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Akira Tsumura Banjo Collection Related Items
From RTWhite on 8/21/2014 6:30:57 AM
All,
As I've dug a little deeper, and closed in on the final pieces of my "Tsumura Collection" collection, I thought I'd share what I've discovered is "out there." These are items, related to Tsumura's banjo collection, produced by Akira Tsumura. I'm not talking about his guitar stuff or bathroom fixture stuff.
Some of the banjo items are pretty rare, and I've only caught references here and there. Some have little footprints on the internet, from sales 10 years old. But I thought knowing what's out there might interest some people here.
So here's what I know of....
THE BOOKS
1. "Banjos - The Tsumura Collection" - This is the red book from 1984. There is, to my knowledge, only one edition, but at least two printings. Often you'll find this book as a stand-alone book with a dust jacket. It can also come in a red slip-cover box with a Japanese supplemental book.
2. "One Thousand and One Banjos - The Tsumura Collection" - This is, of course, the big book from 1993. Only one edition with 2,500 copies were printed. It comes in a large brown leatherette box. Some people also have the original cardboard box the entire thing came in.
3. "Banjo - The Tsumura Collection (1920-1940)" - This is sometimes called "the brown book," printed in 1993. Only 250 copies were printed, and they're supposed to complement "One Thousand and One Banjos". The brown book was self-published by Akira Tsumura. He hits on some new banjos in his collection that weren't included in the big "1,001 Banjos" book. It has the same style as the big book, but it's paperback, and I don't feel like I'm going to break the spine of the book when I open it. Honestly, of the three books I find the brown book to be the easiest to use. It also seems to be difficult to find.
NON-BOOKS
1. "154 Peghead Beauties" poster - This is a poster, made in 1993, and related to "One Thousand and One Banjos - The Tsumura Collection." It's actually the same layout as the back of the book. The back of the poster identifies the pegheads.
2. "Banjocard" playing cards - Two decks of cards with pegheads produced in 1978. This also comes with a nice booklet about each banjo depicted on the cards. The two decks are identical, with the exception of the backs.
3. "Banjo Playing Card II" playing cards - Two decks of cards with five-string open-back banjos. I'm not sure when it was produced. The red deck is S.S. Stewarts and the blue deck is a number of famous turn-of-the-century banjos makers, such as Dobsons, Fairbanks and Buckbees. Unlike the first collection of playing cards, this collection shows the entire banjo (and not just pegheads). These also come with a nice booklet about each banjo.
That's all I know about though. Does anyone know of any additional pieces of the Tsumura Collection items (besides the actual banjos themselves)?
I've linked my photos of the items above that I've collected on the group page, to the right.
I may have mentioned this before, but there is also a great article in the Winter 2009 Fretboard Journal about the Tsumura collection. The interview for the article was with Mac Yasuda. You can still get copies of the issue by visiting Fretboard's website. The article also had some great photos of the collection all packed up in cases.
27 Comments |
 | KLR says:
8/6/2014 10:36:46 AM
Thanks for all that info, RT. I hope to actually be able to browse the 1001 someday, and plan to scan a borrowed copy of the red book at least. I attempted to get a copy of the 1001 via the US library system and thought it was a done deal, I was told I'd have to cough up up to $20 to cover shipping or insurance or something; then the librarian told me the loaning library got cold feet, so forget about that approach. The fellow who loaned me the red book knows a 1001 owner in our locality so maybe someday I'll get to browse this thing.
Also - frankly there's more than a few equivalents of the Tsumura collections just sitting around on web servers around the world, I've been mulling over collecting some or all of that onto one handy website. Have to think of a better domain name than "banjoporn.com" though. ;) That would attract the wrong kind of business, you know.
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 | RTWhite says:
8/6/2014 10:46:37 AM
I haven't seen anything as complete as the Tsumura books, in book form (or in any form, but I haven't dug too deep). I did like the Gruhn's "Accoustic Guitars and Other Fretted Instruments". Yes, it has lesser instruments, but it does have a number of pretty sweet banjos. I found mine on Amazon for maybe $3 (it had an instription on the inside, so the price was low). Another book is Jim Mills' "Gibson Mastertone: Flathead 5-String Banjos of the 1930s and 1940s." Yes, this book is tightly focused and doesn't have nearly the variety of the other books, there's still some pretty interesting stuff in there. Both the Gruhn's and Mills' books have some great photos though, and neither weigh 18 lbs.
