Sanshin

A sanshin with plastic imitation snakeskin, and wooden chimi (pick/plectrum).

A wooden sanshin chimi (pick/plectrum).

• Other Names: 沖縄三味線 (Okinawa shamisen), 沖縄蛇味線 (Okinawa jamisen)
• Japanese: 三線 (sanshin)

The sanshin is the most prominent musical instrument in the musical traditions of the Ryukyu Islands. The three-stringed instrument is used in classical, folk, and popular music, and has gained popularity in recent decades in mainland Japan as well.

Construction and Manner of Playing

The neck, or sao, of the instrument is normally made from a single solid piece of wood, lacquered black. The wood traditionally used is called kuruchi in Okinawan, and kokutan in Japanese; the tree is a sort of ebony or persimmon. While sanshin continue to be made of this wood today, cheaper instruments made from other, lighter, woods are quite widely available.

The sanshin is a non-fretted instrument, and thus finger placements with the left hand (the hand not holding the plectrum/pick) must be fairly precise to get the correct sound. The vast majority of songs use the top section of the neck, and can be played without the hand moving down the neck. A particular finger of the hand is meant to be used for each note; generally, the hand remains at the top of the neck, with the index finger handling the nearest fingering points, the middle finger further ones, and the pinky finger reaching down to the furthest ones. However, some songs make use of finger positions far down the neck of the instrument, to achieve particularly high notes. An Okinawan system of musical notation called kunkunshi is used when playing sanshin; it bears similarities to systems of notation used for traditional instruments in China and Japan, but bears no resemblance to standard Western staff notation.

Three large tuning pegs, called karakuri, are used to tighten or loosen the strings in order to tune the instrument. Though some modern variations on the instrument, known as "peg sanshin," use pegs which can be screwed in along a groove, like guitar pegs, traditionally, the karakuri are simply carefully carved so as to fit tightly into the holes in the top of the instrument (tin). The scale employed is fairly different from that of traditional Japanese music, and closely resembles that used in Indonesian gamelan. In the standard tuning, called honchôshi, the three strings are most typically tuned to B-E-B, though variations exist.

The body of the instrument is a rounded square wooden box, made of two sections of wood, and pierced through by the sao, which extends a half-inch or so beyond the bottom of the instrument (chii). Python skin is used for the skin of the body of the instrument, in contrast to the cat or dogskin used traditionally on Japanese shamisen. Though Okinawa is famous for the venomous habu snake, the habu is in fact too small for its skin to be used to make sanshin, and it is believed that the snakeskin for sanshin has always been imported from Southeast Asia. Though the pythons used to make sanshin skins today are not an endangered species, the difficulty of distinguishing one snakeskin from another makes transporting real-skin (J: hongawa) sanshin internationally somewhat risky. However, cheaper sanshin with plastic skins are quite common today as well.

The sanshin's strings are played with a small claw-like piece called a chimi, made of water buffalo horn, lacquered wood, ivory, or another material, which is fitted over the index finger and held in place with the thumb and other fingers. Rather than plucking or picking at the strings, as is done with certain other instruments, the sanshin chimi is simply passed through the strings, coming to rest on the next string as each string is played.

In addition to noticeable differences in the size and shape of the instrument overall, its tuning, and the snakeskin, the shape of the chimi is one of the more noticeable differences between the Okinawan sanshin and the Japanese shamisen, which uses a larger, flatter plectrum, called a bachi, which is held in the hand and often used to strike the strings or the body of the instrument in a percussive manner. The sanshin's delicate snakeskin could not long survive such strikes, and they are not used in Okinawan music.

History

The three-stringed instrument is derived from the Chinese sanxian, and served as the basis from which the Japanese shamisen developed, beginning in the late 16th century. Throughout the early modern period, access to high quality sanshin was limited exclusively to the aristocracy, though it is believed that commoners may have possessed equivalent instruments using tanned paper in place of the more expensive snakeskin. It was only after 1879, when the Ryûkyû Kingdom fell and was annexed by Japan, and the aristocracy abolished, that sanshin became more widely available.

The Chinese sanxian dates back to the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368), and is most commonly seen in two forms. In northern China, sanxian tend to have longer necks. The Okinawan sanshin, however, developed out of the shorter-necked sanxian common in folk traditions in southern China, especially Fujian province, the area which historically interacted much more directly with Ryûkyû. As such, it is believed the sanxian may have been first (or most significantly) introduced to Ryûkyû by the 36 Min families who traveled to Ryûkyû in 1392, and settled there, establishing the community of Kumemura, and setting the basis for the future Ryukyuan scholar-bureaucrat aristocracy.

As late as the early 17th century, some sources indicate that sanshin made in Okinawa were of inferior quality. One Chinese envoy, Xia Xiyang, who visited Ryûkyû in 1616, remarked as much, and had members of his entourage instruct local makers in better techniques. However, a now-famous sanshin maker by the name of Feebaru appeared later that same century, and in 1710, King Shô Eki established an office known as the sanshin-uchi, a post responsible for overseeing the production of high quality sanshin. By the end of the 17th century, or within a few decades afterwards, the sanshin being produced in Okinawa are believed to have been of much higher quality, both aesthetically, and in terms of their sound.

