This neighborhood still has a lot of character. It’s nice. Were you born here?

Yes, I was. I was born in Arakawa-ku (in 1947) and raised here too. It used to be all craftsmen living around here. My father was a craftsman. He used to make the necks for shamisen.

So with shamisen craftspeople the work is divided up then, is it? Do you have a specialty, Mr. Katoh?

I’m a hide stretcher. My father told me, “The people stretching the hides make good money, so you should become a hide stretcher.” So when I graduated from junior high school, I began my apprenticeship under a hide stretcher. (laughs)

You started working as a craftsman straight out of junior high school. I can’t even imagine that.

I was fifteen, so I didn’t even really think about it. I just became a craftsman. Every day, learning new techniques, that was my job.

It must have been really tough.

Oh, but I was really lucky because the place I was apprenticing at had a lot of books. The first book I read there was Hesse’s Beneath the Wheel. My world opened up and I began to think about a lot of things. “Well, am I going to continue like this, as a mere shamisen hide stretcher, for the rest of my life?” and other things like that. And that was when I decided to work as a craftsman while going to night school.

Is that right? Speaking of which, how many years did you spend apprenticing to be a craftsman?

Seven years. After I finished, I was twenty-two years old and I set out on a trip. For two years, I hitch-hiked and slept outside, walking all over Japan. I didn’t have any money, so sometimes I took on temporary jobs that included room and board, and just travelled around at my own whim. If I saw a beautiful sunset somewhere, I’d say to myself, “Alright, I’ll camp here for the night.” It was that kind of trip. You could say I was a certain type of idiot. (laughs) But at that time, there were lots of people in Japan that we called the “kani-zoku.”

Kani-zoku? What’s that?

In the 1960s and 70s, people would carry 30 kilo packs on their backs and take off on long journeys without any money. Those two years I spent travelling, that was wasted time. But it was my “precious wasted time,” I suppose you could say. (laughs) I don’t know how it’s helping me, but those two years of experiences are stored away, and they’ve had a big influence on my life since then.

I see. You’re a shamisen maker, but there’s a certain rock’n’roll sense of freedom in your workshop. That could be where it comes from. I wonder if that helped give you the inspiration to make an electric shamisen?

In all actuality, I really don’t know. The electric shamisen itself
was originally made after I saw a musician playing a shamisen in a live concert. He was performing with a stand mic, but the shamisen was drowned out by the sounds of the other instruments. I started thinking about how to fix that problem, and began doing research and
development on an electric shamisen. That was back when I’d just started this shop, in 1989.

Did you want to take that beautiful natural shamisen sound and change it to an electric sound?

That’s not quite it. Actually, the truth is I wanted to take the natural sound and make it beautiful by using electricity. I mean, the guitar, the bass, the drums, if you want to go on stage with modern instruments like that you’ve normally got to play into a stand mic, and it’s very hard to hear the shamisen.

What do you mean exactly?

All the stand mic picks up are the attack notes and all of the lingering tones are lost. The other instruments use a line to pick up the sound, and drums are loud to begin with. He wanted to play on stage with those instruments, and in order to be heard, he had to use an electric line. That’s why the original point of making an electric shamisen wasn’t to create an unusual sound, but to accurately reproduce the beautiful and subtle tones of the shamisen. We went through a lot of trial and error to make it, but thanks to our hard work, our shamisen have shared a stage with the famous taiko drummer Eitetsu Hayashi.

Wow, is that right! That’s kind of revolutionary, isn’t it?

In one way, we just connected tradition with the future. Even so, “Shamisen, for the next millenium!” was the last thing on our minds. (laughs) Even so, I like to do futuristic stuff for my own enjoyment.

I see. “Futuristic stuff.” I think I get what you’re talking about.

For example, the shamisen concert advertised on this poster. This is the kind of futuristic stuff I’m trying out. The performers are really famous. Hiromitsu Agatsuma, he’s famous, right? And how about Shinichi Kinoshita and Hidetaro Honjo? I’m talking about the A-list of the shamisen world here.

Mr. Katoh, are you the promoter behind this star-studded event? I don’t mean to be rude, but craftspeople don’t usually go arranging concerts…

Yes. There’s no direct connection between the events and my business, and my wife is always saying, “Maybe it’s time you stopped?” (laughs) But really, I belonged to a theater company when I was younger, and I’m used to stage work. I used to act when I wasn’t working. That experience is serving me well now. Also, the participants are all customers of mine.

I see… It really is worthwhile to pursue things outside your regular career, isn’t it? You really are a rock’n’roll kind of guy. And on top of that, you make musical instruments that can make a sound that satisfies the top musicians. I just thought you had an interesting product and came to see you, but I clearly underestimated you! I’m very sorry.

Well, I’m good at just going with the flow. I don’t think, I just do what’s necessary in each situation, trying things out in the field, and using the results of that in my work. Years of repeating that work style has taken me to where I am now. In that sense, I think my young years travelling as a kani-zoku have served me well. (laughs)

I think that’s a really wonderful, happy thing!

Oh, I think you’re right. People who have everything but don’t know what they want to do in life must lead a pretty boring existence. Even in a tough, poor environment, if you know what you should do, if you manage to find a dream, you’re going to be a happy man. Making things I can get excited about and putting on stages is what does it for me. But, I pay for it. After an event is over is the toughest… Last year, the day after the concert I couldn’t even climb the stairs in the subway station I was so burned out. (laughs)