Make Your Own Shakuhachi

Plus, if you're gonna' play a shakuhachi, seems to me you've just got to also make your own! I enjoy making my shakuhahci as much as I love playing one!

And, lest there be any misunderstanding, I'm just a dumb beginner, showing you here how I'm going about building my shakuhachi.

And, when I make a mistake, I'll tell you so you don't fall into the same trap!

Making a very long story short, I asked Monty Levenson if he'd sell me a culm, and he sent me this picture of three possibles:

And I chose the bottom 71.5 CM piece - a little too long for a ni shaku yon sun and a bit short for a ni shaku san sun.

But I'm not building this particular shakuhachi for any certain pitch. I probably won't have the opportunity of ever playing with other shakuhachi, so I couldn't care less, so long as I can tune it to itself quite well. And, as soon as I can find a truly world-class culm, I'm going to make 1.8' also.

Plus, when I play my gorgeous "C" or "A" transverse bamboo flutes, I usually improvise. Play my own music. "Play in the spirit" as they say.

So then, back to obtaining my bamboo from Monty, FED-EX LOST my "next day air shipment" of bamboo from him - they are so awful - but it finally arrived. Late.

Simple: cut in the nakatsuge center joint, so you can begin working the bore.

You'll get a hundred different opinions on this, but if you're a dumb beginner like I am, right or wrong, start by checking out:

And you pick up this chart, which tells you - by flute length, and measuring from the top - where the center of each of your holes ought to fall:

�w�E�̈ʒu�i�Ǔ��̒��[cm]�j Position of finger hole[cm] (from top)	Home page

��@.Name(tonic)	�T�E 5th hole	�S�E 4th hole	�R�E 3rd hole	�Q�E 2nd hole	�P�E 1st hole	�S�� full length
�P�ڂR��.13 sun(G )	15.9	18.7	23.0	26.9	30.9	40.2
�P�ڂS��.14 sun(Ges)	16.9	20.0	24.5	28.7	32.9	42.7
�P�ڂT��.15 sun(F )	18.1	21.3	26.1	30.5	35.0	45.4
�P�ڂU��.16 sun(E )	19.3	22.7	27.8	32.5	37.2	48.3
�P�ڂV��.17 sun(Es )	20.6	24.2	29.6	34.6	39.6	51.3
�P�ڂW��.18 sun(D )	22.0	25.8	31.5	36.8	42.1	54.5
�P�ڂX��.19 sun(Des)	23.5	27.5	33.5	39.1	44.8	57.9
�Q�� .20 sun(C )	25.0	29.3	35.7	41.6	47.6	61.5
�Q�ڂP��.21 sun(H )	26.7	31.2	38.0	44.3	50.6	65.3
�Q�ڂQ��.22 sun(B )	28.4	33.2	40.4	47.1	53.7	69.4
�Q�ڂR��.23 sun(A )	30.3	35.4	43.0	50.0	57.1	73.7
�Q�ڂS��.24 sun(As )	32.3	37.6	45.7	53.2	60.7	78.2

My culm is not the length of any on the chart, and I didn't want to shorten it. So I had to extrapolate the finger-hole measurements from the flutes on the chart just longer and just shorter than mine.

And then, just to double check, I plotted out on a long piece of paper, the exact scale locations of the finger holes for all three flutes - the one longer, the one shorter and mine. And you can see my math miraculously turned out just right:

And, by the way, you can see the mark on this chart where my nakatsuge needed to be cut.

NOW HEAR THIS! And this is important: There are no PROPER positions for your finger holes. There are only guesses, calculations, luck and Epoxy to help you fill up and move a wrong hole position!

BUT GENERALLY, the thumb hole is about 42% of the flute length from the top. And progressing from the thumb hole downward, set holes at 48%, 58%, 68% and 78%. The old prescription of placing holes a tenth flute length apart does have at least some merit. And to gain even more tuning balance, raise the thumb hole to 39% instead of 42%. Thus, here is one more check you can run on your calculations, theoretically the most perfect tuning will be achieved by placing the holes at 39%, 48%, 58%, 68% and 78% of the flute's length!

