HIROSHIMA--When Tomoni Shintaku first heard the sounds of a harmonica coming from an old paulownia wood chest of drawers, he thought that it must have been a joke his late grandfather left behind.

However, Shintaku, 39, quickly found that the cabinet is a rare artifact when his post about the furniture went viral, allowing internet users to share their own warm memories linked to similar items. 

As a modern artist living in Hiroshima, Shintaku became aware of strange noises coming from the room of his grandfather, Kiyoto, who died 14 years ago at age 88. He soon realized the unique but nostalgic organ-like tone was from a harmonica.

At the time, Shintaku was cleaning up the room along with his partner to convert it into a studio. He initially thought his partner was playing a harmonica, but she denied doing so.

The sound was coming from within the grandfather’s large chest of drawers, eliciting a windy tone each time a drawer was opened and closed. Pulling the drawer out and peering into the opening showed something like a harmonica deep inside it. 

The sight brought to Shintaku’s mind the thought that, “Grandfather must have set it up as a joke.”

His grandparent, who lived with Shintaku since his childhood, loved shochu spirits and always had a glow on his face. The cheerful figure would have delighted in installing such an item.

Shintaku asked other family members about the mouth organ but no one knew about it. The only fact he discovered was that no relative had touched the furniture following his grandfather’s death and that it had been in the home for more than 50 years.

Shintaku was thinking of throwing the chest of dressers away but uploaded a video of the harmonica-endowed cabinet on Twitter “just for fun.” The clip notched more than 1.8 million views, receiving enthusiastic responses from people.

Listening to the harmonica tone, many Twitter users spoke of their nostalgic memories connected to their families, such as “my great-grandmother, who passed away last month, had used that type of chest.”

According to the accounts of those individuals, many cabinets equipped with harmonicas were produced in the past to “serve as an intruder alarm.”

“Some homes did not lock their doors in those days,” said Takeshi Sori, a curator at Wakayama Prefecture’s Kii-fudoki-no-oka Museum of Archaeology and Folklore, where the same kind of furniture is on display. “Giving off sounds was seemingly helpful in preventing crimes.”

Sori said that harmonica-featured chests of drawers were manufactured in large numbers as wedding gifts primarily in Wakayama, Osaka and other prefectures in the Kansai region from the Meiji Era (1868-1912) through the early Showa Era (1926-1989).

The air in the closed space inside the furniture passes in and out when the drawers are pulled and pushed, enabling harmonicas installed within to play notes.

As modern-day life is flooded with various sorts of noise, harmonicas today cannot serve as a means to stop thefts and other offenses. The once-popular chest of drawers that served as wedding furniture is currently deemed a novelty item.

Among those working to hand down the precious article to the next generation is Noriyuki Oishi, head of the Oishi studio to repair paulownia chests of drawers in Mie Prefecture.

Oishi receives requests for refurbishing paulownia wood cabinets from Kansai and elsewhere across Japan, as use of that kind of furniture becomes less common. He said drawers he accepts are sometimes fitted with harmonicas.

“I deal with ordinary paulownia chests of drawers to restore their capacity to be airtight,” said Oishi. “When receiving requests to repair harmonica-equipped ones, I commit myself to making it possible again for them to create good sounds.”

If there are even the tiniest of openings inside, the furniture cannot play the harmonica beautifully. To produce “elegant sounds,” Oishi adds and shaves wood to remove any gaps. He also repeatedly makes adjustments by pulling out and pushing in the drawers to test their tones.

When there are no openings within, the mouth harp resonates clearly.

As other kinds of sounds will suffice to drive thieves away, Oishi imagines that craftsmen chose the harmonica because they wanted users to feel comfortable while taking advantage of the tightly sealed structure of the furniture.

According to Oishi, chests of drawers can be remodeled for easier use in modern life. Metal fittings can be replaced with ones that their owners like as well.

“Chests of drawers have been witnessing the beginnings of families as wedding furniture, but I hope they will likewise be preserved to support the lives of many new generations in the future,” he said. 

Shintaku dropped his plan to discard his harmonica-fitted cabinet and is considering giving the furniture to someone who can make good use of it and will appreciate it. 

“I would like a person who can understand its value to make careful use of it,” he said.