Just returned from two
weeks in Japan where I had pretty good success harvesting bamboo
for shakuhachi. Prior to my departure, I was not at all certain
how things would work out. I only had a couple of leads and knew
from past experience that the entire project boiled down to two
things: an act of faith and a whole lot of leg work. Finding madaké
suitable for shakuhachi is no simple task.
Madake Bamboo in Japan
The three major species
of bamboo in Japan are moso, hotchiku and madaké, the latter
representing only about 20% of the resource. Even if madaké
can be located, it has to meet rigid specifications dictated by
the traditional aesthetic for shakuhachi. As madaké is
a giant timber bamboo, most of the plants found will be too large
in diameter for flutemaking. Groves of madaké go through
a 60 year cycle. Only very young or very old groves or those growing
in poor soil will yield culms suitable for shakuhachi. In addition,
permission to cut must be secured from the owner of the property
on which the grove is located. This perhaps, is the most formidable
obstacle to harvesting bamboo as Japan has very little, if any,
open land exists, other than along riparian ways and river banks.
(This bamboo, growing too close to an abundant supply of water,
is not prime material for shakuhachi.)
Bamboo Brokers
Very few of the makers in Japan harvest their own stock. Most flute craftsmen are based in urban areas and obtain madaké from brokers and middlemen going between the property owners and the makers. I had the opportunity to meet with a couple of bamboo brokers and got a sense of what was involved in harvesting. processing and preparing the bamboo for curing. The task of locating, digging and cleaning the roots, removing the oil from and sterilizing the bamboo to protect it from insect infestation is, indeed, labor intensive. The price of brokered high-quality madaké bamboo ranges from about $100 to $200 per piece with a minimum order of 50 to 100 pieces and no chance for the maker to pick through or select the stock. Bamboo brokers pretty much define the market for this precious resource.
Ginetsu Nakamura
With all this
in mind, my wife Kayo and I made our way to Japan, stopping first
in Ibaraki near Osaka. For some time now I have obtained madaké
and become good friends with Ginetsu Nakamura, a shakuhachi maker
for over 35 years. Nakamura-san is unique in that he is one of
the last makers in Japan to harvest all of his own bamboo. In
all his time as a flute maker, he has missed only one season of
harvesting last year, due to a accident in which his hand was
injured. This season, Nakamura, his son Daigo and an associate,
were back at it and invited me to come to Japan and participate
in the process. "If you are serious about shakuhachi making,"
he advised me last year, "you should begin in the grove and
harvest your own bamboo." For two full days he took us, step-by-step,
through the entire process from digging to curing complete with
written notes on how to identify the species and age of bamboo
as well as locating culms with the proper nodal spacings. Our
adventure culminated with over 100 pieces of bamboo harvested
and shipped to my workshop in Shikoku along with a gift of custom-made
bamboo digging tools of Nakamura-san's design. I am eternally
grateful him and deeply appreciative of his openness and generosity
which comes from a sincere desire to see interest in shakuhachi
grow all over the world.
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Visit to Kyoto
From Osaka,
we made our way to Tokushima on Shikoku Island with a brief stopover
in Kyoto where we connected with our son Yukon who is living and
working in Japan. In Kyoto, we had a chance to visit John Einarsen
and his family. John is editor of The Kyoto Journal, an exceptional
English-language magazine focusing on issues in Japanese culture
and society from a unique perspective. Recommended reading! We
dropped in, as well, on Junji Kagata at Takehei, a bamboo shop
in Kyoto which has been in business for over 80 years. Amongst
the wide variety of unique and rare bamboos available at this
incredible store is Sousoutaké, madaké bamboo originally
used as roof rafters in traditional houses nearly a century-and-a-half
old. I obtained some of this special bamboo in sizes suitable
for shakuhachi.
On to Shikoku
After five busy
days of travel and work, Kayo, Yukon and I finally arrived in
Shikoku. The remainder of our visit was spent in Kitagawa, a small
farming village in Tokushima Prefecture where my in-laws reside
and my shakuhachi workshop is located. Heavy boxes of madaké
followed right behind us, so the next few days were preoccupied
with "aburanuki" or removing oil from the freshly harvested
bamboo. A charcoal fire provides radiant heat that will force
the resin from the bamboo without burning the skin. This work
is slow and delicate, so by the fourth day, the entire family
was involved in the process. Word travels fast in a village the
size of Kitagawa. It wasn't long before several of the neighbors
stopped by to see what on earth was going on and check out the
line of bamboo set out to dry in the sun along the garden wall.
(While setting the roots out to dry, we experienced a near total
eclipse of the sun. I will take that as "good" omen.)
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