19 August 2009 New Gold and Old Bamboo
One of the shakuhachis I am most fortunate to own is called Jo-un (恕雲), made by Tomomasa Gakudo (岳童友正) early in the 20th century. The bamboo itself, however, is clearly much older. The thing plays like a monster. No other shakuhachi I have ever played has the same tone. One friend and a fan of my teacher Taniguchi-sensei was the official maki-e (gold leaf art) artisan of the imperial family, and he decorated a few flutes for my teacher. Jo-un is one.
I took these macros with paired 27.5 mm extension tubes and a 1.4 teleconverter attached to my ZF 100/2. To give you an idea of the size, the width of each of these is less than my thumbnail. To have brushed on many successive layers of gold leaf in such a scale and with such precision boggles the mind.
I should really write an explanation of what the characters written in gold leaf mean, their history, etc., but I’m tired, I’ve had my nightly nip of scotch already, and tomorrow’s a long day.
2 comments in “New Gold and Old Bamboo”
August 19th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Holy Cow, that’s amazing… both the subject and the photography. The last is my favorite because the finger hole provides context for the subject (Shakuhachi) and the incredible magnification (and hence incredible detail).
You mention that the Shakuhachi is really old… you have it because you can’t afford a new one? :-)
So, the bamboo is old, but the flute itself was made about 100 years ago, but not decorated until recently? What does “monster” connotate… large size and low pitch?
August 19th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
In this case “monster” just means strong and powerful. This might be an instance of me using a Japlish word in regular English after forgetting that it’s not real English.
And yeah, I have a really old flute because I can’t afford a new one. After I scrape some money together, I’m going to get a brand-spanking-new one, hopefully made out of PVC.