Work of pride


By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin

Kazukiyo 'Jiggs' Kuboyama
shares the joy of craftsmanship
through teaching others
to make ukuleles

By Rod Ohira
Star-Bulletin

There isn't another eight-string tenor ukulele made of Honduran mahogany exactly like the one Kathi Kuboyama owns and is currently learning to play.

Hundreds of others can also correctly claim the same thing.

All of their ukuleles are quality instruments, custom made by the owners themselves under the tutelage of retired wood shop teacher Kazukiyo "Jiggs" Kuboyama.

Very few, if any, of the people had any woodcrafting skills when Kuboyama taught them how to build their own ukuleles.

For the 68-year-old Kuboyama, it's a labor of love. The novice ukulele-makers pay only for the cost of materials which runs about $65.

Kuboyama's classroom is the garage of his Date Street home, located directly in back of Kaimuki High School's softball field.

"He can teach anyone to do it as long as they have the enthusiasm and passion to learn," Kathi Kuboyama said, referring to her father. "He could make and sell his ukuleles but that's not for him.

"He wants you to make the ukulele yourself and take pride in it," she said. "That's his reward."

Kathi, the youngest of Kuboyama's four adult children, is the only one of them who has made an ukulele with her father.

"I wanted to learn from my dad and working on it together was a very special time in our relationship," she said. "To me, my ukulele is priceless."

Kathi's older brother, Kris, recalls asking his father once to make him an ukulele.

"He told me he could teach me how to do it but that he wasn't going to do it for me," Kris Kuboyama said. "That was a long time ago and I might be ready to try it now."

Jiggs Kuboyama, a Lahaina native, started making ukuleles 40 years ago while teaching wood shop at Waianae High School.

By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Kazukiyo Kuboyama, above right, teaches the art
of ukulele-making to, from left: Bert Kikuyama, Haruko
Hazama, Frank Lum Lung, Dorothy Chang, Tad
Hiyamoto and Allan Apuna.

---

"I was fooling around with making ukuleles and my students told me they wanted to learn how to do it," Kuboyama said. "In the beginning, I tried to follow how the professionals did it and it didn't work out."

The major breakdown occurred during the gluing process, he says.

Kuboyama transferred to Kalani High where he became the school's first wood shop teacher in 1959.

He continued improving his ukulele-making technique through trial and error and in 1960, Kuboyama discovered a way to create a product that satisfied him.

"Normally, you make the body and neck separately and then join them together," Kuboyama said. "Instead of making it separately, I decided to put it all together.

"We start off shaping the neck, then make the sides using a mold and put it together," Kuboyama said. "It's very simple, anybody can do it."

It takes about 40 hours to build an ukulele, he says.

Kuboyama and his Lahainaluna classmates recently celebrated their 50th high-school class reunion and several of them -- Dorothy Chang, James and Haruko Hazama, Ted Miyamoto, Allan Apana and Bert Kikuyama -- decided to learn how to make an ukulele.

"When you hear oops, you know something went wrong," Miyamoto said.

Chang, however, quickly noted, "But Jiggs always fixes the oops by coming to our rescue."

Kuboyama enjoys teaching that way.

"When I run a class, I feel I'm only there in case people make mistakes," he said.

Kuboyama started out using koa wood but switched to Honduran mahogany.

"The Martin Co. in Philadelphia makes the Cadillac of ukuleles," Kuboyama said. "Their ukuleles had a deep-tone sound and they used Honduran mahogany, which I found was easier to work with than koa because it's softer and cuts faster.

"Also, koa is three or four times more expensive because we could only use ones with grain going a certain way," he added. "I feel koa looks nice but Honduran mahogany has a better sound."

Kuboyama learned how to put a rich finish on the Honduran mahogany ukuleles to give them an appearance comparable to koa and also improve the sound of the ukuleles his students made.

"If you know how to finish Honduran mahogany, you can make it look like koa," he said. "We use brown wood filler instead of natural to get mahogany looking like koa."

When the ukuleles are assembled, Kuboyama works on the neck with the strings attached to develop the sound.

"What I've found is reshaping the neck brings the resonance of the ukulele out," Kuboyama said. "Many professionals say it doesn't have any bearing but I know it does."

Kuboyama checks the sound of the first and fourth strings while reshaping the neck. His Lahainaluna classmate and assistant Frank Lum Lung assists in this step.

"When they compare it, 10 out of 10 people who play (ukuleles) pick the Honduran mahogany sound," Kuboyama said.

The name of the maker is displayed inside the body of all the ukuleles.

"The best feeling I get is knowing that when they show people the ukulele and tell them proudly that they made it and no one believes them, they'll be able to show their name inside," Kuboyama said.

Kuboyama encourages his students to make an eight-string ukulele, although some still choose to go with four strings. In the past, Kuboyama has also made 10-string ukuleles.

"The 10-string sounds more like a mandolin," he said. "I tell them to make the eight-string because it's something they would never go out and buy later. A cheap one would cost $600 to $800.

"And when I let them hear the difference in sound between the eight- and four-string ukulele, they usually pick the eight," he said.

Kuboyama left Kalani after the 1964-65 school year to teach at Honolulu Community College. He retired in 1986 but continued to work part time in the apprenticeship program.

Since he began conducting classes in his garage five years ago, Kuboyama estimates he has taught 500 people to make ukuleles. The popularity of his classes has spread through word-of-mouth.

Kuboyama receives more than 50 calls a month these days from people interested in attending his classes.

"Fifty might ask but I might take five," Kuboyama said. "But it shows me that so many people want to learn how to make ukuleles that it's a shame the schools cannot have a program like this."

Kuboyama has never considered charging anyone for a lesson.

"My mother always told me that when you do something good for people, don't expect any reward because seeing that a person is happy is the best reward of all," Kuboyama said. "I believe that.

"Classes like this keep me going," he said. "What I like best is to see people working together, helping each other out and having fun. I especially like to teach people who play the ukulele because I know they will always treasure the ukulele they made."