Dick Parker - Posted - 12/12/2009:  11:43:10

The new issue of Fretboard Journal has an amazing (to me) article on what happened to the Tsumura banjo collection. I hadn't known that Akira Tsumura lost his collection in the 1990s after being scammed and framed in a multimillion-dollar fraud by an associate. Guitar collector and former employee Mac Yasuda located the heart of the Tsumura collection -- about 450 banjos -- in a barn in a rice-paddy area of Japan where they'd been stored since the 1990s by the folks who seized them from Tsumura and had given the oldest instruments in his collection to museums. The banjos in the barn were piled amid dead rats, moss, etc., and some at the bottom of the heap had literally rotted. Yasuda cleaned up the remainder, including B&D NPU #9s, Gibson All-Americans, etc., and shipped them back to the United States. He's looking for a nonprofit or some such place who could buy and exhibit them. I wonder if the Hall of Fame in Oklahoma is a possibility? Probably not the Banjo Hangout, eh?

It's a fascinating story. Did many of you already know this? I was aware of the Tsumura collection, with my acquaintance limited to George Gruhn's book -- I can't afford the Tsumura book.

(The closest I've come to Yasuda's task in my experience has been cleaning up a TB-1 sent to me by a buddy who had it under his basement stairs for 25 years. We took tenor banjo lessons together in 1964, but he hadn't touched his in a quarter-century or more and thought it was time to give it a good home. It was pretty mildewed, and I had to throw away the case, but it looks OK and sounds great now.)

You might find copies of Fretboard Journal at a music store or luthier's shop, or check the website at www.fretboardjournal.com for info on subscribing.

George Flink - Posted - 12/12/2009:  12:56:45

A number of his banjos(mostly Stewarts I believe) were sold fairly recently by John Bernunzio. I was lucky enough to buy an original 6 string Stewart that was part of the collection.

Seeders - Posted - 12/12/2009:  13:04:22

I just read that article. it's crazy how it happened, such a shame to hear so many amazing instruments were neglected and left to rot. I have his book he did on his guitar collection. Not quite as big as the 1001 banjos book but still an amazing collection. Makes me wonder what happened to them as well.
Fretboard Journal is a great magazine. The only one I read and subscribe to. Any instrument enthusiast should definitely check it out.

tron.miller - Posted - 12/12/2009:  14:34:51

I'm confused....

Tsumura's associate seized them as part of a scam/fraud, donated some to museums and then stored the rest in a barn. More recently, a former employee found them and sent them all to the US to be sold. Is that correct?

Seems like there's more to the story...if it was a known fraud then they should have been returned to Tsumura. Why did some get donated to a museum by the people who seized them? How on earth did the former employee legal obtain ownership (when Tsumura couldn't) and export them for sale?

Dick Parker - Posted - 12/12/2009:  15:31:43

No -- Sorry, I probably confused you in trying to compress the story too much. You have to read it in Fretboard Journal, or maybe find it on the Web via Google (I didn't right away). The former employee found the remainder of the collection in the barn, bought it and shipped it back here. Back in the 1990s, Tsumura got burned by a former business associate who committed a multimillion-dollar fraud and somehow implicated Tsumura, who did some prison time. As a result, Tsumura lost the banjo collection -- it was siezed by some company or group that had a claim on his assets. Those people gave a lot of the oldest banjos, ones they thought had historic value, to a museum or museums. The rest of them got dumped into this damp, rice-paddy barn. Somewhere along the way some of them got sold elsewhere, as the Stewarts were to Bernunzio, either by Tsumura or someone else -- I found substantiation of that on Google.

The fascinating and horrifying revelation to me was that the world's best banjo collection has been dispersed for some time. I had assumed that it was in the loving care of this Japanese tycoon, the Uncle Scrooge of banjos, who had hoarded the cream of the American instruments that existed from the golden age. Poor Tsumura declined to be interviewed for the Fretboard article.

desert rose - Posted - 12/12/2009:  16:47:44

Thats the story told and makes interesting reading

The real story is far more interesting

We have discussed a few details here before but its not my place...