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| RTWhite says:
8/6/2014 11:52:33 AM
I think the problem you're going to run into with scanning in a book (besides how many photos there are) is that it's all copyrighted material.
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| KLR says:
8/6/2014 2:53:09 PM
I did find an outfit in NY state that would scan a borrowed library book non-destructively - many of these companies will only scan destructively, i.e., after cutting the spine off - so it can be done. Yes, I gave them the whole low down on time of publication etc. so they were full aware of those issues. But I was still attempting to find a local company as the idea of shipping a book with that much value added gave me the willies. Right now I'm attempting to figure out how to scan the red book with a digital camera as flatbed scanners wide enough to work on books above a certain size are $$$$.
For online pics you have a site like banjobuyer.com; as finely detailed as Tsumura's books are you can compete with all the snaps people have taken of their instruments there, and that's just one site; and gawking is wholly free. I'm nuts for this stuff too but the prices you pay for rare books, geez...I bought a tunebook for $250 or so once and felt a bit ill/dizzy at what I'd just done, paying over a grand for banjo porn is just crazy talk! ;)
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| KLR says:
8/6/2014 3:35:21 PM
I did find an outfit in NY state that would scan a borrowed library book non-destructively - many of these companies will only scan destructively, i.e., after cutting the spine off - so it can be done. Yes, I gave them the whole low down on time of publication etc. so they were full aware of those issues. But I was still attempting to find a local company as the idea of shipping a book with that much value added gave me the willies. Right now I'm attempting to figure out how to scan the red book with a digital camera as flatbed scanners wide enough to work on books above a certain size are $$$$.
For online pics you have a site like banjobuyer.com; as finely detailed as Tsumura's books are you can compete with all the snaps people have taken of their instruments there, and that's just one site; and gawking is wholly free. I'm nuts for this stuff too but the prices you pay for rare books, geez...I bought a tunebook for $250 or so once and felt a bit ill/dizzy at what I'd just done, paying over a grand for banjo porn is just crazy talk! ;)
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| RTWhite says:
8/20/2014 7:59:45 AM
The two sets of cards are "out for delivery" today. When they arrive I'll take a photo of everything together and post it on the Collectors forum.
I "traded up" on my red book, which was first edition, second printing, for a first edition first printing in a red slipcover box and a Japanese supplemental book.
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 | Mike Casey says:
8/21/2014 8:16:53 AM
RT,
I have a great deal of respect and admiration for Akira Tsumura for his collecting zeal and for his great work to share his great collection via these books and other items. thanks for the work and for sharing this information with us. I have made it a practice to buy offerings such as these as soon as they come on the market because they aren't on the market long and usually become scare and pricey fast. I got the Tsumura Big Book from John Bernunzio and at the time they were $450.00 dollars. I don't recall when or where I bought the Red Book but it was as soon as I could get one. I subsequently found the first deck of cards and another Red Book, but I never have found the Brown Book or the 2nd playing cards. These pieces will always be the epitome of banjo books because they are absolutely the best as regards production, printing and presentation and because they cover so many different banjos and banjo makers. There are other items that came out back in the 70's such as the Fret's Magazine "Peghead Poster" and the "Heels Poster" to name a couple. They were folded inside the magazines so they will have the creases in them. If they are carefully removed from the original magazine they can be framed and displayed along with the Tsumura poster for good effect. I have a large poster of the Irving Berlin Fairbanks (Vega?) banjo (not sure of who produced it) that is really nice and it came rolled and in a shipping tube. Thanks again for the good work you've done and for sharing it with us. Mike
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 | Bill Anderson says:
8/22/2014 10:22:28 AM
For those interested....
