Month: September 2026

Chiyo-ni (1703 – 1775)

clear water
no front
no back

 

From: The Poetry of Chiyo-ni
Translated by Patricia Donegan and Yoshie Ishibashi
Tuttle Publishing: 2025

This beautiful Vihuela is now in my care. It comes from the workshop of a  South Australian luthier, Tim Guster.
The soundboard is European Spruce; the finger-board Macassar Ebony; the side and bottom American Rock Maple. Note the striking ‘fiddleback’ grain, and the fine Rose decoration.
Tim makes Harps, Renaissance and Baroque Lutes, Theorbos, Baroque Guitars, Vihuelas, 19th century Guitars and Hurdy Gurdies – these last, in particular, requiring a level of skill well above my level….