In September, I had the great pleasure to be in the company of Taichi san, an expert in kawahari and friend of Katou san. With his generous knowledge, he explained the methods and had great patience in watching me spend hours struggling with stretching the skin. I am very greatful for the time he has dedicated to me, and will do my best to fulfill his wish - to ensure that shamisen lives on through the ages!
In this episode, we have a frank discussion about the future of shamisen.
That’s so awesome that Taichi san stopped by to teach you his kawahari secrets! It seems crazy that you couldn’t get the skin to break. Usually you would think of the skin as something that is pretty delicate, but maybe it has a lot more give while it is still wet and stretchy.
I am really impressed by both yours and Taichi san’s skinning equpiment. Seeing them inspired me to start designing my own similar one, with clamps and a hydraulic jack (except I would also like mine to be super easy to use and be portable).
I was also wondering how you keep coming up with skinless dou to practice on. Natural breakage? Or do you just ferociously tear them off in a bout of OCD? 
Enjoying the music. That’s just the gist of it all.