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April 24, 2006

Old Shakuhachi Sound

I'm fortunate to be able to sit with bamboo shakuhachi. Many times, I spend nearly an entire day repairing and refurbishing shakuhachi for others. Whenever I visit Japan, I often collect old flutes found in weekend flea markets as these are truely the treasures I seek. This particular one was found in Kyoto in 2003 when I was attending the Komuso gathering of 2003 at Myoanji, the home of the Komuso Society.

It was badly eaten up by mites on both sides so I built up the area around the utaguchi and replaced it with a new one. I inlaid the thick rattan binding for the older Komuso flute character and preservation.

The bell was also deteriorated so I added an Acrylic Mother-of-Pearl inlay to bring it back to it's original opening size, which was smaller than the diameter on modern flutes these days. This keeps the sound in the flute and allows a complex vibration from a softer breath.

These flutes were not meant for the concert stage, not for powerful blowing techniques but for an intimate surrounding such as a lonely temple at dawn where the Zen monk could just breath into the flute.

While doing the refurbishing, I had the choice of making it a louder flute. But as I played it, I found myself pulled into another time, another era. I felt the maker's presence and decided that this feeling should not be tampered with. Antique flutes such as this one allows us a glimpse into the past. It can tell us what playing the shakuhachi must've felt like over 100 years ago. My hope was that the new owner would be able to appreciate visiting this world.

Here is what he wrote after sitting with it a few days:

"Perry,

thank you once again......
this flute brings a calmness that is so amazing....
its tone for each note is so soft yet powerful and holds this all the way through the second octave, this quiets the mind as it is so soft....
and yet, amongst the softness, comes a many varieties of powerful sounds and intricate varieties of feelings and emotions......
it has a many of sweet spots that continually intrigue me....
when truly in tune with the flute,
all comes so naturally as if I have made and owned this flute before.....
as that is a far fetched idea, in the depth of my silence it is certainly felt...
I appreciate the care you have put into it....
I hope to be able to purchase from you again some day when my funds are able.....
thankyou.
dustin

My wish is to share freely what I learned when I studied shakuhachi in Japan. There are many ways to approach playing this wonderful and unique instrument. We here in the West have our own standards and notions about music. We try to analyze other forms through our own theories and sometimes base our judgements from our criteria. But, it would be more helpful in the long run to undertstand that different cultures developed music and art according to their own unique sensibilities that has little or nothing to do with our world. And that being open to things we do not yet understand or can theororize can help us acheive a better understand and respect for other cultures.

One of my music mentors, Genji Ito, who is now looking at us from another plane of exhistence, played the shakuhachi for over twenty years. As an ethinc world musician, his understanding of music had little or no borders. In the early 1970's, Genji was part of a group of artists who went into the Congo in Africa with the famed Ellen Stewart of LA MaMa theater to research the music and dance of the Pygmies. They had a guide with them that was supposed to lead them to the Pygmies but after three days in the jungle, the Pygmies were not to be found. On the fourth day, Genji and another musician, who also played the shakuhachi, took their flutes and wandered off against the warnings of the guide. While trudging through the bushes, they began to play their shakuhachi. As the story goes, within minutes, they heard the sound crackling branches and whispers and looked up to see that they were surrounded by the Pygmies from all sides, behind bushes, around tree trunks and at the top of the highest branches. And it was only a matter of moments before one reached out and touched his flute. This started a week long cultural exchange between the New York City experimental artists and the Pygmies. This story was told to me by Genji Ito and Ellen Stewart some years ago.

How does this story relate to an old flute in Kyoto? Well, some musicians are technical wizards, they can play scale after scale with speed and intensity. Genji understood this but instead chose to play his music from the heart (he played the shakuhachi for over twenty years and never took a lesson). I'm sure it was this that led the Pygmies to reveal themselves. This flute contains the heart of an old Monk yearning for peace, I chose not to turn it into a modern music instrument.






Hear this old flute.




Breat deeply my friends, Perry

Posted by Perry Yung at 12:02 PM | Comments (0)

April 14, 2006

Another eBay utaguchi repair

Here is a repair on a 1.7 won on an ebay auction. It was listed as a nice antique shakuhachi with a little wear on the blowing edge. The new owner wasn't a shakuhachi player so he contacted me with some questions. After I got it into my hands, I found that it had a deteriorated utaguchi that needed to be replaced. There was also a crack that need to be bound. On top of that, the tuning wasn't so great. None of this was mentioned in the auction.

I started by adding bamboo saw dust mixed with CA glue to build up the area around the blowing edge so that the new utaguchi will have some meat to grab onto. You can see that someone in the past tried to save the utaguchi by applying layers of glue.

After the bamboo dust dried, I filed the front so I could draw a clean line for the new utaguchi shape. It was great to see that there was still a hint of patina under the old crusty glue. I did a Sogawa style inlay from Water Bufalo Horn.

These old flutes are rarely in pitch with Western Hertz but this one also had an extremely sharp Chi so the scale was a bit off. I retuned the Chi hole by adding epoxy resin on the upper part. After the utaguchi was done, I was able to blow into the flute to evaluate the tuning a little more closely. I ended up doing a little spot tuning bring out an over all balanced feel. Sometimes, the bores of old flutes just need a little help to make the entire flute feel like one instrument. Spot tuning can bring about a balance and pull a flute together.






Hear this old flute after the repairs.



Ebay can be a great place to buy instruments. However, please do a little research and ask questions when looking for a shakuhachi. Antique shakuhachi flutes that plays well are very rare AND expensive. I offer a free evaluation service for anyone interested in buying an shakuhachi. You are just responsible for shipping charges.

In the end, even with the cost of the repairs, this person got a beautiful AND functional old shakuhachi at a bargain price. I really enjoy helping old flutes a second life.

Namaste, Perry


Posted by Perry Yung at 07:25 PM | Comments (1)