One of my original teachers from the seventys was the caretaker of the cream of the collection while Tsumura san was in lock up, this was in California, nobody got these pieces andthey were safe and under his control. You wont read about this anywhere

Scott

mainejohn - Posted - 12/13/2009:  05:05:33

DR said: "nobody got these pieces andthey were safe and under his control. You wont read about this anywhere"

...I think we just did, and I'm assuming this is good news.

steve davis - Posted - 12/13/2009:  06:00:23

Thanks,Scott...I just got my appetite back.

davepicks5 - Posted - 12/13/2009:  08:42:42

Hummmmm story sound fascinating, maybe more fiction than fact.......as it is in the US don't mess with the tax man.....

Scott knows the story and has shared .......

What I know is at least two banjos have been moved from the collection into two people that I am aware of....


A flathead 75 to a well known guitar player......saw this one, did not get a chance to play it.

A flathead Granada five string.......saw and have played it.

As for banjos in barns, piles of parts and stuff.......HUMMMMMM


David

AJA - Posted - 12/13/2009:  09:36:34

Come on, lets spice it up a little.

Throw in Opus Dei, the Priory of Scion, the quest for the Holy Grail pre-war five string flathead, and the ghost of Loar. I think we can get Dan Brown to write the book, and pitch the movie script to Ron Howard and Tom Hanks.

The increased popularity of the banjo would clear out the classified ads on the Hangout!

Edited by - AJA on 12/13/2009 18:48:40

grich - Posted - 12/13/2009:  09:50:49

The new issue of Fretboard Journal has an amazing (to me) article on what happened to the Tsumura banjo collection. I hadn't known that Akira Tsumura lost his collection in the 1990s after being scammed and framed in a multimillion-dollar fraud by an associate.

Ya ... that's the story alright !

davepicks5 - Posted - 12/13/2009:  11:49:06

Note to Greg R.

As Jon Lovitz would say, "Yeah, that's the ticket".......


And my partner did what, I didn't know THAT......
David

Dick Parker - Posted - 12/13/2009:  15:30:19

You guys saying Mr. T. may not have been on the up-and-up? Seriously, I did a quick search on this site and didn't find any discussion of the collection saga, just of the books. Ditto for Google. So I'm naively curious and hoping to learn more here. I do trust Fretboard Journal as a completely credible publication.

desert rose - Posted - 12/13/2009:  16:45:45

Dick

Tsumura san is very much on the up and up, he paid dearly for doing basically nothing wrong

Greg and I both know the real details, from different angles and sources and are not obliged to post them on the www, but its both a funny, and a sad story.

Like most things in life just because its in print... doesnt make it fact

Scott

dhergert - Posted - 12/13/2009:  17:29:47

I know at the time the (Japanese and international) press was pretty unkind to Tsumura. I'm personally very gratified to hear he was clean, and I hope he is recovering from the wrongs that were done to him.

As far as the treasure of wonderful banjos and guitars, no matter what happens to it, I'm very thankful that Tsumura saw fit to preserve and disperse these instruments widely to the public in his printed publications. He did us all a big favor.

Scott, if you're ever in contact with Tsumura, please let him know that we humbly thank him for publshing such wonderful works about these instruments.

BanjoLink - Posted - 12/14/2009:  08:50:23

I have a hard time believing the "rice paddy barn" scenario, but I guess stranger things have happened. I certainly don't blame Scott for not telling all of the details here due to his relationship with Tsumura, but really wonder why the whole story has not been told elsewhere. It seems to me if everything is on the up and up what's wrong with the truth! I think if I was Tsumura I would want the truth told.

