Shamisen
- Japanese: 三味線 (shamisen)
The shamisen[1] is a three-stringed musical instrument central to the musical traditions of the kabuki and bunraku theatre forms, of geisha and courtesan entertainments, and of various dance and storytelling traditions.
Construction and Manner of Playing
The shamisen comes in a number of forms, including nagauta shamisen (used chiefly in kabuki, and in contexts related to the pleasure quarters), gidayû shamisen (used chiefly in the puppet theatre), and tsugaru shamisen (a more recently developed instrument central to a folk musical tradition of Aomori prefecture). These differ mainly in the length and thickness of the neck, size of the body of the instrument, and in the tuning. For the most part, however, they all share the same basic form, namely that of a three-stringed wooden instrument with a square body, employing catskin on the body[2], and struck with a large plectrum called a bachi. The various types of shamisen used in the kabuki theater differ in the thickness of their necks, and certain other aspects, but all have the same length neck, and hence the same length strings (roughly 62cm).[3]
- The jiuta style is said to be a more refined style, "though still conveying a subtle understated eroticism."[3]
- The gidayû shamisen has a heavier bachi, heavier strings, and thicker neck (futozao) than the nagauta shamisen, and is tuned to deeper (lower) pitches. It is said to have a more masculine sound, and is played in a sparser manner, which is said to be "the most evocative and sexy."[3]
- The nagauta shamisen is the lightest of the major types of shamisen, with the narrowest neck (hosozao) and is said to allow for "more instrumental virtuosity."[3] As the chief instrument used in kabuki, it is played in a wide range of modes, including very slow, regular songs, but can also be played quite rapidly, employing a variety of accenting techniques.
- The tokiwazu-bushi style, and some jôruri styles outside of gidayû-bushi, make use of a chûzao (medium-thickness necked) shamisen.
- The Tsugaru-jamisen is the largest and heaviest type of shamisen. It is only rarely accompanied by song, though vocal shouts and calls (such as yoo~ and hup) are an integral part of its distinctive "densely textured and rhythmically complex"[3] style. Tsugaru-jamisen incorporates more percussive elements (using the bachi to strike the skin of the instrument, or the strings, without playing a specific note) than most other shamisen styles, as well as playing the strings with the left (fingering) hand, without using the bachi.
The shamisen is largely a monophonic instrument, meaning that only one note is struck at once; it does not rely on chords as does the modern/Western guitar. Reverberations, known as sawari, which occur when the bachi strikes the strings, or the body of the instrument, are essential to the distinctive "shibui" (bittersweet) sound of the instrument, though this is generally considered undesirable in Western music. Such reverberations are strongest in the tokiwazu, kiyomoto, gidayû, and Tsugaru styles, and weakest in the nagauta, jiuta, and kouta modes.[3] Shamisen music is also traditionally heterophonic, meaning that the pitches sung do not directly correspond to the notes played on the instrument at that moment; the Japanese term tsukazu hanarezu is used to refer to the way shamisen music and its accompanying vocals typically follow the same melody line, for the most part, but are off from one another by a half-beat or more. This is a typical feature not only of certain genres of shamisen music, but of Edo period popular songs in general, including as well those songs accompanied on the koto.
Shamisen players employ tabulature, not absolute pitch, in their notation, but the tuning of the instruments, naturally, corresponds to certain pitches as understood in Western notation. The most common tunings are called honchôshi (lit. "core/basic tuning"), in which the three strings are tuned to B-E-B on the Western scale; niagari, in which the second (middle) string is raised up to F sharp; and sansagari, in which the bottom (highest pitched) string is lowered, such that the three strings are tuned to B-E-A.
History
The shamisen is believed to have first developed in Japan in the late 16th century, being developed out of the snakeskin sanshin introduced to Japan from Okinawa at that time; the sanshin derived, in turn, from the Chinese sanxian, likely introduced into Okinawa in the late 14th century.
Following its appearance, the shamisen quickly became incorporated into a variety of popular entertainment modes and traditions, eventually being adopted into the kabuki and puppet theatres, and geisha and courtesan teahouses, though it was never adopted into more elite contexts such as the Noh theatre. Some of the earliest genres that made use of the shamisen include jiuta and kouta (parlor songs often accompanying dances), zokkyoku (one of the chief styles of geisha music), and the sekkyô-bushi and jôruri storytelling modes. The ningyô jôruri puppet theater incorporated the shamisen from the very beginning, around the year 1600, developing its own distinctive genre (gidayû-bushi) and indeed its own distinctive style of instrument (the gidayû shamisen) by the early 18th century. Meanwhile, by the 1650s, the shamisen had also become the central instrument in the kabuki theater.
The shamisen was strongly associated with the so-called "floating world" of Edo period urban popular culture, and with the popular aesthetic known as iki or sui. However, while it may have been a key element of the aesthetic of "cool" or "chic" in the Edo period, some scholars argue that it was because of this very same strong association with low-class, popular culture (and not elite culture) that shamisen music was during the Meiji period not raised up as a celebrated example of traditional Japanese music, and that Japan instead turned away from these traditions and embraced Western classical music as strongly as it did.[3]
References
- McQueen Tokita, Alison. "Music in kabuki: more than meets the eye." The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing, 2008. pp229-260.
