I heard that Masahiro Nitta was coming here from Japan. Note, this came to my attention roughly a week before the day he’d come. Mind you, I heard this *just* after I took the skins off my shamisen (so I could lacquer the wood). Talk about timing. Never the less, I was optomistic. I figured, lacquering would only take about 3 days, skinning would take two. Lacquering went so flawlessly (well, I had to redo it once, but that’s beside the point) that I had an extra day to skin. I stretched the backside first. That went on very easy. It held on extra good because I didn’t stretch it as tight as I could’ve. Since I only had two sheets of precious dog skin, I was worried about breaking one of them. I wasn’t used to dog skin, and didn’t know that it can be stretched far tighter than goat. I should’ve stretched it tighter, but that was ok. The front side is what really matters.
So, after letting the back side dry for a day, I stretched the other side much tighter. This is really where it got crazy. I was about to write a friend and say that I finally put the dog skin on, and that we would see how much different it sounded, but I didn’t want to unleash a Murphy’s Law incident and have the skin rupture right after I sent the email. (I know, superstitions are out of style, but frankly, I did’nt want to risk anything with this stuff) So, I waited ’till the skin was fully dry. Then I sent the email. “pwned you Murphy!” I smugly thought. Little did I know that the next day, the glue wouldn’t hold the skin down! Augh! “No worries” I thought, I still had two chances/days left to get the skin on before the troupe arrived. I stretched the skin it on again, same tension (both in the skin, and in my nerves). To not risk anything, I didn’t even write a response to my friend who replied about the shamisen skinning. (yes, it was nuts, but really…)
Well, the next day, it popped off again. I lost most of my emotion the first time it popped off, so it didn’t hit me that hard. Nothing else to lose, I put it on again. As I was putting the rice glue on the gluing surface, I noticed that the glue was getting a bit runny. So I went upstairs and made a new batch, this time thicker and doughier than before. Papa also suggested that I put more acetone on it (rosewood is very oily and needs acetone for optimal gluing) and also roughen up the surface. So I did all of those things and stretched the skin on, this time even tighter than before. I was amazed that the skin didn’t break from the repeated stretchings (with goat skin, it would’ve ruptured by now).
While I was waiting for the skin to dry, rather than being hopeful, I was already expecting that the skin would pop off again. So for the whole day, while I was doing other stuff, I was thinking what I was going to if when the skin pops off.
The next day, I was doing construction work next door, still thinking about the skin, and what I was going to do to stretch it before tomorrow. Mama then called out, saying that Kevin called just now and said that today will be their only day they can come before their tour. Right then, my spirit and aspirations sank down into my intestines. . .
What happens next? Did the skin not only pop off, but rupture into fifty tiny pieces? Did the skin manage to hold? Was the suspense so much that I had a heart attack before I found out? Find out next time!
