Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Hi Ken,

       It was interesting to hear of your time in Nagano at Tom Deaver's; it sounds like you had a great visit.  Tom makes good flutes.  I'd like to get up to that part of Japan one of these days.  They confiscated your bamboo and had it destroyed??? That's crazy...what was the reason they gave for that?     Cheers,

                                                                          Dan

That's pretty damned awful, Ken. I'm glad you had such a good tiime otherwise, but that is insane.

Do you think you would've gotten through if the bamboo had been cured/heated first, so that it's not green anymore?

-E

Yungflutes wrote:

Did you show them a shakuhachi by any chance?

Hi Perry,

A few phrases of 'Sakura' has helped in the past. This time I even added 'Take me out to the ballgame." Nothin!

Yeah.. brown culms are the way to go. It's best to make their job easier. However, that is not often covenient. The frustrating thing is that in the past, agents noticed green culms and roots but quickly and correctly realized that they could not propagate, and therefore allowed their entry.

Ken

Hi Sean.  We're approximately 5,000 km apart but we share a teacher.  Nice to meet you!  (And yes, I recommend a trip to Japan to harvest.  Especially with Al.  I went back in Nov/Dec and it was mind-blowingly good.  Photos at link to left.)

And I second your question...  is a recording of Kodama available anywhere?  I'd love to see/hear/meet him, also.

I bought a heavy 2.4 hocchiku made by Kodama over a year ago and it's just an amazing flute.  Many have commented on the quality of his bamboo and playability that he cuts out of it.  A pleasure to hold and blow.

-Darren.

Ken, would you mind if I used that picture with the playing of the super flute to paint?  That flute is very cool. 
                                                                                                           Chris

Hey Ken,

Mujitsu wrote:

Yungflutes wrote:

Did you show them a shakuhachi by any chance?

Hi Perry,

A few phrases of 'Sakura' has helped in the past. This time I even added 'Take me out to the ballgame." Nothin!

Yeah.. brown culms are the way to go. It's best to make their job easier. However, that is not often covenient. The frustrating thing is that in the past, agents noticed green culms and roots but quickly and correctly realized that they could not propagate, and therefore allowed their entry.

Ken

I talked with inspectors at the US Agriculture Depart about importing bamboo years back. One inspector said the worst case scenario for importing bamboo that may not appear to be dry would a quarantine. And, they may possibly charge me for spraying and storage. I asked if they would burn it since someone from the ABS (American Bamboo Society) mentioned this possibility. She said, "Burn it?  No. We wouldn't just burn you stuff." The laws may be different in CA, especially these days.

If you have the energy, you may want to call your local US Dept of Agriculture office just to see what the law and proceure is for your case. There's probably a branch at SFO. I'm saying this because Steve Cohen was over at my place for a repair last year and he brought a piece of Madake for me to evaluate for a custom flute. He said he had personally picked the bamboo in Japan about 10 years ago but only recently came in possession of it. It was confiscated 10 years ago (I guess it took eight years for them to decide that it wasn't going to propagate)!

I know it might be a lot to go through with right now but if you have the energy, you might just want to call the inspection office at SFO and ask when you can pick up your bamboo.  There is a chance that your harvest is just sitting in a warehouse.

Hope this helps.
Best, Perry

Ken (and others),

Sad to hear of the bamboo's unmusical fate.  For what it's worth, we had very good luck in December simply mailing our big bundle o' bamboo back from Japan before we left.  Lucky or sneaky -- not sure.

Murai-san helped us wrap and tie everything up (he's a master of hitches and knots, among other things) and then he wheeled it to the little post office on his new bike.  The package had to be labelled and classified as something-or-other (I forget, and it was in Japanese, which makes me forget even faster), so maybe it's all in the categorization.

-Darren.