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Jinashi Shakuhachi Making Workshop with Murai Eigoro at Bamboo-In
May 14-15, 2005

This past weekend at Bamboo-In, Pender Harbour, BC, Canada, was beautiful beyond words. It was characterized by peace, great food, and bamboo spirit. A special thanks goes to my wife, Sandra for creating the sumptuous meals and managing the finances behind the scenes. It wouldn't have been such a success without her.

We spent the last three weeks before the workshop preparing the garden by constructing several benches and tables out of logs we cut down from trees on our property. We also relandscaped the area and finished Sandra's wood-fired kiln. I also made 15 mitre boxes out of scrap wood for shakuhachi crafting for everyone to use.

We were definitely nervous about how the workshop would go. Would there be enough tools? Would everyone get a nice piece of bamboo? Would the lodging be adequate for the participants? In short, would everyone be satisfied? 15 people registered and some spouses came so we had to accomodate 25 people. Folks from New York, Oregon, Alberta, and all around BC attended.

The weather forecast was rain all weekend so we were concerned if we could even hold it at Bamboo-in. Sandra remembered that our neighbor, Paul, had a large tent so we asked if we could borrow it. He said since it was the property of the Pender Harbour Garden Club of which he was a member, and he could only lend it out to non-profit organizations. Since we were one, it was no problem. When we erected it, we were pleasantly surprised to see it was larger than we expected. It was 15 x 15 and the center pole reached 20 feet in the air. It was a very solid, high quality white tent which kept the area dry perfectly.

I drove to Vancouver early morning and picked up Murai-san and his wife and son-in-law, Shiochi, at the airport. We spent all day driving around Vancouver to see the sights: Stanley Park, Robson Street, Chinatown, North Vancouver, Lynn Valley, West Van, etc. We returned to the Sunshine Coast around 8 PM where we had dinner at Ichiban Japanese Restaurant in Sechelt with a stunning view of the ocean.

Sandra spent the whole day at home cooking for the weekend. We were all very tired at the end of the day so our sleep was deep and full of snores.

Friday, May 13

The next day was spent all day preparing for the workshop by making the "tame-dai" bamboo bending device, arranging benches and tables, and buying a few more tools. We found time to harvest fresh oysters from the bay nearby and Sandra spent another 14 hours cooking. In the afternoon most of the participants checked into the Sunshine Ch'an Monastery just 10 minutes from Bamboo-In.

Saturday, May 14

5:30 AM was meditation at the Monastery where we sat for 1 hour with Sifu Chien Harne (Master Henry). Then everyone carpooled to Bamboo-in where a delicious breakfast was served. At 8:30 we started. Murai-san brought one piece of fine madake for everyone and handed out each piece.

This first day was composed of:

TAMERU: Bamboo Straightening

FUSHI NUKU: Joint removal

TE ANA: Making finger holes

UTAGUCHI TEZUKURI: Fashioning mouthpiece

At first all of us just obeserved Murai-san as he did started most of the work on the flutes as most had no experience working with bamboo. Later everyone started to get comfortable to use the tools to hollow out the bamboo and fashion the root ends of their flutes.

Lunch and dinner was exquisite to say the least: a mix of Middle Eastern, Asian, European deserts...

After dinner everyone washed up at the monastery and entered the meditation hall where Mastery Henry took us through three schedules of meditation: silent meditation, mudras, and chanting. Then we played honkyoku on the flutes we made.

Sunday, May 15

The day started with another 5:30 AM meditation at the Monastery. It was raining that morning so breakfast was served in our house: popovers, fruit, granola.... Luckily the rain subsided around 10 AM.

This day was spent individually tuning each flute. Those who had to leave earlier were given first priority. Murai-san worked non-stop all day refining each flute by fashioning the utaguchi, hole size, bore work. Needless to say it was fascinating to see him work with rasp and file as he knew just where to go inside and outside the flute to change the sound as needed.

Of course another awesome lunch and dinner...barbeque, fresh salmon, wild rice, pumpkin soup, fresh oysters, pumpkin pie, gluten-free chocolate cake...

Randall and Joel came up from Oregon and didn't need to leave till Monay so Murai-san reserved their flutes till Monday as everyone had to leave that Sunday back to their homes.

That evening at meditation we sat in silence for one hour then played honkyoku for 30 minutes.

Thus, ended the workshop.

Everyone returned with a smile on their faces, peace in their hearts, and a fine jinashi shakuhachi in their bags.

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Next year we are planning on having Kinya Sogawa to lead the next workshop. And of course we are going to Japan again in November to harvest bamboo with Atsuya Okuda's Zensabo and Murai-san. Those interested in joining this wonderful experience, let me know as soon as possible as the maximum # of pilgrims for this trip is 8 and space fills up fast. You can read about our last trip here.

The Bamboo-In is now open for those interested in retreats for meditation and honkyoku study. Please contact me at ramos@bamboo-in.com to inquire about space availability.