« Shakuhachi Bamboo Harvest 2005 | Main | Day 2, Shigemi Repair »
May 21, 2005
Major Shakuahchi Restoration on a Shigemi Inoue
Last week, the stars were aligned. Two Shigemi Inoue flutes came into my shop on the same exact day. Both had a leak. Both were put in my humid box at the same time. One sealed completely and was returned two days later. The other, revealed no change after being in the box for three days. On the fourth day, it exploded
There were little cracks in the lacqer coated bindings and I knew that was a sign of deterioration underneath but little did I know the urushi was rotten. It was slowly giving way before it came to me and basically explode once it was exposed to a little humidity. It was like a bandaged wound that had been needing stiches. Well, the doctor's in the house.
There were cracks in the bore when I got it. Now they are fully opened. There were signs that there was already bore work done then these cracks first split through.
Here is the reason why I never use super glue to fill the cracks. Once you do that, the crack will never seal and if it splits more, there will be a liitle hole underneath the bindings. This is where I suspect the leak was coming from.
There's going to be bore work done. I will restore ti to it's original bore profile.
Another gapping hole underneath the binding.
The old way of holding a crack together. With a kusabi. We know today those things don't work. Makers in Japan no longer use kusabi to repair cracks on shakuhachi.
It's gotta go.
The bottom piece had cracks too. It's time to fully bind the whole flute.
I'm using 20lbs monofilament. It's much stronger than the thread the previous repair man used. That could've been forty years ago.
The back of the utaguchi had Ji built up to cover up where someone had cut away bamboo to create a greater angle. It was too steep so they filled it with Ji. I'm going to restore it by grafting a new piece of bamboo.
The skin of the Shigemi will sit on my bench top for a while. This flute was made about 80 years ago. Let's see what magic theses pieces may bring.
Come back to see the flute fully restored.
Please store your flute in AIRTIGHT containers.
Namaste, Perry
Posted by Perry Yung at May 21, 2005 01:10 AM