Episode 14: A Japanese Bass Maker

April 15, 2025

La Chiave di Basso - with Keiji Nishimura 西村 啓志

The Italian-trained young Japanese Bass Maker

📍 Matsuyama, Japan

Website: https://liuteriabasso.tumblr.com/

Thoughts and Reflections

Together wiith my wife, we were travelling around the island of Shikoku (Japan's 4th largest island) for a holiday. We rented a small camper van and drove around to explore the different sites. We really enjoyed taking a chairlift up to the beautiful Mount Tsurugi, visiting the vine bridges, taking a boat ride in the gorge, making our own paper at the paper museum, and seeing the famous Naruto whirlpools. 

In Matsuyama, we went to one of the most beautiful and oldest onsens (Japanese bathhouse). While on ourr trip, I couldn't miss a chance to visit an instrument maker. Fortunately, I found one of the few bass makers in the country. Keiji-san was incredibly supportive and nice during our visit. A slight language barrier made filming a bit chaotic. Ahead of the interview, I wrote questions in English, which I sent to him in Japanese. During the interview, he answered in Japanese, while a live Google Translate app on my phone translated what he said. If we needed to converse, we did it in Italian, as my wife speaks it (from being half-Italian) and Keiji who lived there for almost a decade to study bass-making. He also spoke English when he could. 

Despite language issues, it was clear that he was quite a fun character and I honestly wished I could have spent more time laughing with him.