AND HERE'S ONE MORE SLICK BUT ROUGH CHECK: Take a piece of elastic like the ladies use in dressmaking, cut it four inches longer than some known shakuhachi, preferably a 1.8', lay the shakuhachi down beside the elastic strip, mark both ends of the shakuhachi on the strip and mark each finger hole on the strip. Now, when you want to build, say a 2.0' - just stretch the elastic out to 2.0' and you'll see where the finger holes need to go - VOILA!

By the way, make yourself a hako box like the one below - you can't get by without it!

And once the bamboo is in two pieces, start drilling and grinding out the "fushi" or veins inside:

And you need to make yourself some sort of vice which will hold your precious bamboo tightly but safely. and this one i whipped up works like a charm. The black padding is four layers, on each side, of bicycle inner tube!

One of the next steps, which I'll get to in a second, is building the nakatsuge, middle joint. But yesterday, in three minutes, I made a depth-adjustable kebiki with which to cut the inside circular cut for the bottom of the insert. You can buy one, but they're some $40 or more . . . .

Then you carve out the bottom of each side of the socket like this - click to enlarge please....

I do most of my fushi cleaning-out with these rasps, my own Sureform tool, and some steel wool over a 12 ga shotgun wire cleaning brush, plus numerous 3/8" dowels with sandpaper either slipped into a slot like here, or self-adhesive sandpaper wrapped around a 38" dowel.

Uh oh, i just made my first mistake! A small one however. But it's something you need to watch for. Tom Deaver, one of my true shakuhachi heroes says this (and Carl Abbott mentions it also):

"A bamboo grove in Japan can have thousands of individual culms of varying diameters, heights, colors, ages, shapes, node spacings and curvatures. No two are the same. Knowing which bamboo culm to dig from the grove requires a complete understanding of how the finger holes and bamboo nodes relate to one another in the finished flute, what options are available when a less than desirable condition presents itself and where the length is adjusted to give you the flute that plays the pitch you want. Only one species of bamboo is acceptable, and each individual culm must meet narrowly defined specifications for age, diameter, node count and spacing, shape and the relationship between the front of the culm and its direction of curvature."

"To easily locate the front of any culm (not the front of the flute) it is necessary to observe only one culm node. Nodes are not formed straight around the circumference of the bamboo. They always cross the bamboo at an angle. Adjacent nodes are angled in opposite directions. Bamboo never grows with adjacent nodes parallel. The front of the bamboo is located at the highest point of the node (N4) which will be just below the first finger hole (O1). Called either "dake bushi" or "goro bushi", this is the only named node."

"When the front line of the shakuhahci, the line the finger holes fall on, which is determined by the curve of the culm, coincides with the highest point of the "dake bushi", the shakuhachi is said to be made on the front of the bamboo."

But my bamboo "front" is going to be in the "back" of my shakuhachi. I reckon this is hardly worth mentioning, but it is important to Deaver and Abbott.

And, by the way, don't plan on getting a quality madake root culm cheap! It ain't in the cards!

Woops! I just made my second mistake, and this one's a little more significant.

I cut the recess for the nakatsuge insert in the bottom half of the shakuhachi, and glued it in first - like so - click to enlarge:

But now, because my nakatsuge is in the middle section of a curve, it's gonna' be tough to cut in and fit the top half. You ought to fit the top one first, then cut in the bottom one. You can allow the bottom fit to be a hair off, because the Epoxy will take up the slack. But you can't afford for the top half to be off.

But I'm going to Epoxy a little carbon fiber around the inside top joint, to pad it out and strengthen it.

MONTY LEVENSON is very kindly sending me some of his binding cord, which I'll be using on my nakatsuge bindings - thank you Monty-san!

Just for fun - for $3.95 each - I bought four "junk" bamboo root culms from # , and none of them are any really great shakes. But the diameter and wall thickness on two of them is very good; none have any cracks or bad kinks or bends. Any two of them could easily be made into shakuhachi. And, in my spare time, I plan on making shakuhachi out of the two best of them. Simple hochiku type flutes. Think about it.

Click to enlarge.

The finished $3.95 I Shaku Kyu Sun (60 cm) in C# plays like a million dollars, perfect pitch, strong, clear and responsive. Great shakuhachi!

click to enlarge, please

I did this first practice binding on some of my junk bamboo, and it was pretty much of a disaster.

BECAUSE OF THE CYANOACRYLATE GLUE!

I don't trust it!

