O yeah, for sure i’ve had my shamisen in my big tent in sw alberta down to around -10 or -15 (celsius that is) and there was no problem. When I was at the banff centre I used to try some playing in the street, (some psychotic idea I had to try and feel something of what it might have been like to be a Goze in the winter in old Japan. You know, like in the 2008 movie Ichi) it was winter time but to be honest, I would never go out unless it was above -5 and sunny and no wind. I generally could keep going for an hour but after about three or four times out, the town lawkeepers (not police) came and told me that I needed a license and it would cost almost $200 for that so I ditched that idea altogether.
Once the town was having a celebration, something about welcoming the snow in november 2 years ago (!) and it was -20 that night. They hired me to play that evening. My shamisen was fine but I wasn’t. I lasted about 15 minutes. There was a bon fire nearby but it didn’t seem to really help much. I also had to walk down and back and that would have been a good 25 minutes each way in the cold, so that was probably a good 2 hours with my shamisen exposed in pretty cold weather.
No no, that’s not quite it. actually they had a stage that has those propane heaters around it, but the sound system broke down when I was supposed to go up and so for my bit, rather than not play at all, I went down with common folk (you know, the riff raff) by the fire and played there. Never give up, never surrender! I made a sweet $100 though. Canadian dollars mind you so you know what that means…
Hmm. short story long… as Oscar Wilde (I think maybe) once said, ‘I would have written a shorter letter but I didn’t have the time’.
(to note, no Beginner’s Shamisen have broken in transit as of yet)