Some shakuhachi that you haven’t seen…

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Since September, several nice instruments have been sold without any publication on the website…
I wanted to present some of them here !

1.8 Ji-nashi 1.8 for a Myoan player

A customer from the last year has fallen in love with the Myoan style which he’s learning with a French teacher based in Kyoto : Sébastien Shogetsu.
I made for him an excellent ji-nashi, with a very fine and flexible playability, from a piece of black French bamboo with a lacquered root in the style of antique flutes.
I’d be honoured that this instrument might be presented to the Myoan group in Kyoto probably next year !

1.8 ji-ari 1.8 from French bamboo

The last 1.8 Ji-ari I built from the bore design of the previously restored Tamai Chikusen.
A great shakuhachi, rich in tone and well balanced now played by a new commer i our French Chikumeisha group.

2.0 Ji-ari 2.0 from a piece of Madake brought from Kyushu

This nice Ji-ari with sobre aesthetic has a delightful dark and mysterious tone as the old kinko flutes I love.
Made from a piece of Madake offered by the woman I met by the bamboo grove where I was harvesting (see this article for the story).
This flute is now in Gunnar’s hand and I’m waiting for his approval…!

 

French Chikumeisha Autumn workshop.

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Dear all,

Because of the pandemic, the autumn workshop organized by Chikumeisha France with Gunnar Jinmei Linder will be held online instead of in Figeac.

The dates are November 13th, 14th and 15th. The workshop fee is 80€ (*)

More information on chikumeisha.net

Friday, November 13th will have a focus on beginners.
Saturday, November 14th: focus is mainly on Kinko-ryū honkyoku
Sunday, November 15th: focus is on sankyoku.
All participants are welcome to attend all sessions

Beginners are people already able to produce the notes and read the Kinko notation; teaching to pure beginners is not really possible in such a format.

Please note that whatever your level is, you are welcome to participate in one, two or all three sessions if you want to discover the pieces covered. The level designation (please see the program for details) is only meant to indicate the tempo of teaching and what the teacher will expect of pre-understanding of the material. It is of course possible to just audit the lessons.

Please note that there is a possibility to book individual instruction with Gunnar on Thursday, November 12. Please contact Gunnar directly at gunnar_linder@me.com.

Registration process:

  • Please send a mail to contact@chikumeisha.net for registration and details on payment.
  • When payment is complete, you’ll receive the Zoom meeting ID + a link to download all the material.

Best regards,

 

The Chikumeisha France Board

(*) in case of economical problems, please contact Gunnar gunnar_linder@me.com

News from Chikudo

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Here are some news on the way I’m working since September resumption of work.

This year, we are back with my wife on the renovation work of our future home; therefore, I have less time to be in my workshop (frustrating…!)
As I have some customers waiting for new instruments, the last ji-nashi made in September were already sold before I could even upload them on the website…
I’m also working (since springtime) on several ji-ari shakuhachi very time-demanding and I want to keep priority on those rather than on student models that I’m being always asked for.
(I decided to stop the making of the student shakuhachi for next year).

In order to keep a certain amount of shakuhachi available on my website, I decided to restore more vintage flutes to save some time for my own making. I try to select those shakuhachi in order to keep a wider variety of prices.

Soon I will be able to start making shakuhachi from the Madake bamboo harvested in Japan last year…

Thanks for following and supporting my work.

Thomas

Restoration of a masterpiece shakuhachi

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I recently had the chance to acquire a ji-ari shakuhachi from a renown maker Tamai Chikusen.

This maker on whom I have very few informations is very famous for being the master of most of the great nowadays makers (Takeharu, Kinya Sogawa, Yamaguchi Shugetsu, Tom Deaver…)

This ji-ari presented a bad large split on all the upper part and several cracks on the lower part.
Thus, with honour and respect, I carefully repaired this beautiful instrument with elegant rattan bindings and I’m glad to be able to repair such severe cracks (over 5mm wide !) without any glue in respect to the traditional way.

I was thanked by the flute itself when discovering its great powerfull haunting voice !
For now, I will keep this instrument for myself using it as a model for my own ji-ari.

IKIGAI – Search for meaning

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I recently came upon this Japanese concept that has an echo with my own philosophy and my choices.

