Hi guys, I just wanted to check if anyone could tell me what kind of shamisen this is? One is a tsugaru for sure, I didn’t have a chance to take some pictures inside of the dou before I got it re-skinned. The previous owner seemed to have made it more tsugaru like, from the skin to Koma to bachi. But it looks more like minyou size.
Disclaimer: without measurements, this is pretty hard.
I’m disinclined to class it as a min’yo shamisen. Min’yo shamisen use what’s called a go-rin-dai body and a chuuzao neck (2.6 - 2.8 cm wide). That’s the second from the left in the attached image.
The shamisen on the right in your images is a little bit smaller than the one on the left - or seems to be. However, I don’t think it’s small enough to meet go - rin - dai sizing. The neck may be a chuuzao however.
It seems to me that it’s a 1分5厘大 (ichi bu go rin dai). This is the sizing used in chuuzao and jiuta shamisen. It may also be an interim value between 1.5 Bu Dai and 5 Bu Dai. Particularly, 2 Bu Dai is relatively common in Jiuta.
As well, some Tsugaru are built with smaller players in mind and utilize customized sizes, so one occasionally see 3.5 bu dai and all that.
I do recall it being around 2.8cm or so, let me know if you need anymore measurements or pictures
I’m back again with some pictures inside the dou… Wasn’t easy taking those. Could anyone translate what it says?
Many thanks in advance.
I’m not really good with handwriting but what I understand is “Asahikawa city” something 8 district" “something shop” and then there’s the date, “uncertain date in September”.
Someone also added on that it’s this
大沼楽器店＝Onuma musical instruments store.
I finally got the last part. Showa 52, uncertain day of september. Showa 52 is 1977
昭和五十二年
九月吉日
Wow. So it was made somewhere in 1977?
Hello.
The first picture is an address, but you misread the kanji, Alexander.
旭川市5条8丁目 (Asahikawa City, Go Jyoudoori, Hachi Chome)
大沼楽器店
It’s in Hokkaido.
This is seems website for that shop, although the physical address is different.
(北海道旭川市２条通11丁目左4号)
I dropped a message with the shop and got a reply.
こんばんわ。当店で販売したものですね。
1977年製、現在は何処かで両面合皮を張った物です丸打ち胴で唄物。
その他の詳細は帳簿を調べないと解りません。
So it is made in 1977, also could someone tell me again what’s a maruchi dou?
Translated:
"Good Evening, That’s something sold from the main store.
It’s from 1977, and recently someone has applied an artificial leather to both sides. It’s a round bodied instrument.
Otherwise, I can’t say much. There isn’t anything in the store logs"
Maruuchi, in this case, literally means like"round bodied".
The actual meaning is that lacks internal baffles such as ayasugi-bori. In my above picture, you’ll notice some carved ridges on the interior, those are ayasugi bori.
Ohhhhh now I remember, thanks again! Man I feel old. 1977…
I have viewed the pictures and I’d say it is a Jiuta shamisen with custom made Itomaki. but the body is probably a Tsugaru dou
