the Tokyo Japanese Music Instruments & Commerce Union
We, the Tokyo Japanese Music Instruments & Commerce Union, are the group of craftsmen to manufacture “Tokyo Koto” and “Tokyo Shamisen” designated as traditional arts
of Tokyo. Each of us is not only a craftsman to manufacture Koto and Shamisen but also a seller for them as retail store at the same time although in this industry
craftsmen usually concentrate on just manufacturing and entrust retail stores for selling. At this moment, we manufacture almost all of various music instruments
which many sectarians of schools based in Tokyo as well as their applentices utilize. By this mean, we are very much proud of supporting the Japanese traditional arts.
An event of demonstration to show the craftsmanship of hand-making Koto and Shamisen is held every summer at the large Hall of “Edo Tokyo Museum” in Ryogoku.
This is an unusual occasion for you to see how the instruments are manufactured in short distance within a couple of feet. Please try to open the page for “event” in
this HP and visit us with your family members to see this event by all means. Your visit will be highly appreciated as we will be so pleased and encouraged.
For your information, the admission is free and this might be usuful to school children for their summer vacation homework.
In addition, we will hold a service for hides used as the Shamisen material at the Eko-in Temple in Ryogoku in every autumn period, and also we hold other services
for “Ishimura Ohmi” who raised up the Shamisen to the world famous level as a finer instrument at so-called Shamisen Temple “Daishin-ji” in Shiba Gyoran-zaka, as well as
“Kin-Sanko” at the Benten-do of Kaneiji Temple near Ueno Shinobazu Pond.
Chairman’s message
The Tokyo Japanese Music Instruments & Commerce Union is the leading and representing manufacturers group of Japanese traditional instruments such as Koto and Shamisen and also the union was authorized by Tokyo Municipal Office as the only one group in the capital of Japan. The union is composed of 47 manufacturers at this moment who have inherited the traditional technology of “artisan’s technique of producing Koto and Shamisen” from predecessors and also have been improving continuously to create much better instruments.
I am very much proud of these excellent Japanese traditional music instruments and I would like to introduce them as handy instruments to all over the world and as many music lovers as possible, so please come to visit us and let us have your candid opinions and requests.
