Shamisen
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Kitagawa Utamaro, "Flowers of Edo: Young Woman's Narrative Chanting to the Samisen", ca. 1880 |
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A Japanese man playing a shamisen while another sings |
A
shamisen or
samisen (
Japanese:
三味線, literally "three taste strings"), also called
sangen (literally "three strings") is a three-stringed
musical instrument played with a
plectrum called a
bachi. The pronunciation in
Japanese is usually "shamisen" (in western Japan, and often in Edo-period sources "samisen") but sometimes "jamisen"
when used as a suffix (e.g.
Tsugaru-jamisen).
The shamisen is similar in length to a
guitar, but its neck is much slimmer and without frets. Its drum-like rounded rectangular body, known as a
dō, is covered with skin in the manner of a
banjo, and amplifies the sound of the strings. The skin is usually from a dog or cat, but in the past a special type of paper was used and recently various types of plastics are being tried. On the skin of some of the best shamisen, the position of the cat's nipples can be seen.[
1]
The three strings are traditionally made of silk, or, more recently, nylon. The lowest passes over a small hump at the "nut" end so that it buzzes, creating a characteristic sound known as
sawari (This is a little like the "buzzing" of a
sitar, which is called
jawari). The upper part of the dō is almost always protected by a cover known as a
dō kake, and players often wear a little band of cloth on their left hand, to facilitate sliding up and down the neck. This band is known as a
yubi kake. There may also be a cover on the head of the instrument, known as a
tenjin.
In most genres the shamisen is played with a large weighted
plectrum called a
bachi, which was traditionally made with
ivory or
tortoise shell but which now is usually
wooden, and which is in the shape likened to a
ginkgo leaf. The sound of a shamisen is similar in some respects to that of the American
banjo, in that the drum-like skin-covered body, known as a
dō, amplifies the sound of the strings. As in the
clawhammer style of American banjo playing, the bachi is often used to strike both string and skin, creating a highly percussive sound.
In
kouta (
short song) and occasionally in other genres the shamisen is plucked with the fingers.
The shamisen derives from the
sanshin (a close ancestor from the southernmost
Japanese prefecture of
Okinawa and one of the primary instruments used in that area), which in turn evolved from the Chinese
sanxian, itself deriving ultimately from
Central Asian instruments.
The shamisen can be played solo or with other shamisen, in ensembles with other Japanese instruments, with singing such as
nagauta, or as an accompaniment to drama, notably
kabuki and
bunraku. Both men and women traditionally played the shamisen.
The most famous and perhaps most demanding of the narrative styles is
gidayū, named after Takemoto Gidayū (1651-1714), who was heavily involved in the
bunraku puppet-theater tradition in
Osaka. The gidayū shamisen and its plectrum are the largest of the shamisen family, and the singer-narrator is required to speak the roles of the play, as well as to sing all the commentaries on the action. The singer-narrator role is often so vocally taxing that the performers are changed halfway through a scene. There is little notated in the books (
maruhon) of the tradition except the words and the names of certain appropriate generic shamisen responses. The shamisen player must know the entire work perfectly in order to respond effectively to the interpretations of the text by the singer-narrator. From the 19th century female performers known as
onna-jōruri or
onna gidayū also carried on this concert tradition.
In the early part of the 20th century, blind musicians, including
Shirakawa Gunpachirō (1909-1962),
Takahashi Chikuzan (1910-1998), and sighted ones such as
Kida Rinshōe (1911-1979), evolved a new style of playing, based on traditional folk songs ("
min'yō") but involving much
improvisation and flashy fingerwork. This style - now known as
Tsugaru-jamisen, after the home region of this style in the north of
Honshū - continues to be relatively popular in Japan. The virtuosic
Tsugaru-jamisen style is sometimes compared to
bluegrass banjo.
One contemporary shamisen player, Takeharu Kunimoto, plays bluegrass music on the shamisen, having spent a year studying bluegrass at
East Tennessee State University and performing with a bluegrass band based there. Another player using the Tsugaru-jamisen in non-traditional genres is Michihiro Sato, who plays
free improvisation on the instrument.
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Chie Hanawa and her Shamisen at the Penang Island Jazz Festival 2005*
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