Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

It is very strong and hard. Thought would be great if I got lucky and actually made my flute from madake.

I drilled it. I started out small then used a dremel to enlarge the holes. The bore diameter was small so I tried to enlarge the opening and cracked the bamboo though. I will have to make another. I learned a lot from this one though.

There is a interesting story associated with this piece of bamboo. I had picked this up in a hardware store a few years ago for whatever purpose. Then last summer we had a robin make a nest in a tree right next to our deck. She had four babies. Well, one day a big black rat snake snuck up and tried to eat them.I was inside at the moment and me and my wife heard all kinds of noise coming from outside. We went out and saw the mother and father robins squacking up a storm and that is when I saw the big snake circling around the babies in the nest. Well, I did not have anything to remove the snake with so I grabbed a squeegie I had on the deck at the time and pulled the snake off the nest and managed to get it to the ground. After that I managed to scare it off and got it to go back into the woods. later, I realized I may need something to defend the baby robins with. That is when I thought of the bamboo. I cut a spear edge to this 6 foot piece and was ready to save the robins again if I had too. Well, the snake did not come back. Now, I made my first flute from this piece. I guess the moral of the story would be that I managed to take something I was going to use to harm something(the snake) and use it for a peaceful use instead. It makes me feel like this shakuhachi has made me become more of a sprirtual and peaceful person.

The sad part of the story is that the wife and I believe that a hawk eventually did get the baby robins. We cannot be sure but the second batch of babies were abandoned and we had one die in our hands. We did save one and give it to a person that knew how to raise baby robins. So hopefully, at least one made it. It goes to show you how hard life can be for our feathered friends.I believe this whole experience has made me a more spiritual person.

I also learned that sometimes no matter how hard we try destiny cannot be changed. Sad but true.

Edit:Perhaps it was also destiny that that piece of bamboo came into my hands in the first place.

Last edited by purehappiness (2009-02-03 17:16:30)

True. From the hawks perspective it was a good day.