Recent Bachido Activity!

Store/Sales
#1

Hello guys.

I haven’t seen a lot of activity in the past days…maybe no subjects to start a new post?

Ok,I will do it.

So…

Searching for shamisen auctions,and sales,I found a shamisen that I thought was Karin,and I think the other buyers,also thought so,but I saw something different on the dou. looking on the dou,through the broken skin,I noticed a pattern,and I made the image bigger. It had ayasugi. Then,almost instantly,I remembered the 4th kind of wood, White Kouki (Shirō Kōki)

Any of you guys have further info about white kouki?

Is it rare,or expensive?

This actually turned out to be very interesting,also because of the Tochi on the surface of the Sao.

#2

Hey Shinji,

All I know is that shiro-kouki is hardly used anymore, and very few, if any, shamisen stores will stock shamisen already constructed from it. It is more of a special-order, or chuuko type thing that nobody really bothers with…

I would be curious to find out more, but there is so little written about it, and it would be sort of rude to ask about something that is special-order without being somewhat serious about purchase. It is probably quite difficult for many makers to try and explain something so complicated in english as well. Hoping someone else on Bachido knows some more on the subject!!!

#3

Hoping someone else on Bachido knows some more on the subject!!!

Paging Dr. Gerry McGoldrick! :stuck_out_tongue:

#4

I have a lot of Japanese tools made out of Kashi (Japanese white oak) and it is really beautiful wood; extremely strong and dense with a bright white color. I would love to make a shamisen out of it, but since I already bought a big chunk o’ padauk for my second shamisen it will be a very long time before that happens.

#5

I specifically asked the guys at Kameya about this a while ago. They said that it isn’t really used anymore and that it was generally for practice or beginner shamisen. Based on this I would guess is ranks behind karin for price and quality. There are many kinds of oak but looking at the hardness tables almost all of them are far softer than karin or kouki.

On the other hand I have seen some for sale that look like they were well made. If you got a good price it might be worth it. However I would expect it to have a low resale value so that should also be considered.

On a previous thread I posted some pictures of a white kouki shamisen:

#6

I specifically asked the guys at Kameya about this a while ago. They said that it isn’t really used anymore and that it was generally for practice or beginner shamisen. Based on this I would guess is ranks behind karin for price and quality. There are many kinds of oak but looking at the hardness tables almost all of them are far softer than karin or kouki.

On the other hand I have seen some for sale that look like they were well made. If you got a good price it might be worth it. However I would expect it to have a low resale value so that should also be considered.

On a previous thread I posted some pictures of a white kouki shamisen:

Beginner shamisen? Don’t looks like, because the one I saw had kinboso and it was a 3 Level mitsuori

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