You mean truly hand made (chisels, etc) or power tools vs. C&C? According to Isono san, most shamisen makers use power tools (saws, sanders, routers) to make a majority of shamisen, while still using blades for very fine work (like the square hole, kakuana, in the dou).
Yes i mean truly hand made , even if i’m getting used to some really good power tools , i learn to work with a luthier who is actually in love with power tools and making tools , i was really disapointed at first , but then i realized that even if the guy is like this , i will do as i wish in my shop and the good point is that i learn to use big machinery like jointer , band saw and router . the jointer is amazing but i’m crying like a baby everytime i have to use it , really it scares the hell out of me , the router is amazing too , when i have to craft a bending maching for my guitar , it has to be perfectly shaped so i use the router . the band saw makes you win some time , but in the end the thing i enjoy the most is using my chisels , hand plane and Japanese saw wich is ten times better than the band saw !
In the end you are absolutely right , when you’re making a living out of it you have to think about what could make you eat a meal in the end of the day and what can make you smile everytime you go in the shop , if you are only doing it for money , you lost , the key is to find a compromise between hand made and machine made , machinery is here to help us , not to work for us , this is my point of view , i use power tools only to help me do what the power tool will probably do better than me, but most work requires to use hand tools and it’s a very fun stuff to do . Power tools can be very fun to use , never try a wood lathe ? 
Use Rosetta Stone Japanese and we’ll talk about it again in 3 years or earlier!
You mean the book to learn languages ? 3 years ? damn it took me ten years to speak very little English and to watch every Hitchcock in English and you’re saying that i can learn to speak Japanese in 3 years ? Kyle , it’s hard to believe for me !
Whooaaa!!! That Potpourri of an instrument in the poster for SALON DE LUTHERIE is wild! Do you think it’s real or photoshopped? It sounds like a really cool event.
I think it is photoshopped , but you can see some weird stuff like this in some luthier gathering , i need to build me a laboratory so i can take the DNA of a Shamisen , a guitar , a pipa , an erhu and a morin khuur and make it a whole new instrument muhahah !
It slows life down as well. Being how fast life speeds along, slowing down is always a good thing, I think. 
