Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Reading the thread that ultimately got trolled, I happened to think of a conversation I had a while back. I was telling someone who knew a little bit about shakuhachi that recently I tried such and such instrument that was about 100-150 years old, give or take. I proceeded to explain how it sounded and how it was kind of nice instrument. This person, upon hearing the 100-150 figure, started to look at me almost as if I just told him that my dinner table was made by Jesus himself. He asked me how is it possible that some chump from the streets is able to own or even play an instrument that by any sort of logic should be stashed away in some sort of museum somewhere. I had never really thought about this much until then. It just seemed natural that many people, even beginners, could very easily own old instruments that in many other circles would not even get touched.

The point was brought up that sometimes old instruments were made out of cheap materials and also weren't always of the highest quality. It would therefore seem strange to ask really high prices for such items that weren't originally meant to be any sort of pieces of art. Yet, old instruments often sell for pretty high prices even if their quality isn't necessarily anything special.

One thing about old instruments that places them into a whole different category is that nobody can make more of them right now. Nobody who is alive now gets to see their flutes become 100 years old. You simply can't make more old flutes and sell them to people who want them. If you insist on a flute that is ancient, you are taking something from a limited - even if fairly large - pool of things. The amount of Meiji-era flutes is fixed and the amount of decent ones is a small subset of those. As you get further into history this pool just keeps getting smaller.

Ever since I started to think about this I've been constantly amazed and very thankful that I am able to own a few flutes made by wonderful makers who are no longer with us. Although hoarding stuff is, in my opinion, a poor way to remember the past I still feel thankful for those who shaped the past for us whenever I play a flute whose maker has already passed away. It makes me happy to know that flutes which have passed from one person to another over the course of decades or even centuries are still in circulation and still bring joy the to hearts of those who play them. In some way I trust that the makers of those instruments will never truly die for as long as there is even one flute of theirs being played somewhere.