Mejiro Co. — Local services in Tokyo

A wonderful shop specializing in materials for making shinobue, Japanese bamboo flutes and shakuhachi, the beautiful and haunting Zen flute. The shop carries all manner of specialized materials from raw bamboo for the flute body to urushi for finishing- and all tools necessary. You can also purchase finished instruments in a wide variety of styles. So if you know a special musician, this would be a great place to buy them a special gift!

The owner is fluent in English, so westerners can easily get the help they need to buy just the right items. The store also has instructions for material use, and they freely offer their advice and knowledge.

The shop is located in Mejiro, a very old part of Tokyo, and it has a charm all its own. Well worth taking the train up for an explore! Take the JR Yamanote line past Shinjuku station about 3 stops and you're there. The Mejiro Company is a short 3 block walk from the station, on Mejiro Dori.

If you are a flutist wanting to construct your own instrument, this is one of the best places you can hope to find! If you are interested in purchasing urushi for other crafts or kintsugi, you can find these items here as well. Do note that the Mejiro Japan Co. also sells some of their items on Etsy and eBay, so you can have access to hard-to-find supplies even after you get home. You can also find their very nice, how-to video on Kintsugi on Youtube, featuring beautiful music by one of Mejiro's...

This company has excellent Urushiol, and customer support via email. The Urushiol tubes I received arrived in perfect condition and I highly recommend them. Considering the slow international mail will help you not be impatient. I live in USA and can tell you international mail is slow until the package arrives in the US. I had issues of using too high heat and humidity in my curing box causing wrinkled Urushi as it dried, scraping off and redoing five times, ugh, until I asked for help and within 24 hours had a reply. This company was the only ones who would respond to my need for assistance. I had purchased other Urushi from someone in Japan and still have received no reply. Thank...

Это довольно известный магазин с хорошей историей и репутацией. Очень большой выбор традиционных японских инструментов и обучающей литературы. Мультиязычный сайт с конвертацией в валюту выбранной страны. Реально работающая и помогающая англоговорящая поддержка. Магазин тесно работает с производителями и если каких-то позиций нет - точно знает, когда они будут в наличии. Доставка в Россию очень быстрая - мне дошло за 7 дней. Я покупал Сякухати Ю и перед покупкой просмотрел множество различных магазинов. Могу с уверенностью сказать, что если вы где-то найдете цену ниже - это либо подделка, либо кустарная поделка, которая только выглядит как сякухати. Отдельно хочу отметить работу службы международной поддержки в лице госпожи Саори. Благодаря её стараниям сделка прошла гладко даже несмотря на странноватое поведение моего банка. И что самое важное и приятное - этим людям не всё равно, они заботятся о клиентах, как о своей семье. Большое спасибо!

This is a fairly well-known store with a good history and reputation. A very large selection of traditional Japanese instruments and educational literature. A multilingual website with conversion to the currency of the selected country. Really working and helping English-speaking support. The store works closely with manufacturers and if there are no positions, it knows exactly when they will be available. Delivery to Russia is very fast - it took me 7 days. I bought Shakuhachi Yu and looked at many different stores before buying. I can say with confidence that if you somewhere find a lower price, it’s either a fake or a makeshift craft that only looks like a shakuhachi. I would also like to note the work of the international support service in the person of Ms. Saori. Thanks to her efforts, the transaction went smoothly even despite the strange behavior of my bank. And what is most important and pleasant - these people do care, they care about customers, as about their family....