Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

The shakuhachi (almost?) always needs to curve away from the player at the bottom. This largely dictates the position of a certain piece of bamboo. You can bend it somewhat, but I don't think makers usually try to reverse the natural curve.

When I am working with pieces that have some leeway in terms of position, I prefer for the holes to be on the broader side, not at a 'ridge.'

Harry wrote:

The one I'm presently playing is rounder than that previously mentioned but is still slightly eliptical and has been worked the other way: the holes and blowing edge are cut on the smaller, tighter curve of the elipse.

Are such differences down to preference, individual qualities of different bits of cane, maker's style, a butterfly flapping it's wings in Brazil... or all of the above???

Hi Harry.  I recently made a flute as you describe (with the holes on the narrow of the ellipse).  I'm not an experienced maker by any stretch, but here's a data point for what it's worth...

I had a nice 2.65 root end piece I harvested in Japan.  Going with its natural curve would require I put the holes on the narrow edge of the ellipse. I really wanted to straighten the piece so I could hold it the other way as I thought I would prefer it that way.  (I have large hands and think about ergonomics a lot.)  But the root curve was significant enough and quite thick-walled.  I'm not bamboo-rich and didn't want to risk cracking it by bending it too much.  Alcvin Ramos and some more experienced students suggested I should just go with the bamboo flow.  It would have taken bends at several nodes anyways.  So I embraced it, cut it, drilled it, and ended up with a nice 2.65 jinashi on the narrow edge.

It's not well tuned yet but I enjoy playing it very much.  There might be acoustic implications to this bore profile as it relates to tuning or at the utaguchi, etc.  An experienced maker could probably tell you more.  Though I suspect the tonal differences/difficulties in a piece like this don't amount to much more than the usual differences between any other two culms.

-Darren.

As far as the utaguchi, a wider utaguchi generally doesn't require as focused of a breath. There are always exceptions. The depth is also a large factor. I doubt anyone could hear the difference in a blind test between a very round piece of bamboo and a highly elliptical one. I do grant that a round piece feels nicer in a sense. My Japanese 1.8 is very round.