The origins of the shamisen

The shamisen is not originally from Japan. It historically came from China, where it was then called sanxian. It is only in the 16th century that this instrument crossed part of the ocean to join the Japanese lands. It was first introduced through the royal court of the Ryuku Kingdom on the Okinawa Islands, then expanded to the other islands of the Japanese archipelago in the following century.

The shamisen resembles a lute. It has a long neck on which are attached three strings made of silk or nylon. Its resonating body used to be square and traditionally covered with snake skin. Since Japan struggled to obtain this specific material, it was quickly replaced by dog or cat skin.

The shamisen player usually interprets musical pieces by sitting on a zabuton (a pillow-shaped futon), and pinches the strings using a plectrum called bashô or bachi in Japanese. This instrument quickly became popular as well as a major element in the tunes accompanying kabuki theater and buyô (a traditional dance and mime), and became regularly paired up with vocals.

While having only three major tunings, the shamisen succeeds in creating a different atmosphere for each musical piece. Some musicians actually gave a demonstration to visitors at Japan Expo on the Sakura stage. Fuka MARIWO, a virtuoso who has gratuated from Tokyo’s University of Arts, won the audience’s heart, wearing traditional clothes to fully carry the audience back to the ancient Japanese times. On a more modern note, the duo KUNI KEN mixed shamisen with rock music at the festival during their very first European concert, entitled Shamisen rock!, and the duo Sharakü combined some ancestral shamisen tunes with beatbox, which turned into an original and lively concept ! You can take a look back at these performances – as well as all the videos of the Sakura stage traditional shows – on JapanExpoTV, our Youtube channel.