Ikigai  –  生き甲斐
lit. “a reason for being”

This idea that we can see as a quest aims at finding an harmonious and meaningful way of being in this world.
By associating the concepts of Mission, Passion, Vocation and Profession, it becomes then possible to link thos two ideas that our modern society set against each other : efficiency and fulfilment…

Here is a way to visually represent the Ikigai

It seems very important to me in this time of “economic recovery” after a necessary parenthesis that each of us question our relation to labour and our personal way of embodying what we want to rise for the world.

Do we sincerely wish to re-launch the machine that destroy life inside and outside us ?

Read more

Shakuhachi making tricks…

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Here is a good example of how a shakuhachi maker has fun in his lonely workshop !
It’s important sometimes to get some challenge in our duty; that’s what I did when deciding to extend a bamboo promised to become a nice 2.4 ji-ari in A but missing a few centimetres both for tonality and holes placement…

I had guess before that this technique was sometimes used by observing different flutes restored in this way and got the confirmation by showing Takahashi sensei this shakuhachi in progress in his workshop in Tokyo; He immediately guessed what I did by looking at this unusual long rattan binding !
Some makers also use this technique for twisting utaguchi back in line with tone-holes.

I had no idea if I was able to do it…so I did !
Here is the process resumed in some pictures :

The technique is quite similar to the making of nakatsugi joint; first inserting a bamboo hoso in the two cut parts and then adding another bamboo upon it of a diameter similar to the flute. Then some ji and sanding to adjust precisely the groove for the rattan finishing.

This nice ji-ari is still on the working bench, hopefully available soon !

Japan trip 2/2 : Yufuin

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After the first week in Tokyo, I stayed three weeks in Yufuin, a famous thermal town of Oita-ken in northern Kyushu.
In order to meet local people to help me organising madake bamboo harvest, I worked as a volunteer in an associative restaurant. That was for me the ideal place to get the good contacts and to be again in the rural daily life of Japan that I love so much (including of course the daily bath in Onsen !)
Thanks to the help of Ryuji, owner of Harappa cafe, I could start harvesting from the first days and then on all the days off following…

During my days in the bamboo grove of the small Tsukahara village on a high plateau above Yufuin, I could meet many of the neighbours and had great exchanges with them. I thank them all for their support and generosity.
For instance, I found myself introducing shakuhachi and it’s construction in the small village school, met a ceramist whom deceased husband was making shakuhachi with that same bamboo I was harvesting; she offered me some of his dryed bamboo. I also met a carpenter specialist in moving minka houses (traditional thatched roof farms) who offered me a bunch of 300 years old susudake (smoked bamboo) and most of all, I met the Yoshioka family with whom I spent great moments.
That was a lot of work to select, dig out, clean and prepare the bamboos and then build the woden boxes to send them to France by ship…

When my mission was finished and the two 30 kilos boxes of fresh bamboo shipped; I found some time to visit Beppu’s bamboo-craft centre dedicated to bamboo weaving, a tradition very alive in the area. I am fascinated with this craftsmanship for years; so I was happy and honoured to stay for hours watching at a masterclass given by a master specialised in the “freestyle” baskets.

Then, I was back in Tokyo for a last day at my capoeirists friend’s place before leaving Japan, the heart full of gratitude, a bag full of tools and materials and an empty wallet !
When back in France in Paris, I of course found my train reservation cancelled and no trains to go back home…but this is another story.
Welcome in France !

Wishes

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I wish that beauty, arts, music, knowledge and wisdom
enlighten your life in 2020
May Benzaiten guide you.

2020 Updates

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For 2020, I have updated the prices and reorganised the different models of Chikudo shakuhachi

Over the last 2 years, the positive feedbacks I got on my work from my master, professional makers and players met during ESS events and recently from all the people I met in Japan have convinced me to raise my prices on the repairing services and the best of my ji-nashi and ji-ari.
These prices hadn’t been changed for a long time meanwhile the general quality of my instruments has increased.
I also decided to organise differently – and more clearly – the different models of shakuhachi I build.

I however want to keep on affordable entry-level prices for the beginner’s shakuhachi which are now called GAKUSEI (“student”).

Vous pouvez consulter les nouveaux tarifs ici :

Chikudo prices

Discover the different models of shakuhachi that I build

I wish you all a happy and prosperous year 2020 !

thomas