I’m wondering if photos of the instruments, including the handwritten paper tags inside the dou, would help someone here to tell me a bit about them. I know its not the same as viewing in person but any info would be appreciated. One of them has ivory itomaki and the most dense and beautiful wood in the neck I’ve ever seen. I’ll post a few pics if anyone thinks they can help.
thanks a lot!
Hi Kevin!
Welcome to Bachido! 
Congratulations on receiving two shamisen. Absolutely, post pictures and I’m sure Kyoko or someone else can help translate what it says!
All the best!
Kyle
here are the tags inside the two shamisen.
Gosh… I can almost recognize certain kanji, but not enough to fully understand. :S Certainly, the paper on the first picture is the name and address of the shop it was made (or skinned?) by… I believe.
I read even less kanji, but i also believe that first picture is what you said, it only makes sense. I have built 2 shamisen and have never owned or handled a professionally built instrument. The thing is, the fit and finish and materials seem so fine that I just think at least one of them (the first pictures) is a really nice unit. The neck joints are almost impossible to see when assembled, the wood is harder than any I’ve ever worked with, and an unusual very dark maroon color. The builder even took the trouble to make softwood caps for the neck segment ends to protect the edges. Also, the tuners are ivory or possibly some kind of bone, though it would be like no bone I’ve seen. I want to reskin them, luckily I kept all the stretching clamps I made for the first two I built, but I dont want to mess with them if it turns out they are very special. Thanks for your attention and I just hope a native speaker finds this thread and helps out.
Kevin
Go ahead and reskin them, Kevin. They are no doubt nice instruments, but not out of the ordinary, and should be played rather than just looked at, I think.
The things you describe - the seamless joint work, and the soft wood end pieces for the neck joints (called aigi) are standard on a decent shamisen. A higher grade shamisen would have a herring bone pattern inside the dou, and metal fittings in each of the neck joints (rather than the standard wood-on-wood).
The writing in the pictures is hard to read for sure - the stamps are too faint, and the handwriting is not all that clear either, but here are a few things I picked up:
First picture: the far right column says - “33rd year, 7th month” (of the Showa era meaning 1958), the year it was made, or, more likely, last skinned. The next column is the name Miyamoto, probably the customer’s name. The blue stamp is the business name and address. Hamaki is the shop’s name, and they deal in koto and shamisen. The address is too blurry to read, but the last line contains the word Sannomiya, which might be the Sannomiya district in Kobe.
Second picture: The name Miyamoto again, but I can’t make out the second line.
Third and fourth pictures: show the label with the shop name and date of work done on the second shamisen. The customer’s name is Uehara, and it looks to be done by a different shop, but it’s too faint to read.
Thanks so much for your help. As beautiful as these are, I’d love to see a truly premium instrument now.