A question about a bachido blog episode

Blog Blogcast
#1

Hi,

Before asking my question i want to introduce myself. I am a 20, almost 21, Dutch student. I study cultural heritage and have been interested in Japan since i was twelve. I started with anime, was a real weeb for a whole, and eventually started showing more interest in traditional Japan and it’s crafts. This also included music. Besides learning shamisen, i hope to ons day learn to play the sanshin. I love it’s earthy and up lifting tone.

But regress, my question was about episode 10. I really likes shirakawa gunpachiro’s style alot and wondered what it whas called?

Nice to meet you all!

Best regards,
Mark van Es

P.S. i am going to try my first shamisen build soon. Wish me luck!

#2

Welcome to Bachido! :smiley:

A quick search in Japanese (didn’t really get anything in English) shows that his works (similarly to how Takahashi Chikuzan’s works are bundled together as Chikuzan Ryu) are collectively called Shirakawa Ryu tsugaru jamisen (白川流津軽三味線) or just Shirakawa Ryu (白川流). I don’t know of any real materials dedicated to learning his arrangements (as opposed to how Oyama Ryu and Nitta Ryu publish score books and such).

As far as I know his playing is characterized by the general aesthetic at the time, with looser skin for a warmer tone (as opposed to the tight, brighter sound popular today). Maybe in older recordings you’ll hear more of what you’re getting at.

Hope this helps! Best of luck with the build.

#3

Thanks alot. That might be helpfull and maybe a wat of playing to aim for at a later moment.

#4

You’re welcome!

#5

Shirakawa Gunpachiro’s lineage of students extends to Hiroshi Nitta whose son, Masahiro Nitta is an active instructor here at Bachido. Both Kyle Abbott and I have visited the Nitta home on several occasions in the past. Unfortunately Masahiro’s English is not at a level where he’d be able to share their many stories and philosphies and anecdotes regarding Gunpachiro’s playing style and personal history but if you want to know more about that subject, the Nitta family would be the place to start. Possibly google translator or even arranging for someone to personally translate etc. might be an option as well.

#6

The Nitta Family is certainly the best go - to for a foreigner interested in the style. They’re great people

#7

I’m quite curious why Nitta Masahiro and fellows only speak Japanese in the blog lessons, since majority of us maybe don’t understand Japanese so well…

#8

thank you for the information.

#9

I hope there are subtitles in the Nitta-ryu videos!

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