Initially, a sort of Chinese-style music, known in Ryûkyû as uzagaku, dominated Ryukyuan court music played at formal occasions, for a time. Uzagaku continued to be played at least as late as 1798, when it is known to have been performed for the lord of Nagoya castle in Japan. The incredible strength of Chinese-style music in Okinawa can be attributed to, among other factors, the absence of any instrumental tradition in Okinawa prior to the introduction of Chinese instruments. It is unclear precisely when the sanshin came to be so prominently used in Ryukyuan music, and no longer chiefly as a part of a larger, more complex, Chinese-style ensemble. However, it is clear that by the late 17th century, a more natively Ryukyuan repertoire had begun to coalesce, centered on uta-sanshin (song and sanshin); many core pieces of the classical repertoire were composed around that time by Tansui ueekata (1623-1683), founder of the oldest extant school (style) of Okinawan classical music. It remains unclear, however, whether any of the pieces currently in the repertoire predate Tansui, or for most pieces, when they were first composed, performed, or entered the repertoire.

The use of a chimi, a claw-shaped plectrum, though quite standard today, is believed to be a relatively recent development. Eighteenth and early 19th century paintings of people playing sanshin do not seem to depict the use of a plectrum.

Musical Genres

Okinawan music is generally divided into three genres:

1. Classical (J: koten ongaku) - This category mostly consists of songs associated with the royal court of the Ryûkyû Kingdom, including pieces played to entertain Chinese dignitaries, for certain ritual or ceremonial purposes, in conjunction with Okinawan dance or kumi udui theatre, or in other formal court contexts. Many of these songs are quite slow, and played quite precisely, according to traditional styles of playing. A very distinctive vocal style is also employed, in which the mouth is held only narrowly open, and an idea of tightness or tautness, pressing down on the hara (stomach) is central to the technique. The two most prominent schools of classical uta-sanshin are Nomura-ryû, which employs fairly strict adherence to written notation, and Afusô-ryû, which focuses more heavily on oral transmission, i.e. playing in emulation of one's teacher. As one can imagine, the former tradition tends towards a high degree of consistency or similarity from place to place and teacher to teacher, while the latter tradition tends towards the development of lineages of sub-styles, as each group of students learns to play like their teacher, in a manner somewhat different perhaps from the students of another teacher.

Classical songs include Nubui kuduchi, Kajadifu bushi, Aha bushi, and Wudui kuwadisa.

1. Folk (J: min'yô, also known as shima uta) - Folk music includes a wide range of types of songs, not only from Okinawa Island, but from all of the Ryûkyû Islands. Many folk songs derive from traditional festival music, while others are of newer composition, but have become so widely known, and so standard, that they have come to be regarded as "folk music." Some folk songs employ the distinctive vocal techniques of classical singing, while others use a more standard/Western/modern open style. The lyrics are often in Okinawan, or another Ryukyuan language, but are sometimes in standard Japanese. The playing style on the sanshin is somewhat freer than in classical playing, as various techniques are used to help one play more quickly or more smoothly, though such moves might not strictly be tolerated in one of the classical playing styles.

Some of the most popular folk songs are Asadoya yunta, which originally derives from Taketomi Island but which is today most commonly performed with lyrics in standard Japanese (not Okinawan); Nada sousou; Tinsagu nu hana; and Tôshin doi, a song commonly played to accompany kachashi dancing.

1. Okinawa/Uchinaa Pop - Okinawan pop/rock music was born, arguably, in the 1970s, as a key part of a wider resurgence in Okinawan identity and culture. Bands such as Rinken Band, Champloose, and the Nenes began incorporating sanshin, Okinawan language lyrics, and Okinawan sensibilities or imagery into pop/rock compositions. The song "Shima Uta", released in 1992 by a mainland Japanese band, The Boom, quickly became one of the most popular songs associated with the islands, and with the style or genre of "Okinawan pop," despite being composed and performed originally by non-Okinawans. As a result, the term shima uta, lit. "island song[s]," has come to be used as a generic term for Ryukyuan folk songs. Since the 1970s, numerous artists and bands have begun incorporating sanshin, eisa (festival) taiko drums, and other Okinawan elements, including sampling of folk songs, into new compositions. Okinawan pop songs run the gamut from the more traditional-sounding to rock, electronica, and more mainstream-sounding pop music. Some songs employ Ryukyuan language lyrics, though most use standard Japanese; some incorporate elements of the classical vocal sound.

Popular Okinawan pop songs include "Shima Uta," "Hana," "Shimanchu nu takara," "Ojii jiman no Orion beer," and "Haisai Ojisan."

References

• Thompson, Robin. "The Sanshin and its Place in Okinawan Music." Okinawa bijutsu zenshû 沖縄美術全集. vol. 5. pp. i-vi.