Detailed photos of the 'Berlin' presentation (The only Whyte Laydie Deluxe to have surfaced to date) are posted to the Fairbanks Collectors Group page and my home page. Besides the Poster produced and distributed by John (Bernunzio), no detail photos of this amazing banjo have been available. A photo of Irving Berlin holding the banjo is know to exist but possibly lost.....Bill
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| Mike Casey says:
8/22/2014 10:25:53 AM
One other source with banjo picture/art are the 1992 and 1993 Gibson Custom Shop calendars. Both have guitars and banjos in them with emphasis on guitars, but there are some very nice photos of super custom Gibson banjos too. I recently bought one off of Ebay for $21.50 which I think is a good price considering the great photos. Anyone having a copy of the Brown Book that wants to sell it or knows of someone who does can contact me as I would be interested in purchasing one. Thanks, Mike
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| RTWhite says:
8/22/2014 10:29:03 AM
Beezaboy has a brown book Mike. He seems to really like it, so I'm not sure if he's willing to part with it.
Thanks for the info Bill.
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| Bill Anderson says:
8/22/2014 2:57:05 PM
I have not sen the 'Brown book'
Does it have the Berlin banjo ?
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| RTWhite says:
8/22/2014 3:09:48 PM
Not that I see. Just a Whyte Laydie and a Whyte Laydie No. 7.
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| Mike Casey says:
8/26/2014 8:59:31 AM
Bill, the Irving Berlin banjo poster was available from, if I recall correctly, the MIT published book about their banjo exhibit of some years ago. It was a great book with many photos of banjos and banjo items. My collecion of banjo publications and related items is now in storage, but you can Google the MIT Banjo Collectdion and find out more information.
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| RTWhite says:
8/26/2014 9:12:16 AM
Mike, that's "Ring the Banjar."
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| Bill Anderson says:
8/26/2014 9:42:30 AM
Yes the MIT Poster banjo (double griffin presentation sn 14913) and 'Ring the Banjar' came out before the 'Berlin' banjo surfaced. '1001 Banjos was basically complete when Tsumura acquired it. For this reason, it is only revealed in the back of the book in a group shop with Tsumura holding it.
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| RTWhite says:
8/26/2014 9:51:42 AM
Have to wonder why it isn't in the Brown Book then, or maybe I was just very bad at searching the Brown Book.
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| RTWhite says:
8/26/2014 9:55:08 AM
Bill, I may have to look in the brown book again. I was looking under Vega and I can't remember if Tsumura had a separate sectin for Fairbanks.
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| RTWhite says:
8/27/2014 6:31:32 AM
Bill, I gave the brown book a second look, no "Berlin" banjo.
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| RTWhite says:
9/4/2014 6:15:30 AM
Wait, Bill, do you own the "Berlin" banjo?
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 | skip sail says:
9/16/2014 2:21:33 AM
I have an SS stewart presentation thats in the book on page 188
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| RTWhite says:
9/16/2014 8:12:53 AM
Nice Skip!
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thelostchord says:
9/17/2014 12:48:56 AM
theukuleleman.com/page76.html if you are looking for a copy including the cards.
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| RTWhite says:
9/17/2014 6:09:26 AM
Sean, are you thinking about selling the cards separately?
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| Mike Casey says:
2/10/2015 6:27:25 PM
I finally found and purchased a copy of the "Brown Book." I should have it late this week. I still have not dug into my old publications collection and fished out the International Banjo magazine with the Tsumura article. I have the other publications including the Fretboard Journal.
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| RTWhite says:
2/10/2015 6:54:42 PM
Nice! I was able to track down an International Banjo Magazine issue.
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| RTWhite says:
2/11/2015 7:14:09 AM
Mike, you have the Banjo Newsletter issue too, right? March 1993 I believe. You can still get it too, if you don't. It talks about the big book a little and the museum, just a couple of pages.
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| Mike Casey says:
2/11/2015 3:11:55 PM
Thanks you for the information. Yes, I believe I have that issue, but I'd have to look to make sure. If I found a Bluegrass or Banjo Publication I would try to sign up and keep the subscriptions going. I outlasted a few of them, International Banjo Magazine included.
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