Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Thanks Chris,

     Your reply very much confirms what I have been feeling.  Though the makers seemed expert enough at the time, I also agree this flute has its roots in folk music, rather than true shakuhachi.  I do not intend to degrade the makers in any way, as they were extremely friendly and, I believe, helpful to the best of their ability.  I fear, however, that this instrument will not take me where I intend to go.

     I have been contemplating purchasing a Shakuhachi Yuu or a nice student model from Monty Levenson.  Perhaps it is time to go ahead and do that.

Travis Winegar wrote:

Your reply very much confirms what I have been feeling.  Though the makers seemed expert enough at the time, I also agree this flute has its roots in folk music, rather than true shakuhachi.  I do not intend to degrade the makers in any way, as they were extremely friendly and, I believe, helpful to the best of their ability.  I fear, however, that this instrument will not take me where I intend to go.

     I have been contemplating purchasing a Shakuhachi Yuu or a nice student model from Monty Levenson.  Perhaps it is time to go ahead and do that.

Hi Travis,

You're correct, it's not my intention in any way to degrade any of the folk flute makers. Many of these  makers generally make excellent folk bamboo products.

There is a dearth of reliable information on making shakuhachi in English and there are very few qualified teachers of shakuhachi craft in the West. There are also few people in the West who understand the formalities and sublties of Japanese music.

However well-intentioned a folk bamboo flute maker is, and I believe many are very wonderful  well-intentioned people, you still need to know traditional shakuhachi music and craft pretty well to represent your work to the public as authentic shakuhachi which is appropriate for formal learning with a teacher. There is a marked difference between a shakuhachi and a vertical flute styled like a shakuhachi.

Perry Yung at yungflutes.com makes very good bamboo student-appropriate model 1.8 flutes (as well as professional shakuhachi). His fine quality, spot-tuned jinashi (or semi-jinashi as the case may be) Chikusing and his entry-level Earth model flutes are featured frequently on eBay. His work is affordable and hads been recommended by some notable shakuhachi teachers.

You will find many people who will agree that the Yuu and Monty Levenson's Tai Hei student models are pretty good ways to go. Monty also makes an "enhanced Yuu" for the gentleman who runs shakuhachiyuu.com.

I've heard only good things about Australian-maker David Brown's hardwood shakuhachi which are available in the $400 - $700 USD range. They tend to have a "brighter" sound than bamboo flutes, which may or may not be to your liking. Occasionally a used flute of his crops up for less than $400.

There are very few options for good affordable shakuhachi mainly because of the time, skill, effort and materials cost involved in making a good shakuhachi.

Try pricing a single cured culm of Japanese Madake bamboo -- when you can find it. Mejiro in Japan sells them for $100 - $300 a piece depending on the Yen and the only type they apparently ship out of country are the smoked Madake at about $180 each. And those are probably "average" good quality culms. Rare culms, old culms go for a lot more money each. That's just for the stock. May the gods have mercy on you if it cracks while you're working on it or you screw up a measurement.

People willing to make "student model" instruments seem few and far between because the work that goes into tuning them accurately appears to be the same work that goes into tuning professional instruments accurately (although the professional instruments are tuned to more specific ranges and sensitivities, etc).

The most important thing, from my perspective, is to find an instrument that gives you a truly fair chance at learning -- whether it's plastic or eucalyptus-wood or real bamboo or petrified marshmallow.

I hope this view from another student helps rather than adds to any confusion. (What's the old Buddhist maxim about moving a piece of dust?). Check out what senseis Tairaku and Nyokai say on this subject, here, and in other parts of this forum.

- Chris

Last edited by Chris Moran (2005-12-06 03:41:16)

I have a Yuu, and I do like the sound. I can feel the difference between Bamboo and plastic, but it's a good, deep and dense plastic, and feels pretty good. Now that I have a Bamboo 1.8, though, I use the Yuu less, but take it with me wherever I go. Most people don't even notice that it's not Bamboo, which I find amazing. I actually sanded mine down just a tiny bit; the molding leaves a ridge around the finger holes that stopped me from doing Atari fingering, which I'm quite fond of. If you do this, you have to be really careful, as it changes the finish just a tiny bit, but in a nice way. I actually refinished it with the stuff I'm using on my flutes, and like it a lot more now. It's funny...I think that sometimes I don't like to play it because I know in my mind that it's plastic, so you have to get over that a bit. I actually bought it so I could have an inexpensive template to make Bamboo ones off of, and my first 1.8 is pretty close to my Yuu in quality, probably a little better in some ways.

