Ever seen a 12-hole flute before?
My guess is that you can play it as a transverse from one end or as a fipple flute from the other.
Dunno.
Looks like it was designed to be played by virtuoso Siamese twins? 
I think you are spot on. One image shows the flute-head end (you see no block, and I guess the stopper is further in), and another the fipple-head end of the tube (you can see the block). So you can play full duets with this.
There is also a photo of what seems to be a ring of vent holes - I guess they’re in the middle and acoustically make it into two different flutes.
Weird idea to have one of them transverse and the other fippled, though. Must make it very hard for two players to coordinate, if that’s how it’s used.
Most likely invented by a divorce lawyer.
Whoa! I’ve never seen anything like that! How would you play it?
“Hello, my name is Inego Montoya. I am searchink for de 6 fingered man. He kill my Father!” (movie,Princess Bride)
Maybe de 6 fingered man, he play this? Yes?
Whatever it is, I’m pretty certain it ain’t Japanese, anyway, no matter what the seller says. Just doesn’t have the right look, including the artsy stuff on it, and not a shred of care appears to have been taken in shaping the blade. That’s uncharacteristic, even at dirt-level. Also, to my best knowledge fipple flutes are not found among traditional Japanese woodwinds, and I’ve never seen compound instruments like that even in the souvenir context. But, who knows. There’s always someone making crazy stuff out there. Or it could have been made elsewhere, yet been bought in Japan. But I’m definitely voting it’s not of native Japanese design.
I would venture to say that in addition to what the artwork suggests to me, the characters particularly indicate the probability of Chinese make, for the upper two look like the typical combination for “China”, but the second character is a bit too garbled for me to be absolutely certain. The third definitely reads “high” or “upper”, and the fourth looks roughly like “sea”, but again there’s some question. “China High Seas”, maybe? Don’t know if an English idiomatic phrase like that that makes any sense in a Chinese context at all. I got nuthin’.
I would find it hard to believe that this is anything but American since the comments state, “This is a Japanese Bamboo Flute measuring " long.” Do Japapene people use ‘’ too? Does anyone but us use ‘’?
The seller was in Arizona. What’s that got to do with where the flute was made?
Mutey: Put down your drink, and back away from the keyboard. Slowly.
I just thought it was funny that the quote said that it was " long and someone forgot to put in the actual number of ".
Ah, who knows. Maybe yer seller meant to say “This is a Japanese Bamboo Flute measuring inches long” (not exactly untrue), but forgot how to spell “inches”.
Well, the seller could have said miles or light years long too but seeing as how the seller didn’t insert the actual number, that bit of information is as vague as vague could be.
It’s true, you can’t tell the size or scale from the picture. For all we know, the thing is 400 inches long and requires 14 people to play it. The buyer will be surprised when the flatbed truck rolls up to his door with the delivery.
That’s what I’m saying; anyway, it’s eBay, not Sotheby’s. If you have to ask, you probably mean to actually try to play and make a fist of it. You are so not the target demographic.