Have you heard this Mulla Nasreddin story:

Nasreddin, was playing  baglama (an instrument similar to the guitar, with three strings) all day long. He was hitting the same pitch, over and over again, without moving his left hand over the fret. Annoyed by the noise, his neighbour approached him and said: "What a boring tune you play. Havent you seen the masters playing? They change the positon of their hand frequently"
Nasreddin replied: "The masters, are searching for the place I found."

Great story. I have a baglama and have frequently played it and recorded on it. Unfortunately I play more than one note! Now I know where I went wrong!

baian wrote:

mp3s on amazon of koto music for the one string ichigenkin http://www.amazon.com/Koto-Music-One-st … B000V2EX5A

I heard a couple of example songs somewhere as well. It sounds really nice. Somehow the music reminds me of shamisen music except that it is naturally more simplified. I'm drawn to the idea of using the most simplistic instrument and then figuring out how to get it to sound good.

Okay, now I'm really tempted. Do we have any forum members who'd write good enough japanese to be able to help me with an e-mail. I'd love to ask if that company ships abroad and if they also carry misc. parts required for playing. My japanese is horrible and I'm guessing that their english isn't necessarily much better.

Did someone said that everything we can say about ' It' doesn't is ' It' " !?!?       : {)

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