Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

mikemike wrote:

I live in a backwoods scenario and I don't have access to a teacher.

You obviously have access to a computer, therefore, access to a teacher. Why spend $2300 on a shakuhachi if you're just going to noodle around on it? You'll never really find out if it's actually any good or not...

Last edited by edosan (2009-07-04 10:50:38)

heyjude wrote:

. I'm a Ro blower myself and would rather own six $300 flutes than one $1800 one

As your playing advances you will reverse this opinion.

heyjude wrote:

Nope, you're wrong. A ten second Ro is the best I can do on a good day. Noodling in the lower register is where it's at for me.  To each his own I suppose.

I said as your playing advances..........if you don't want it to advance I suppose it doesn't matter. Nothing wrong with noodling around if it's therapeutic. Rock on!

Hi,
  I posted this tidbit of info awhile ago from a translation I did:

Ichijo Kobayashi　(his real name) is a famous maker who lives in Suita city, Osaka (his adress and contact info is at the bottom). He was born in Yashiro town, Hyogo prefecture and graduated from Kansai Gakuin University in physics. He started playing the shakuhachi at the hougaku, japanese music, club on campus under the guidance of Tanaka Yudo (whose teacher was Araki Kodo III) of the Araki style of Kinko Ryu. In his second year of university he started to learn how to make shakuhachi from Shinzan. He said he started to make them because he needed repairs done on his shakuhachi but couldn't afford to pay for it so he was working it off as a helper to the maker. He soon became a live in student of Nagahiro Shinzan. Eventually he received permission from his teacher Tanaka sensei to go and take lessons with Aoki Reibo, which he still travels to Tokyo to do.
Because his flutes have a very good balance and are pretty easy to play many teachers recommend them to beginning serious students (around $2,000). But he also makes high-end performance flutes as well, all the way up to $10,000 or more. He is a classical Kinko ryu player but people from various styles often use his flutes. I have one of his 1.8s.
Here is a link to an essay written about him by Yoshimura Doumei. (It's in Japanese but you can see pictures of him making shakuhachi and the sign on the front of his house)
http://kunjuan.jp/i/library/kobayashi.html

一城小林
〒564-0073
大阪府吹田市山手町2-16-38

ichijou@pop06.odn.ne.jp
電話：06-6389-2033
FAX：06-6389-5844


Josh

Taimu would be another option to definately look into. You can check ken's site for various sizes and sound bites as well. He has lots of different sizes that would definately satisfy the Otsu desires in all of us. And one day maybe kan will apeal itself to you more. Of course Ichijo makes good flutes too (my first 1.8 was Ichijo), but definately a different feel compared to the Taimu.