Because elephants are majestic as fuk and there continued presence on this our planet Earth is more important than a longer lasting instrument.
That’s one way to phrase it. We’re getting a little off topic here, but just to clarify:
CITES is an acronymn for the U.N.’s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. This convention sought to stop the trade of living and dead endangered species (outside of very specific circumstances) in order to protect species in danger of extinction. The relative majesty of a creature isn’t that important.
More information here:
https://www.fws.gov/international/travel-and-trade/ivory-ban-questions-and-answers.html
As well, I’m not sure if ivory is that much more durable than modern synthetics. Someone with a background in construction or material longevity would need to chime in here.
Other kinds of ivory interact with CITES differently; I know at least one person on this forum has some mammoth ivory koma. Which is super neat.
I heard that Ivory is legally imported when talking about Japanese instruments. Yukie told me
This is a great community! I didn’t expect to get so much response to a non-shamisen issue. Thanks to all!
Deric, you have to know that this community is not only related to shamisen only, but it’s a “traditional Japanese music community” as well. In fact, I don’t play any kind of traditional Japanese instrument (I do katari, but ok…)
Whoops, checking back and will post if I find Satsuma Biwa…sorry first reply off topic!