Some guys from Japan offered me a kouki,natural skin,nibudai shamisen.
They told me its perfect for tsugaru,and we can play nagauta songs on it too…is that true?
The shamisen comes with hard case,mitsuori Sao,azuma sawari,and a faux bekkou bachi.
Is it a good offer?
Thanks
The shamisen comes with hard case,mitsuori Sao,azuma sawari,and a faux bekkou bachi.
sounds good but i’ve never heard of a “nibudai” shamisen…
Nibudai －二分大… I believe that basically translates to, “Size 2”. (referring to the size of the dou). I may be wrong, but I strongly suspect that is the size for nagauta shamisen. The standard dou size for tsugaru shamisen is Gobudai 五分大 (Size 5)
Did you get a picture of the shamisen, or any link?
Almost buying it,just need the info
Ooh! That looks nice! Yeah, I’d get it. 
yeah definitely looks good!
pretty pricy though 
i’d get a real nice tsugaru set from this site at that price but if you are looking for nagauta … 
but that deal definitely is not bad.
The shape of the neck where it goes into the body is not the usual for nagauta–could be Yamada-ryu?? But I agree, you can probably play whatever you want on it. Another key point, for general reference, is the condition of the sao (neck). It is not so clear from the photos. But the neck develops depressions on the most used kandokoro (finger positions). The shamisen maker (or Kyle!) can plane it down to make it flat again, but obviously, there is a limit as to how many times you can do this. If the neck has gotten very thin, there could be a limit as to how long you will be able to play it. For this reason, used shamisens at flea markets can be very cheap. (Oh, I just looked again–it says there are no ‘kanberi’ (finger depressions, so maybe okay in that respect.) Good luck!
Tell me one thing,can i play tsugaru on it normally?
Because for me the sao thickness look like its made for tsugaru,and the skin is placed same way that skin is placed on tsugaru shamisens
Aah… I may be wrong, but perhaps it’s a minyou shamisen? The itomaki look a little smaller than tsugaru itomaki, and the sao seems to be a few millimeters thinner (than most) as well. The Bachigawa is also shorter.
That said, it’s looks like it will survive the tsugaru style. 
Kyle’s right, it looks like a Min’you shamisen. You should get it! It looks super nice!!! (And it comes with a hard case which is definitely a plus.)
Sorry for the late post. Ni bu dai is the larger size for minyou and jiuta style. The Tsugaru go bu dai is about 1 cm larger.
I bought my first shamisen from this seller. It is really a very nice shamisen in near perfect condition. However it turned out to be a little shorter than expected (94 cm vs 100 cm) as is not uncommon for minyou.
Ah, that’s very interesting! I’d like to learn more about all of the #部大 sizes. I measured a 4部大 and 5部大, and the difference was 5~6mm in both length and width. By rights, 2部大 should be 15mm less, but perhaps the size does not increase in increments of 5mm? Any thoughts?
Not 100% but my understanding is that there is a standard(ish) dimension then they add from there. I don’t know if this is doubled (for top and bottom) or not. I am aware of go-rin (五厘), ichi-bu go-rin (一分五厘), ni-bu (二分), and go-bu (五分) sizes. A bu (分) is 3.03mm. A rin (厘) is 0.303 mm. Part of the problem is the differences can be small so they are hard to measure and you have to measure exactly the same way. I also have a suspicion that as these are hand made the measurements aren’t always exact. A few mm either way wouldn’t make a difference.
It seems that generally the size of the dou goes up with the sao width. Most hosozao I have seen are go-rin size while on the other end the futozao are go-bu.
Ah, that makes sense that it’s a standard size being added on to.
I also have a suspicion that as these are hand made the measurements aren’t always exact. A few mm either way wouldn’t make a difference.
Perhaps… I wonder if the measurements are recorded by a measuring device, or by eye? From what I’ve heard, skilled Japanese craftsman are able to detect difference in fractions of a millimeter. Perhaps they can visually detect the correct measurement, even if the measuring tool is not fine enough to measure. Calculating distances without a standard measuring device does leave more room for error (for the sake of finer measurements), so perhaps it’s Catch 22.
Also, when researching 部大 sizes on some Japanese website, I read something about there not being a completely standard 5部大 size, that they vary slightly. I mean, as you say, a few mm wouldn’t make much difference, but you’d think that it would have to be precise, considering that 4部大 and 5部大 are only a few mm apart.
OK, I asked the fine folks at Kameya and got some things straightened out. First is that there are “standard” measurements but since they are hand made there are some variations. There probably are some stylistic or shop differences where they intentionally vary.
First, the baseline standard dimensions for a dou are 5 sun 9 bu wide by 6 sun 5 bu long. A sun (寸) is 3.03cm.
This makes the standard go-rin dai dou ~18.0 cm X 19.8 cm as is typical on a hosozao shamisen.
A ni-bu dai dou is ~ 18.6 cm X 20.3 cm
The Tsurgaru go-bu dai dou should be ~ 19.3 cm X 21.2 cm.
Keep in mind that this is measuring across the top of the dou to the sharp edge. The widest dimensions of the dou are larger because the sides are convex. This is where a lot of variation can occur with Joe shamisen player measuring his shamisen and reporting the dimensions.
Wow… very very interesting. That’s a mystery solved right there. Thanks for inquiring, Michael!
There probably are some stylistic or shop differences where they intentionally vary.
I guess when you have been making shamisen for decades, you can intentionally make consistent variations. With my shamisens, variations are always expected, 'cause I don’t think I have the skill to make two pieces exactly the same. I just hope that any unintentional variations end up looking cool.
Isono san (Asano Sho’s maker) had showed me itomaki holes which he had just drilled/reamed into the tenjin. He noted that the ichi no itomaki hole was about 1mm off center, and asked me why he did it. For sound improvements? I didn’t think so… As I stood there puzzled, he finally said that it was one of his trademarks, to stand his shamisen apart from others. I mean, talk about a symbol of your mastery! When I drill itomaki holes, it’s all I can do to prevent splintering and misalignment.
Anyway, I guess the moral is the “standard” sizes vary only because the makers are skilled enough to adapt it to their preferences, not because they aren’t able to make the same size twice (which is my problem :P)
Keep in mind that this is measuring across the top of the dou to the sharp edge. This is where a lot of variation can occur with Joe shamisen player measuring his shamisen and reporting the dimensions.
I suspect that’s done before kawahari, as some kawahari people round the edge a lot more than others. (On some shamisen, you can see a clean edge of the dou under the skin, and others it looks more subdued) Thus, a person measuring their shamisen would get a different result, due to the rounding (of varying degree) and thickness of the skin.
Very interesting stuff! Do you know if there is a standard measurements for sao, or is that more personalized to the maker? When perusing the listings of 3000,000yen shamisen on Rakuten (Hey, we all have our dream car which we can never afford, but like to look at ), I noticed that sao thickness varied, but with no apparent reason.
Michael,do you have the seller’s email? I need to talk to him. Thanks
Shinji, I only communicated with them through Ebay so I do not have a direct email. You can contact them through Ebay. Click on the seller name and go to “contact member”