The true identity of the rough sound of the shamisen.

Everyone. Do you like the sound of Japanese instruments?

I do. I think you can feel the wabi-sabi that is unique to Japanese instruments. Especially the shamisen contains a lot of noise unique to Japanese instruments.

The reason why the sound of the shamisen is distinctive

The shamisen is made up of a body and a neck, and has a structure similar to an acoustic guitar with a neck stuck in the body. The body is covered with cat or dog skin, and the vibration of silk strings is transmitted to the skin by means of a bridge to produce sound. This creates the distinctive “Benben” and “Shanshan” sounds of the shamisen.

Also, only one string (the thickest string) out of three strung has a “sawari”. There is a shallow notch where the rod near the string winder comes into contact with the string, and noise (noise) is generated along with the vibration of the string. This is called “sawari”. Sawari brings about a vibration sound called “Biiin”.

Despite having sawari only on one string, the effect of sawari is also brought about by resonance on the second and third strings. This makes the sound richer, and depending on the tuning method, the resonating sound changes, making it a factor in creating the unique atmosphere of that tuning method.

The “sawari” mechanism was added in Japan after the instrument that became the shamisen was introduced to Japan, but similar mechanisms aimed at achieving similar effects are also found in other instruments such as biwa, tambura, sitar, and pipa.

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In this way, the shamisen produces sounds with unique emotions that are not found in Western instruments. It can be said that it is an instrument with an extremely Asian character that does not distinguish things in black and white in Western terms.