A song about shamisen

Usually when I listen to enka I get a bit annoyed, because my japanese is good enough to pick a word here and another there, but my vocabulary is not good enough to make sense out of the most of it, so usually I don’t really gather what the song is even about - even if they have subtitles.

Just now I had another listening of this little gem - thought you folks might like it - and it seems my vocabulary has magically improved! This is one of my favourite artists, Yoko Nagayama (the lady in my avatar with her shamisen), she’s done a fair bit of enka, went into shamisen later in her career but the start of it was entirely different (I have a few links from youtube if anyone is really interested :wink: ). Here you go:

Jonkara Onna Bushi - Japanese Tradition guitar, shamisen .Song by Yoko Nagayama - YouTube

There is an english translation in the links, I suppose you might like it :slight_smile:

Ahh… Nagayama san playing Jonkara Onna Bushi! Years ago, I would listen to that song over and over again. One of my many favorites.

The other shamisen player sure is rocking the in-ear monitor. :wink:

I love this song sooo much that I tried to sing it at karaoke. Nagayama san voice is beautifully light!