Otaki Elementary and Middle School

The school festival, field day, and other big days students look forward to

At the Otaki School, art and "integrated studies" classes are devoted to making musical instruments. Because logging for Japanese cedar, cypress, and other trees is a major industry in the area, students use wood from nearby forests to make their own instruments. They all start by building a bandore, a European instrument shaped like a guitar. Each student creates their own designs for the body, attaches a neck, and stretches the strings. The process takes about a month and a half.

After they learn the basics of working with wood, they're ready to take on the challenge of making a violin. The students use tools like the chisel, mallet, and plane and begin with a wooden board and block. Wood shavings flying through the air as the students, engrossed in the project, cut wood based on their own designs and fashion delicate curves with small planes.

Mr. Jyun'ichi Nakazawa began teaching the class 20 years ago. "Making instruments requires concentration and patience, and it provides students with a sense of accomplishment. They come to realize that each finished violin has a different tone," he said.

On this day, a fifth-grade girl is adding the final touches on a violin; all she needs to do now is to apply the varnish. She began making it more than two years ago, when she was still in second grade. "The hardest part was making the spiral at the end of the neck. You have to shave the block of wood with a chisel and smooth it with sandpaper. This part alone took about a half a year."

The girl then played on her violin, which produced a simple and pleasant tone.