A knot that actually holds?

Building/Repair
#1

Hi.

I’m guessing there’s already a thread for this, because I don’t think I’m alone…

I’m a little tired of finding my san no ito has come untied every single time I open my case. Then I inevitably spend all my precious practice time trying to get the dumb thing to stay tied. The first time it happened was right before a concert; thankfully a fisherman was there; he used an unorthodox knot, but it held longer than usual… a few days, anyway.

As someone who is learning a variety of Japanese art forms, I am aware that there is a correct way to do just about anything… but I’ve grown rather tired of the “correct” knot failing to hold. Any alternatives? Correct or incorrect, I don’t really care at this point.

#2

Hey there Celia~

I’m assuming you mean attaching it to the neo?

The knot I always use for my san-no-ito is similar to how I knot the other ito as well. It’s pretty simple, actually, but takes some tightening and such once you’ve got it on right.

Basically what you do is stick the ito through the little neo loop.

Next, you wanna wrap it and make 2 loops with it, both going the same direction. Let’s choose counter clock-wise.

(That funny looking thing in the lower left (not the shadow, the drawing) is my simplified rendition of a neo)

Then, pinching where everything meets, twist the two-looped ito 180-degrees to the right and hook it over the neo loop.

After both loops of the ito are over the neo loop, hold the tail of the ito with one hand and pull it all tight using the other. You might have to adjust/feed the ito through a bit, but that should do it!

I hope my illustrations were of use, my instruction was easy to understand, and this knot serves you well.

Best of luck!

#3

The failsafe version is to tie a simple knot on the small end after doing the initial knot. This ball of string will keep it from slipping. I do this when the damn string goes out. When I got my shamisen the san no ito had a knot on it already.

#4

Also, I find that if i put a match to the end of the san no ito it makes a small tiny melted ball of ito and that can help to keep it from slipping through if gets to the end.

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