I'm also into Ken La Cosse's flutes, and he makes simple Chinese Madake flutes for a really good price. If I had the money, I'd probably be doing that, but I'm so into making that I had to spend the money there, instead.

As far as flutemaking goes...I only started making them about a year, year and a half or so ago, and I've only worked on maybe 8-9 flutes; I'm not going to be a great, or possibly even very good, flutemaker in that time. That, coupled with the fact that I've only been playing as long as I've been making, means that my flutes might not be very good at all. However, I've been a musician for many years, and have always had a good ear and halfway decent hand-eye coordination to play most instruments I pick up, even though I've rarely liked an instrument enough to want to take lessons and be serious. The piano is as close as that comes, maybe the Vibraphone. Anyway...I've always really appreciated finely-crafted instruments, and I've always loved the Wabi-Sabi asthetic, and I've always been attracted to Zen and the Ascetic lifestyle, as well, so the Shakuhachi turned out to be perfect for me. Mix that with my natural ability with instruments, and the fact that I'd been looking for an organic, natural instrument to learn and perhaps master, and my wanting to be a part of the instrument I'm playing. I'm pretty anal about stuff like flutemaking, in that I want to learn as much as I can before tinkering. The first flute I made, I walked into Lark in the Morning and the guy working there saw it in my bag and tried it out, and commented that it wasn't bad. I was pretty spurned on by this, and made a few more Tonkin Flutes that worked fairly well (although the tuning was pretty off) that I then gave to friends. I made a nice 2.2 that I still play at times, although the liprest is far too thin for comfort. Oh well. I also ruined what could have been a truly excellent 2.5 big diameter Tonkin flute. Man, if I had know then what I know now, that would've been a sweet flute.

So, after those flutes, I waited and didn't play for a month or so, then I got back into it and got the Yuu. After about 4-6 months, I bought some Root End, and made the 3 I have now. Now, while I'm not the best player, I feel as though I'm really good for someone who's barely heard the Shakuhachi aside from recordings, and especially for someone who's never taken lessons. I know that I REALLY need lessons, and that I have some bad habits; people will say I sound good or whatever, but I know, deep down, that I'm SO far from where I want, ya know? Anyway, I worked really slowly and hard on these new flutes, and, while I play better on them, and my friends play better on them, I've never had someone "pro" try them, so I won't know until then. I think they'll be fine, and I have a lot of confidence about them, but I still want to test it out. I should send it to someone to try out.

Sometimes I look on eBay, and I get terribly annoyed with some of the flutes there; I know I shouldn't, but I hate to see people "taken" because they just don't know any better. A lot of people lump "The Internet" with "eBay" when it comes to "information", if you know what I mean. They see some well-written "ZenSpeak" text, some asian-looking lettering, and they're sold. Then these people get these awful flutes, with thier propane-burned bamboo, and they don't play very well, and they get frustrated, and possibly never play it again. That's just too bad. There are so many just plain awful "shakuhachi" out there, and I don't want to add to that. I realized a while ago that it's not that hard to crank out halfway decent flutes and make a lot of quick bucks, but I just didn't want to go that route. I wanted to learn the craft, even though there's no way for me to go to Japan and learn; besides, that's not my style, and I must be able to mix in everything else I'm interested in, otherwise I'll go crazy.

ANYway...what I'm saying is that I hear you about "those" kinds of makers, even though I'm quite aware that a lot of people could assume a lot of the same things about me, since I literally dont' have that much experience, and I learned what I learned via the Internet at that. It's really pretty amazing to me that I could do as well as I have without having ever met someone who plays, but that also shows how much there is out there about the subject now, especially with people like Ken and Perry out there. I know that I have some time to go before I'm making serious flutes, but mine aren't too bad for as long as I've been playing them. I see some flutes online that simply make me drool, and make me think that I'll never know what I'm doing, but I know that if I got the right madake, and really took my time, I'd be able to make a pretty good flute.

Good lord, I'm babbling. Sorry, it's late.

-E