The
Shamisen
By Ikue Terami
The
material of the shamisen is araki, a rough tree. There are three
types or araki used: karin, sitan and kouki. The araki is cut into
three jointed parts and gold dust is put into the joint in order
to attain a high class sound.
The
shamisen is made round and polished with a magnetic stone again
and again. A "point slot" is decided and hot chopsticks
burn a hole like a hot iron stick. This point slot is considered
the life of the shamisen and thereby eighty percent of the sounds
is determined. Each hole is one of a kind.
The
strings are made by hand and the thickness differs according to
the thread used.
The
Shamisen
By Tsukasa Tsugawa
There
are two kind of hides used to make a shamisen: cat pelt and dog
pelt. These two hides compose the front side and the back side of
the instrument.
Cat
pelt is used for the front side and dog pelt for the back side.
The price of the front side is about 30,000 yen but the back side
is 10 to 20,000 yen.
Cat pelt is better than the dog pelt because the cat pelt is thin
and has a very good sound. The dog pelt is thick.
The
shamisen also uses a wooden finger rack. There are many colors of
finger racks. White is used for performances. There are silk tetoron
and nylon strings. There are three strings on the shamisen. The
first string is the thickest, the third sting the thinnest, and
the second is of medium thickness. The shamisen produces a beautiful
timbre by using good strings.
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