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The shamisen , also known as sangen or samisen (all meaning "three strings"), is a three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument derived from the Chinese instrument sanxian. It is played with a plectrum called a bachi .
In the 20th century, a number of composers have integrated Western elements into nagauta styles, including playing the shamisen at a faster tempo, in violin cadenza style, or by using larger ensembles to increase the volume. [1] Nagauta is the basis of the Nagauta Symphony, a symphony in one movement composed in 1934 by composer Kosaku Yamada.
Instead, they tended to be sung by non-professionals, generally without shamisen accompaniment. But with the Tsugaru-shamisen "boom" after World War II, these songs began to receive renewed attention. Shamisen accompaniments were composed or arranged by such performers as Takahashi Chikuzan (Takahashi 1976:142). Somewhat earlier there had been ...
As the song calls for a higher range of notes, the heike shamisen is constructed with a shorter neck than conventional shamisen. It is possible to use a normal-sized shamisen in place of a heike shamisen, but it must be prepared with a capo device, known as "kase" in Japanese. In Japanese music, there is a buzzy sound quality that is often ...
In early modern Japanese music which involved the use of the shamisen, one feature was for a shamisen player to sing their own accompaniment. Jiuta flourished in the Kyoto and Osaka regions, and thus was called kamigatauta ( 上方唄 , "song of Kamigata ") or hōshiuta ( 法師唄 , "song of monks") played by groups of blind men (see tōdōza ).
Shamisen – a banjo-like lute with three strings; brought to Japan from China in the 16th century. Popular in Edo's pleasure districts, the shamisen is often used in kabuki theater. Made from red sandalwood and ranging from 1.1 to 1.4 metres (3 ft 7 in to 4 ft 7 in) long, the shamisen has ivory pegs, strings made from twisted silk, and a belly ...
This genre is performed by a singer accompanied by a shamisen, rōkyoku became very popular in Japan during the first half of the 20th century. In modern Japanese slang, naniwabushi is sometimes used to mean "a sob story", since the songs were often about sad subjects. The stories were commonly about folktales and myths with themes of loyalty ...
The finishing touch, and arguably 'the Soul' of every Sanshin, is the Doumaki- the decorative textile that surrounds the head of the Sanshin. Dou, meaning 'drum' and Maki, meaning 'Wrap'. Most often, Doumaki are made from modern fibers and methods, and display the Royal Crest of the Ryukyu Kingdom (Hidari Gomon), in rich black and gold.