This was Kevlar 80 pound test SPIDERLINE SALTWATER FUSION fishing line. But, after allowing the thin CA to osmose down through the binding, I tried to level it off with "gap filling" CA, but the glue all wrinkled and puckered, for no reason. I do not like CA! It is neither predictable nor reliable! And I will NOT be using it on my shakuhachi!

By the way, the best way to do any binding like this is to fasten the long end of the binding cord in the jaws of your vice; step back a few feet and attach the binding line onto your bamboo. Then - holding tension on the line - just slowly walk and wind up toward the vice. Infinitely superior to trying to wind by hand!

If you can afford it, and if you've gotten your Mejiro catalog by now (you can't live without one!), you buy the HM-Style Tuning Set, #A 0404 for 27,000 Y ($246.00! ). Or - if you're on a budget, and if you don't have a metric micrometer, you first buy Mejiro's Stencil #A0096 for 2100 Y ($19). Then you go to Wally World, buy $6 pool cue, and make your own measuring/sanding cylinders, like so:

Click to enlarge.

And the whole idea, of course, is (a) you can measure the precise inside diameter of your bore, along its entire length, plus (b) you can attach self-adhesive sandpaper to these little cylinders, stick the 3/8" dowel in your slow turning electric drill, and enlarge the bore perfectly. I think?

You go back to # and pick up the bore graph for your length flute. Here's the closest one to my 71.5 cm culm. But I will actually be using this graph, plus the graph for the next larger shakuhachi, and extrapolating my silhouette from the two graphs. . . .

. . . . and the graphs tells you, obviously, what the inside diameter of your bore ought to be for every millimeter of its length!

NOW, not knowin' any better, I personally am going to measuring my bore with my pool cue cylinders, along the length of the bore, starting at the utaguchi. Then, where the bore is too small as is, I'll stick the sandpaper to my cylinders and sand it out a couple of millimeters LARGER than this graph says it's supposed to be. Then I'll come back and fill it with "ji", or some substitute thereof. Then back again, sand, polish and finish. Nuthin' to it. Right? Hee, hee!

BUT - (a) you can't buy uruhsi here in the States, and (b) it's extremely expensive from Mejiro's (the only source I know of), and (c) it's terribly slow to set up, once it's worked, and (d) I have no experience with it, BUT (e) I've had enormous experience with Epoxy/filler compounds, and (f) they're fast and inexpensive and indestructible. . . .

SO - forgive me all you purists - I'm using the Gougeon Brothers West System 105 Epoxy resin and 206 Slow Hardener, with Microlight filler. It does everything "ji" does, but quicker, more permanently, easier, faster and less expensively.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge please

Off we go - for better or for worse - I "filled" the bore of the top half of my shakuhachi project this morning. And I think all is well so far - but I'm so dumb, what do I know! This is the utaguchi end, after I filled it, and the whole idea now is to come back through here, sand it out to the precise bore silhouette, and repeat these steps until it is perfect. I hope!

Monty Levenson asked me a couple of days ago why I didn't do the utaguchi first - suggesting kindly that I should have. But I didn't want to take a chance. I can't blow on it yet anyway - for a long time. And I'll just take a huge chance on breaking or otherwise damaging the utaguchi or inlay, if I do it this early in the game. I'd feel safer waiting a while for it . . . .

When I'm using Epoxy, I've learned to always make way too much! And I have it spread out here on cardboard so it won't go off too fast and so I can pick it up easily with my bamboo spatulas.

Click to enlarge.

Which you can't buy - so far as I've been able to determine - anywhere on planet Earth other than Mejiro's in Tokyo. I could not even find ordinary lacquer for sale here in America. But urushi is a different breed of cat anyway.

And - if you've got the time and money - I would recommend using ji (urushi and tonoko powder) rather than my secret Epoxy formula.

This is the fashion in which it is collected in Japan and China, thought the Japanese is significantly higher in quality. Nothing from China is high in quality!

Go check out this web site, and then come back here: #

Click to enlarge please.

Click to enlarge.

This morning I did another practice binding, this time using a special silk necklace cord, which I like very much. But I tried CA again, and still hate it. It DOES osmose down through the cord, which I need, but it leaves a rough and ugly surface. I'm gonna' try Epoxy now. . . .

