We just returned from a week in Japan with son Eric, visiting all
things new to us.  We spent several hours with MMDer Vic Searle who
has been there since 1945, building organs, teaching opera and the
organ, and recently building half a dozen band organs, despite having
nearly been totaled out by a motorcycle in his mid-seventies.  It
didn't slow him down a bit on our visit, though.  He took us through
the Min-On Museum and gave great insight on the collection and the
music presented there.

The Min-On Museum is the cultural arm of a Buddhist sect and displays
musical instruments from throughout the world.  It includes a room of
keyboard instruments from very early harpsichords through the piano on
which Beethoven was said to have written the Moonlight Sonata, to an
Erard piano from Versailles which was said to have been owned by Mozart.
These are all played in sequence with appropriate selections.

Most of these instruments have unusual supporting structures cradling
them in addition to their normal legs, though one of the forte-pianos
is quite a pretzel from the string tension anyway.

The last piano to be played is automatic (though there are two Welte
uprights which are not played.)  This one has really massive support 
in addition to the legs and is a Bush & Lane with Welte-Mignon.  There
is a separate fixed support under the open drawer, though I have never
seen a piano, much less the beefy Bush & Lane, which would not support
itself much less its own player drawer.  Perhaps it has something to do
with being in an earthquake zone.

Rather than being restored, it appears to be kept in as-found state
except for the vast bunches of clear tubing going to the drawer and
everywhere, mostly with little tags on each line.  Perhaps the
technicians are unaware of how a Welte system is intended to work since
the pump was clattering away at an unusually high speed and the piano
played loud all the time with no expression.  Yolanda Mero would
probably not have been pleased that she was credited with the performance
which was presented.  This performance was introduced with the same
deference and respect as the artful hand played work on the historic
pianos, and most of the audience clearly thought that this was the way
it was supposed to sound.

In another room were a dozen music boxes from large cylinder and
interchangeable boxes with and without bells to vertical disk boxes
including a large Regina with changer and a three-disk box with the
disks set just slightly out of phase, creating a sense of giddy depth.
It appeared to have fresh bare wood in the supports to the three drives
and I wonder if it was recently installed into the tall Vienna style
case.

Many disks were made from freshly tinned steel and had been carefully
hand lettered in Gothic, so it appears that someone is reproducing
disks for the museum in a style I have not seen.

Two automatons were displayed and the one which was functional was an
acrobat who lifted his hand from a chair back, replaced it, flipped up
with both hands on chairs, lifted a chair while up, etc.  The music box
accompaniment was soft and not the center of interest in this device as
is typical.

The new Porter musical boxes included a lovely marquetry bombe cased
15" disk machine and a perhaps unique double-porter in a similar
elongated case on four delicate legs which played synchronized disks of
the Japanese tune "Mother".

We will keep in touch with this place and see if any other developments
in automatic music occur of interest in the future.

  The Min-On Music Museum
  8 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku
  160-8588 Tokyo,
  Tel.: +81 3 5362 3555
  Fax : +81 3 5362 3556
  Email: m-lib@min-on.or.jp
  http://museum.min-on.or.jp/top.html

We understand there is a museum on the approach to Mt. Fuji which has
a much more extensive collection, and we will see about reporting on it
if we are able to make a return visit.

Karl Petersen
Washington, Illinois