Questions

General
#1

okay, so my first question is one that I have been meaning to ask for a while now. So I have a Mitsuori shamisen that I purchased off of eBay. It didn’t come with any guards to protect the ends of each section when taken apart. What should I do? Am I able to buy a set somewhere? is it something that would need to custom made? Also if just never took it apart, do need to worry about this?

Also I leaving soon to study in Japan for a year. What kind of things should I be worried about bringing my shamisen with me if anything? I have watched Kyle’s video on preparing a shamisen for a plane flight. is there anything else?

Lastly, I’m debating between getting the Mitsuori case and the pack case. I was wondering how protective the pack case is against weather elements or something since it not a hard case like the other one? The pack case seems ideal right now because of the price and the fact I don’t have guards to protect joints of my shamisen.

Thank you a bunch!!

1 Like
#2

For many years now I’ve been traveling with a mitsuori shamisen using styrofoam which I cut into shape to fit snugly into the notches of each end and it’s been working great. Before that I had been using the wooden end stoppers and was traumatized when a slight impact caused a little slit in the sao’s wood. This was what influenced my decision to switch to styrofoam .

Also, going through customs I’ve found it best to just lie about things like the dog or cat skin and turtle shell or ivory (if it applies) .
Best is to just claim all of it is plastic or some kind of synthetic plastic skin material. This might not apply to travel into or within Japan as much as when traveling outside of Japan (United states, England etc.) but I figured it’s worth a mention.

#3

Thank you for the advice. I never would have thought about cat/dog skin, probably would have slipped my mind. Mine is calf skin. That won’t cause too much problem, would it?

#4

Not unless you can’t bring your shoes into the country :slight_smile:

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