Oldest Shakuhachi ever at Yung Flutes

Hello all, A post on another thread prompted me to share some photos of the oldest shakuhachi I have ever had the pleasure of working on.


This is a Seien Ryu shakuhachi. It's difficult to say how old it is because I don't have carbon data technology here. But from the wear on the external urushi and style of flute, my guess is it's about 200 years old, more or less.


There was fossilized mold along the surface of flute, but the urushi still polished perfectly after all these years.




I replaced the missing utaguchi inlay with a new one made from reclaimed ivory.



The owner and I agreed that it was best to leave as much original detail as possible.

That's it this week from This Old Flute.