UKULELEjapan Video Pick |
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Today some of the best ukuleles are being made in Japan. Japanese Monozukuri (物作り) culture which emphasizes quality and craft over volume and quantity is the perfect environment for building really attractive, high quality, beautiful sounding instruments.
Sumi Kubo, owned and operated by luthier Sumi Eiichi (鷲見英一）in Nagano Prefecture is a great example of Japanese Monozukuri. Sumi-san is one of many excellent Japanese luthiers that place a high value on producing only the best instruments. Cheap? No, but to coin an old phrase "You get what you pay for." Check out our recent blog post on Quiet Village, where if you're lucky enough to visit you might actually be able to see a Sumi. (Thanks to reader Arie van der Reijden for introducing me to this wonderful luthier!) |
When it comes to the ukulele, outside of Hawaii Japan is where you can find some of the best arrangers, composers, performers, and instructional materials! I'm an amatuer ukulele player who happens to be fluent in Japanese. For many years Japanese have kept their passion for the ukulele burning strongly and not surprisingly, some of the best instructional material, performers (pros and amateurs), and instruments can be found there. Now you can find it here!
UkeKev |