Here's an interesting 1.8' spec sheet I picked up from a Czech shakuhachi site. . . .

Czech it out {^-^}

Click to enlarge.

Okay, Monte Levenson sent me some of his black binding cord, and I did a FINAL binding on the upper half of my shakuhachi. Here are shots of the raw binding, on the left, then one with one coat of Epoxy on top, in the right photo, and this latter will be the final finish of my bindings:

Click to enlarge.

Be careful of the urushi, guys! I barely touched it one time with one tiny fingertip - just to see if it were dry. And these water blisters covered 80% of my body, plus my wife also got an awful rash, and she never touched urushi!

Click to enlarge.

IF YOU GET HIT BY THIS PLAGUE: FLY, don't drive, to your nearest physician or ER, and get one or more Corticosteroid shots and a prescription for Hydroxazine Hydrochloride the generic for Atarax, by the Apotex Corporation. Hydroxazine HCL is an antihistamine used to relieve the symptoms of common anxiety and tension and, in combination with other medications, to treat anxiety that results from physical illness. It also relieves itching from allergic reactions and can be used as a sedative before and after general anesthesia.

BUT NOW BACK TO MY SHAKUHAHCI BUILDING: I'm now doing the long and tedious task of profiling out the bore, so there won't be a whole lot to talk about here for a time. Just for example, it took me days to get the first 10 cm profiled out at the top of the shakuhachi (to the desired 22 mm inside diameter). And now I'm working on the second 10 cm. down from there.

PLUS I am making the bore about 2 mm larger inside diameter than necessary, to leave room for additional smoothing coats (which will also have to be sanded out), plus the finish gel coat or paint.

Click to enlarge.

AND MY FAVORITE TOOL AT THIS JUNCTURE: is a 12 gauge Wal-Mart shotgun cleaning rod. I sawed a 1/8" wide, by 2" deep notch in the top end, to hold sandpaper, and I ground a triangle at the bottom, so that the rod won't slip in my electric drill chuck. And I simply cut and insert rough sandpaper into the slot and grind away at the bore. It is very slow, but quite adequate.

By the way, I finally gave up on my $6 pool cue bore measuring discs, and bought this set from Mejiro for 4000 yen ($36). I plan to make shakuhachi as long as I live, and these are much more convenient!

Click to enlarge.

AND, WHILE WE'RE LEARNING HOW TO MAKE THINGS: You can't live without a tsuyutoshi, cleaning cloth for your shakuhahci. And here's the quick and easy way to whip one together. You use:

� a square of light cotton cloth about the size of your shakuhachi (40 - 50cm square).

I'm a proud iconoclast, and dearly love to shatter the proclamations of the pontificators!

And, recently, when I uploaded a post on the shakuhachi list, extolling the admittedly virtues of Frank's $3.95 root culms, the usual ugly buzzards pounced on me, hoping for a free meal. "Well, gee whiz, I got cheated when I didn't get a world-class root culm from Frank's for my big $3.95," they all joined in the chorus. Dolts!

So I promptly whipped out this really nice jinashi nobekan in less than one day. Flawless pitch, tone, timbre, it really plays like a dream - for $3.95:

But then an internet acquaintance of mine outdid me in spades! He created this truly museum-quality jinashi nobekan out of another of Franks skid-row, $3.95 culms. Just look at this masterpiece! And so much for the pontifications of the pious naysayers on the list:

Click to enlarge

I've been sanding the inside of the bore on both pieces, but of course had to apply a second coat of my Epoxy/filler compound, both to fill in voids and to bring the bore size down a few more millimeters - just as the shakuhachi makers of old did with their ji. Except the Epoxy is just a tad more difficult to handle than ji. And, this morning I re-filled the top half of my fine shaku8 with the compound.

BY THE WAY: TOM DEAVER recommends this water-based YANAGIYA hair pomade for the nakatsugi of all shakuhachi, and he sent me a jar (thank you Tom!). Or you can buy it at #. Plus, by the way, they also sell shakuhachi and all sorts of shakuhachi and komuso related goodies. Neat stuff!

BUT YOU DEFINITELY need to use some water-based, preferably non-petroleum grease on the nakatsugi of all shakuhachi. But, frankly, just to save the nakatsugi, I virtually never take my shakuhachi apart.

If you cannot find truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it? Dogen Zenji