About the Tsugaru-Shamisen

The shamisen (pronounced “sh-ah-mee-sen”), which means “three strings” in Japanese, is a three-stringed musical instrument played with a large wooden pick called a bachi. The shamisen is similar in length to a guitar, but its neck is much slimmer and it has no frets. its drum-like rounded rectangular body, known as the dō, is similar to a banjo.

The three strings are traditionally made of silk, or, more recently, nylon. The lowest string passes over a small hump at the end of the instrument so that it buzzes, creating a unique sound known as sawari. 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 yubikake. There may also be a cover on the head of the instrument, known as a tenjin.

Tsugaru (pronounced “tsoo-gah-roo”) refers to the tsugaru district in the Aomori Prefecture on the northern tip of Japan’s mainland. In the early part of the 20th century, musicians (many of whom were blind) developed a new style of playing the shamisen based on traditional folk songs, but involving flashy finger work and musical creativity. Known for its bluesy, powerful finger-plucking sound sometimes compared to the sound of a bluegrass banjo, tsugaru-shamisen is said to be like “the howling of one’s soul,” which reflects the strength of the people living in Tsugaru who had to learn to survive in its harsh, rugged climate.