The Shamisen is a three-stringed instrument, often used during theatrical performances.
The historical period dates back to around 1560
The first to use the shamisen appear to have been blind musicians who sang vocal pieces accompanied by the sound of the Shamisen.
These modified the characteristics of the instrument and began to use plectrums to play it.
The spread of the shamisen in Japan was such that it became one of the most representative and important instruments of all traditional Japanese music and was used in many musical and theatrical genres including
The other changes made to the instrument were the shape of the sound box which became square and larger than the previous one, the shape of the neck and the leather used to cover it. Instead of snake skin they used cat or dog skin.
The shamisen spread so much in Japan that it became one of the most representative instruments of traditional Japanese music.
It was used in many musical genres such as jiuta, joruri and nagauta.
Over the years, depending on the musical genre that was played, the instrument was modified to obtain different variations with handles of different thicknesses
Finally, the shamisen is a relative intonation instrument, that is, it is possible to vary the pitch of each note through a different tuning
For lovers of musical scales: the Hirajōshi Scale is a pentatonic scale that owes its origin to Yatsuhashi Kengyō who tried to standardize (under the influence of Western scales) the tuning of the Koto and the Shamisen
A brief taste of this instrument:
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Download, listen, create with the available samples: