WINDOW RESEARCH INSTITUTE

The Matsumoto Shin String Shop in Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture, is a violin studio founded in 1928, which provides services of making and repairing stringed instruments, such as violin and cello. Production of these musical instruments is done solely under a build-to-order system. The work of grinding the surfaces of the instruments is performed by a window, where natural light comes in so that any surface irregularities can be clearly identified. As direct sunlight should be avoided during coating or drying procedures, roll screens fitted on the windows are used as needed. Hanging coated violins on the rails mounted on the ceiling with the roll screens half down to enable the tasks of both drying and carving to be performed by natural light from the window. Sawdust created when rough cutting a cut out board is continuously removed by operating a dust collector while keeping the window open.

Matsumoto Shin String Shop
Violin studio / Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture

This article is an excerpt from “Window Workology,” a joint research project concerning windows and the behaviors around them done in collaboration with Tokyo Institute of Technologyʼs Yoshiharu Tsukamoto Laboratory.