Joe Masao is a one-of-a-kind musician. His instrument of choice is a spade. It's basically a shovel with strings, with a bottle opener as a plectrum. The 66-year old Miyagi native was kinda interested in the shamisen, but he chose a spade instead to defy convention.
"I don't like things that are conventional," he told Mainichi.
He got his bearings around shovels when he worked as an assistant steam locomotive engineer in his 20s. Now, his goal is to try to put together an orchestra of 20-30 fellow spade players.
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