Hello guys
I got a question for bachido staff. Can you guys send my sanshin neck to a sanshin maker? I need someone to repaint my sanshin with genuine and original urushi lacquer.
Thanks!
Kyle? If you can find any manufacturer i would be grateful.
I got a manufaturer,but he wants 30000yen for urushi.
Can you find a cheaper manufacturer that uses genuine, original urushi lacquer?
i just asked my contacts and searched awhile on the internet… and cant seem to find any urushi lacquer by itself anywhere.
However ill ask my landlord next i see him as he is a jack of all trades with a wide expertise in woodwork, to see if he knows anyone who has some or who can get some ^^
When i can figure out that I could tell you the price of lacquer in itself then estimate the average charge for some ones time and material.
If that helps at all
I had been interested in having my old shamisen re-lacquered and asked a few shops. They basically said it just isn’t done so I don’t think it is very common.
Urushi is extremely difficult to do which is why it is expensive. It causes severe allergic reactions and must be cured at the right temperature and humidity. A special box is usually used for this. There are also several grades of the uncured lacquer used for different purposes so you really have to know what you are doing. It will probably be difficult to find someone to do this who doesn’t specialize in it.
Your best bet will be the shops that do the lacquer for the sanshin but I don’t think you will find much difference in pricing.
For my dou I just ended up using a polyurethane wipe on coat on top of the urushi and it looks great.
Hi Shinji,
Like Michael said, Urushi is so expensive because it is so labor-intensive to manufacture and to apply to objects. Did your sanshin come with real urushi?
If your sanshin didnt come with real urushi, then you shouldnt put urushi on it. When used for lacquer work, the wood has to be seasoned and dried properly so the urushi will not crack. If you try to put urushi on wood that has not been dried, then the wood may expand and crack the lacquer.
I think 30,000 yen is a really good price considering the amount of labor needed to remove whatever is on your sanshin right now and to reapply layers and layers of lacquer… I might actually be a bit worried about the quality of the lacquer for that price.
Michael, I thought that the shops reapply urushi after any kanberi work, Do they?
30000 yen sounds right for urushi. As Michael said, it’s really difficult to do, and then there’s the whole allergic reaction thing. It’s a specialized skill.
The current cheap and safe version of urushi is called Cashew, which is made from a tree in the same Sumac family, but not the same variety. Thus, not real urushi.
When I made my first shamisen, I wanted to buy urushi to use. In the end, I finally settled for a thinned polyurethane (which most shamisen makers use as well).
Urushi was great in the past because that was the only hard lacquer available (I think). Nowadays, a good, black paint or stain would work fine.
My advice, get someone local to paint it and use the extra money for other shamisen gear. 
… or coffee.
Joe, I have only worked with shamisen which don’t have urushi on the sao. I have seen sanshin in Tokyo shamisen shops but no parts so I bet they bring them in from specialty sanshin makers. I assume they are mostly made in Okinawa (?), far far away from the Tsugaru region. Is there anyone on Bachido that has connections in Okinawa?
Considering the prices I have seen for sanshin I wouldn’t be surprised if they used a modern polymer finish for most of them and not urushi.
For my first shamisen I bought urushi lacquer at DIY-shop Tokyu Hands (near Shibuya station in Tokyo). I lacquered my shami by myself. I was worried about allergic reactions, but it was ok. No reactions for me, but this depends on the person. Anyway, I tried to be very careful with urushi. It took long time to dry in a moistened box.
Original urushi is very troublesome.
After that I’ve used modern polyurethane etc lacquers which I can buy here. They are easy to use.