(Another) New Shamisen Beginner!

General
#1

Hello everyone! =)

I’m very pleased to have finally signed in to that awesome community and I hope you are doing fine with your Shamisen lessons, hehe!

So I started to get in touch with Shamisen since I’ve heard the Geishas of Kyoto playing - it’s such a wonderful sound and after a while I wanted to learn it for myself. And so the journey started and I got myself one.
The problem is - I bought my Shamisen (via ebay) … ~3 years ago and I moved a lot during those years so I hardly had the chance to start playing seriously. Now I settled down and I’d like to start taking some (BEGINNER) lessons again =)

BUT I totally forgot which kind of Shamisen I bought (stupid me) and now I need some help to identify my Shamisen because I need some new parts like the strings and the Itumaki (are they called Itumaki or Karakui?? I’m totally confused).
The strings seem to be in shape but I really need some new Itumaki/Karakui - I will add some pictures, so it would be great if you can help me identify my Shamisen and give me some advice which kind of Itumaki (and eventually strings) I need, because I have absolutely no clue! ((OK update: I just uploaded one picture because I’m not allowed to post more than one. Is this one enough to identify the type of Shamisen?))

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This is the detail of the upper part - so you can see that one of the Itumaki/Karakui is damaged and not an original part. I’d like to replace it and I suppose it’s the best to replace all of them?

To be honest, I also think that my Shamisen is for children, because it’s rather small (which shouldn’t be a problem since I’m also not that tall, haha). It’s size is in total about 80 cm and the single piece neck alone is ~ 61 cm.
Does this effect which kind of strings and Itumaki I need to buy? I highly appreciate your help on this - thank you so much in advance!! :smiley:

Have a great day!! =)
Sarah

#2

Hey Sarah, welcome.

The primary points of reference for sub-type identification are the width of the neck and dimensions of the body - so no, this isn’t really enough to go on. I can point out a few things and concerns however.

If your instrument is 80 cm it is smaller than a tanzao - which typically falls between 90 and 95cm. This puts it closer to sanshin sizing (http://www.asovivasanshin.com/newwoodsanshin/)

At 80cm, your instrument is only 10 cm larger than Shamisen Rakuya’s SHABO mini (https://shami1000rakuya.com/item/shamisenbox/4343/), but still around 7 cm shorter than the standard variant (https://shami1000rakuya.com/item/bestitem/1947/).

Is the neck made from wood or plastic?

The itomaki, tuning pegs, seem to be faux ivory, and the middle peg is definitely in rough shape.

Ah, for reference: Karakui is the term used for sanshin and itomaki is the term used for shamisen.

#3

Hi, it looks like a Nagauta shamisen to me (the neck looks thin and the cord number one is touching the wood directly (sawari) on the top)

#4

Hi Christopher!

Thanks a lot for your reply. Also thanks a lot for clearing my confusion about karakui and itomaki :slight_smile:

So here’s some more info:
Width of neck: ~2cm
Dimensions of body (length-width-height): 17x 15 x 7,5 cm
Does this help?

Regarding it’s size I believe it’s a Shamisen for children, it doesn’t really look like a Sanshin though the size is similar… But I’m not sure if it could be such a SHABO mini Shamisen you linked in your post! But as you pointed out it is shorter than the standard variant.

As for the neck I believe its made of plastic since it feels too light and is without any texture to be made of wood.

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#5

Hi Miguel!

Thanks a lot for your answer! I also thought it might be a Nagauta Shamisen but it’s still the size that’s irritating me since I’m not completely sure if it’s a childrens Shamisen or not. If it is a small size Nagauta Shamisen: do you know which kind of itomaki (and strings) I need for that one? Do I need a special size itomaki, since the Shamisen is smaller than a regular one? :thinking:

#6

Sarah,

It’s not a sanshin or a shabo - the former has a dramatically different shape and the latter is a relatively new thing.

Without really inspecting it and listening to it, I’m hesitant to call it a children’s shamisen. As far as I know, shamisen intended for children don’t swing as low as 80cm. See the product in the amazon link (a mass produced version)

https://www.amazon.co.jp/にちわ-子供三味線（二番三味線）特別教材セット/dp/B006OSQ24A

The aberrant size and materials suggest to me that this is something else. My gut feeling is that this is more of a display piece or toy rather than a proper instrument meant for children. It might be playable, but I don’t think it’ll sound as one might expect a regular instrument would.

All that said, it’s definitely mimicing the form of a nagauta shamisen - which is the base model after all.

I’ll touch base with some of the shops nearby and see if they have any input. Cheers~

#7

Hi, I’m not sure about that but I’ll ask my teacher next time I see him.
Anyway, I have never seen a children size Nagauta Shamisen. The little kids that I know use normal size Shamisen from the begining.

#8

Hi Miguel!
Thanks again for your reply. Maybe it’s true and it’s not really a children’s Shamisen… eventually ChristopherBrown is right and it’s just for display :weary:

Could you find out anything when asking your teacher?

#9

Hi Christopher!
Thanks a lot for your kind reply again!
Okay so this is some new kind of information - it really may be that my little Shamisen is only for display and not for playing. Miguel also pointed out, that children use normal size Shamisen…
It’s such a pity but thank you so much for helping me with that one!!

Cheers, Sarah

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