Few Questions on acquiring and learning the shamisen

General
#1

Hello bachido-community,

I have a few questions to ask and hope you can help me out a little.

I’ll be in Japan again (Tokio, staying in Asakusa) for a few weeks from the 12th December 'til Christmas and I am thinking/dreaming about buying a shamisen. I’m planning on visiting Kameya and Katoh and wanted to know if there are any other craftsmen around, where I could buy and try a shamisen?
I’ve never held one in my hands before, so I’d really like to try, if it is possible.

Is it possible to learn the shamisen just from online videos, books etc.? I am from eastern Germany and there are no shamisen teachers nearby (and I can’t really afford to drive 6 hours back and forth every week to Dusseldorf). I play a variety of instruments (Guitar, Lute, Guqin) quite well, but I don’t want to cast pearls before swine, if you know what I mean.

Last question for now; I hope this is not too silly but what style of shamisen would you recommend for blues/jazz sessions? A more thick-necked durable type or would a hosozao just as good?

Thank you for you time,
Jan.

#2

Welcome to Bachido, dog.

My local shop, Muramatsuya, just opened a Tokyo branch after being in business for 199 years. They’re over in 7-6-0105, Shirokane 2-chome, Minato-ku.

If a store has a rental piece or if you’re serious about buying, they’ll let you try it; but you may be limited in what you’ll be allowed to handle.

Regarding type:

For beginners, just about anything is going to be fine, so buy in your budget. Shamisen ain’t cheap, even when they’re “cheap”.

Some tsugaru techniques are hard to pull off on a thin neck; so I’d recommend a chuuzao if at all possible (provided that’s what you’re interested in). Beyond that…

If you’re not learning from a strict teacher, go with the sound you like. You can do bluesy and jazzy stuff on anything. Play with the tuning.

#3

Hi and welcome to this family! :slight_smile:
For the Teachers, I think there are some online shamisen Teachers, who can give you lessons from Skype…
But if you will be in Japan, I think it will be better if you could have the possibility of taking few lessons from a teacher…

#4

There is also a small shamisen store in Asakusa called Mikado. http://asakusa-ichifuku.com/en/members/mikado/mikado2.html. It is across the road from a popular-with-foreigners Asakusa ryokan called Ryokan Shigetsu. (That may help as a landmark.)

#5

I laid down a couple hundo on a cheap nagauta and haven’t turned back yet. Still haven’t taken a single lesson since I don’t live in Japan.

If you can swing it, a couple of lessons will be really helpful, but just playing and having fun is really the best way. When you get used to the sound, you can always refine back to particular styles.

Enjoy!

I went to that shop in Asakusa a while back. Quite small but great. Wish I had some money!

#6

Thanks for the warm welcome and all the replies.

Sadly, my days are all planned out, so I think I won’t be able to take shamisen lessons on short notice ^^.
But it’s good to hear that fun and progress are possible even without teaching in traditional sense. I’ll most likely resort to online lessons.
(But when I come to think back of the Qin lessons I had, it was one of my most awkward and nonpleasant experiences… a very strict teacher can sometimes hinder more than help)

I will check out the recommended shops, but I think I remember where “Mikado” is, I once stayed at that ryokan a couple years back.
But I didn’t find anything on “Muramatsuya” online, is the main shop based at your location?

And “cheap” isn’t a term I would use when it comes to hand-crafted instruments, since there is always a whole lot of work behind it. But I thought about spending maybe 80k-140k yen, it all depends on the instrument I guess…which is why I’d really like to try it beforehand.

Greetings,
Jan.

#7

Jan
I have been teaching myself using the excellent Bachido site lessons – the first lesson package is free, the others very moderate in cost. Kyle records the videos, which are also good, with musical scores included, and downloadable as pdf files.
You can buy a moderately priced nagauta shamisen via the Bachido site.
Best
Dave

#8

I paid 30,000 for my nagauta and am happy with it. At the time, I wasn’t sure whether I would continue with it and my living situation is quite challenging (Kenya).

That being said, you should be able to find a great instrument for your budget, though you should be aware that there are numerous types of shamisens out there, and they are all different in many ways.

I picked the nagauta because it was cheap. I want a Tugaru, but am a broke dude right now (sadly). I had to get it reskinned recently which cost almost as much as I paid for it…

#9

Well, it’s good you’re going in with some idea of the cost involved. Even as someone who comes from a music shop background, I’m still routinely surprised at the costs of even the most basic examples. The starter shamisen in the store here at Bachido is a staggeringly awesome exception to that.