arnie fleischer - Posted - 12/14/2009:  15:02:23

The funny part of the story that Scott is referring to - although even he may not be aware of all the details - is that the rights to, and possession of, the rotted banjo dregs in that "rice paddy barn" (has anyone else noticed how that phrase has the same cadence as "ramshackle shack"?) were acquired by a prominent Japanese distiller who was able to separate out and retrieve the small portion of those dregs that came from rotted out pre-war flathead Gibson Mastertone banjos (the process was reportedly overseen by Greg Rich himself). A unique and revolutionary new sake made from those fermented banjo dregs is just about ready to hit the market. It will be called "Essence of Earl" and from what my sources tell me, regular imbibing of this potion will enable you, within 30 days, to produce the fabled pre-war sound no matter what kind of banjo you actually happen to play. In fact, you won't even need a banjo to produce the authentic pre-war sound. It will come straight from your own vocal cords. The effect is supposed to last for two hours - enough time for two 45-minute sets, which is a godsend for touring musicians who will no longer have to worry about traveling from gig to gig with an actual instrument. It will be sold in a banjo-shaped glass bottle and packaged in an elegant wooden case (mahogany, walnut or maple) with your choice of nickel, chrome or gold plated hardware. I think the reason Scott and Greg have been silent about all of this is that they are busy sampling this product in order to determine its precise chemical composition so that they can produce their own, remarkably faithful version of it under the Recording King label.

Arnie

maryzcox - Posted - 12/14/2009:  15:15:34

LOL!
Hey--I purchased an SS Stewart American Princess from the Tsumara collection from Bernunzios and it is in great shape--doesn't appear to have done any time outdoors in a barn. I've also seen some fairly fancy Thorobreds that friends have purchased from that collection and they looked to be in wonderful shape too. :)

Dick Parker - Posted - 12/14/2009:  15:47:40

I'll be on board when that sake hits the Minnesota stores. Will there be TB and PB flavors?

Strangg1 - Posted - 12/14/2009:  17:10:10

quote:

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Originally posted by Dick Parker

I'll be on board when that sake hits the Minnesota stores. Will there be TB and PB flavors?

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grich - Posted - 12/14/2009:  19:15:24

All the really great banjos were on display in his Hollywood Hills home , when he got arrested Mac asked me to pack them up and bring them to an apartment he rented under another name so the the corperation couldn't find them . Those were some wild times in Beverly Hills ......

desert rose - Posted - 12/15/2009:  00:25:00

Greg

You must have known Koichiro back then, he was the official banjo babysitter... and more

Scott

DHutchens - Posted - 12/15/2009:  04:38:17

I hope the "apartment" wasn't the old Beverly Hillbillys Manison.

That just would not be right....

BANJOBOB549 - Posted - 12/17/2009:  19:06:48

As told to me by a person in california, he had access to 70 plus Tsumura instruments. quite a few were Gibson flatheads. have seen a style 75 flathead from the COLLECTION that now resides in Kentucky, a Granada flathead was in Tennessee. A style 4 flathead was priced to me @$75 Grand,, Source says the were shipped in wooden box containers from overseas. Something in his story regarding those who had posession of the insts. seemed strange,,,,names were called which were suppose to be friends of Tsumura,,,,,

Paul Gorman - Posted - 02/06/2010:  21:40:01

Good thing he put those picture books together or no one would ever believe the most severe case in history of Banjo Acquisition Syndrome. Makes me feel like a puritan.

If I had one of those Tsumura banjos it would best be kept secret since there is the suggestion that there might be a lein on it by the IRS or somebody worse.

Edited by - Paul Gorman on 02/07/2010 13:00:50

Shimdog - Posted - 02/07/2010:  08:15:18

Kudos for that revelation, Arnie! The article in Fretboard Journal is interesting for sure, but probably more of a PR move by Yasuda than a completely factual account.

The Pope - Posted - 02/07/2010:  10:12:12

Scott, are you referring to someone who used to work at McCabe's and was nicknamed "Screech"?

mastertone250 - Posted - 02/07/2010:  10:19:17

quote:

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Originally posted by grich

All the really great banjos were on display in his Hollywood Hills home , when he got arrested Mac asked me to pack them up and bring them to an apartment he rented under another name so the the corperation couldn't find them . Those were some wild times in Beverly Hills ......

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