I don’t support the ivory trade, but I’m not against it. They make really good bachi out of ivory. Most ivory bachi are antiques so really, you’re not supporting the ivory trade by buying an antique. The bachi in your picture looks like ivory. But you may want to clean it with some type of bleach.
What about the dog skin, cat skin, cow hide?. The shamisen is made of rare wood even. Should they stop making the shamisen?
Not necessarily. 
With those materials running out, there is finally a push to try making shamisen from different, more plentiful materials. I think this is a very good pursuit. There are so many beautiful sounding woods in the world to make shamisen from.
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Most excellent point Kyle! I think that there is great potential for creating shifts in what is considered beautiful in instrument woods. I think it’s really great that there is a trend happening to break down instrument material prejudices and dare I say, traditions, that can happen over time.
At my end, I think I may have found a place that has some recycled wood from old houses collected here in N. Thailand. I’m going to try and have a look later this week or next. Not just teak these old houses, but lots of amazing dense hardwoods of many types were used.
Very true! One appreciable acknowledgment is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I think problems can happen (over-harvesting/over-hunting) when one feels that what they think is beautiful is ‘true’, and stories are created to justify that conception. (“beauty” of a leopard fur coat, or a solid tortoise shell doukake, for example)
Oh wow, those itomaki you recently made from that hardwood were amazing!
Kyle, thanks so much for the thumbs up. I really appreciate it.
This discussion is so interesting on so many levels.
I can’t quite find the right words but I have this thought of self-worth connected to things, rare things, class… all that sort of stuff.
That piece of Mai Rak that I made the itomaki out of is so beautiful. Beautiful to work with and also beautiful to witness how it transforms from a bright red on cutting to a darker tones down red on aging.
The friend that gave it to me (the husband of the Thai friends that own the house that I am living in) had such a look of delight when he handed the piece to me. Not lumber, but rather a 4 or 5 inch diameter X 6 foot branch that had being set aside. Much of the house supports are made from such pieces. I think a lot of it found on the ground in the forest around here. The other day he named a bunch of the wood that the house is made from. All said with a deep reverence of its source. Pretty much all of it would make incredible instruments… such dense woods here.
I really love the idea that, as much as possible, instrument making (and really, anything making) be a celebration of the materials that we start out with and transform, that it could be a way to get closer the that natural source of all life, of a kind of joy of life and not just simply a taking.
hmm…
Making is deeply human. Making makes our brains shine in ancient light.
Add wonderful materials to making and the feeling of worth in the act and object is ineluctable.
Conflating ivory and catskin is spurious - elephants are about to blink out; cats are an environmental disaster. A shame about the cultural taboos against using cat products, in my opinion. 40 million dead songbirds in in North America alone would agree.
There are so many things humans should stop doing. Making music is not one of them. If we can do it without leaving a mark, so much the better.
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My my, Tomo, VERY nicely put!
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It looks ivory. You should cherish the patina rather than trying to remove it. You might ruin it trying to clean it,and youre unlikely to find another. Personally i would prefere not to use ivory for ethical reasons,but yours looks old so you should just use and enjoy it as it is,it has a lot of history.
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