Anyway.

Muramatsuya might be the oldest Japanese Instrument store in Hokuriku - 199 years and still going strong. They’re also traditional as heck and I don’t think they actually have a website as such; but they do show up on map searches. I’m using what I’ve seen there as a baseline for costs.

With 8 to 14万円 to work with, you’ve got ready access to most things - particularly if you don’t mind used pieces. It’s pretty easy to get mid-range (shaitan necked, asuma-sawari bearing) instruments at that level. If you need accessories (cases, bachi, yubikake, koma, etc) take care. In particular, bachi can be expensive, and nice koma aren’t much cheaper.

It can also be very useful to take a look in fleamarkets and second hand shops. You can occasionally find lovely pieces for reasonable prices.

Since you’ll ultimately be leaving Japan with whatever you buy, take care with the materials and be sure to invest in extra strings (especially the second and thirds, as those are the most likely to pop).

Best of luck~

#10

Ah, as well

The e-kameya site has sound files demonstrating the differences between shamisen types. This’ll help you get an idea of what you’ll experience in person.

http://www.e-kameya.com/english/shamisen.html

#11

I already checked the e-kameya website, it tended to push me more into the tsugaru direction. I think the sound is richer and more refined.

I have visited many music shops and many craftsmen of traditional instruments and I may say that the shamisen is one of the most expensive, if one wants to buy an instrument +all the needed accessories (I’ve even seen way cheaper koto and chikuzen biwa for instance). I checked out some bachi and koma, and I think that for starters a more inexpensive bachi will do, around 8k maybe. I just need to get a feeling for it all first.

Now that you mention flea markets, my fiance wants to visit the setagaya no boroichi. Has someone been there before? Any chances of finding something?
And a little off topic: How are the japanese with bargaining at flea markets? Never been to one in Japan before.

I am grateful for all your replies

#12

Yeah, I wouldn’t go in with that exact price-point in mind. Think in terms of material and style, and then go from there.

Some fleamarket vendors will be open to haggling, some will not. Just be careful if ivory or bekkou catches your eye. Since those can be quite dear, are occasionally fake, and I’m not sure how Germany deals with those materials.

#13

Hello, Unfortunately, I cannot find soundfiles… can you help me? Thanks :slight_smile:

#14

Good morning, Sakura. I suppose it’s a little confusing.

Hmm… well, the sound files are on this page.

http://www.e-kameya.com/english/shamisen.html

On this page is a big chart with the names of different types of Shamisen.

There are two columns in the chart. On the left side it has names and on the right side it has descriptions. These columns are divided into different shamisen types. It goes Tsugaru Shamisen, Tsugaru Karin, Tsugaru Kouki, Nagauta Shamisen, Nagauta Karin, Nagauta Kouki and so on.

In the box that says just the type (such as Tsugaru Shamisen or Nagauta Shamisen) there are two links.

One is a picture of a speaker and one is the word “Order”. If you click the picture of the speaker some sound will play. Clicking “Order” will open a new windowfor buying a shamisen from the shop.

I hope this helps. I’d rather give you direct links to the sound files, but I cannot.

#15

Hi!
I don’t know if there is a picture… because I’m blind and I cannot find nothing!

#16

Right! I’m not sure what program you use to read the forums, so I tried to give a description of the web-page. I guess that didn’t work…

Hmm…

AHA!

Okay, I was able to get the direct links.

For Tsugaru:

http://www.e-kameya.com/_shared/swf/02_tsugaru.swf

For Nagauta:

http://www.e-kameya.com/_shared/swf/01_nagauta.swf

For Jiuta:

http://www.e-kameya.com/_shared/swf/03_jiuta.swf

For Kouta

http://www.e-kameya.com/_shared/swf/04_kouta.swf

For Minyou:

http://www.e-kameya.com/_shared/swf/05_minyou.swf

For Sanshin:

http://www.e-kameya.com/_shared/swf/06_sanshin.swf

How’s that?

#17

OK…
I fou
But are the “pieces” to demonstrate also the tuning used?nd the jiuta very pretty!

#18

Excuse me… I was wrong at posting!
Maybe the sample are needed to show each shamisen (and also the sanshin) tuning…

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