3rd
Travel with a snakeskin sanshin?
Question: Have you asked about traveling with a snakeskin sanshin before?
I can honestly say that I have! I spoke with the second in command at Chindami Kougei, and since he has gone abroad to perform the sanshin in Brazil before, I asked if he’s had any problems taking snakeskin sanshin into other countries. He said he hadn’t had any problems going into Brazil with seven or so sanshin, but he ran into trouble in Hawaii when trying to bring in over 20 snakeskin sanshin. I asked, “Uhm… what about just one sanshin?” To which he laughed, “If it’s just one you probably don’t have to worry.”
So there you have it. Since the Okinawan sanshin is not a well known instrument, just saying “I don’t know what it’s made of” will let you slide through customs—if they check you that is. For me, when traveling with my non-snakeskin sanshin, I was never even asked to open my sanshin case. All they asked was “Instrument?” And gave me the go ahead. This was the case in both Japan and the US, traveling back and forth.
