Which type of Shamisen is this?

General
#1

Hi all, new guy here! Not sure if it belongs in the category, I have recently bought a shamisen, and started following the crash courses. I have currently already finished them, but only now it started to appear to me that my shamisen doesn’t completely look like a Tsugaru.

From what I have read on the wiki, the dou and hatomune are those of a jiuta shamisen, but the itomaki look more like those of a tsugaru than a jiuta. So, what kind of Shamisen would it actually be? A friend has already jokingly called it a “mongrel shamisen”.




Thanks in advance!

#2

Are all tenjin with standardized measurements? Thinking somebody just inserted tsugaru itomaki to a jiuta…

Have you tried comparing the sound, jiuta to me seems rather distinct.

#3

The sound was indeed distinct that from the recordings of the tsugaru shamisen. At first I thought it was like that because of the recording.

#4

I suppose most other types sound distinct from tsugaru (which is larger, usually, with a longer neck).

For jiuta, you can check youtube eg:

Or the samples at e-kameya: Shamisen | KAMEYA Shamisen OnlineShop

Sound can be affected by many things though, such as the quality of the instrument, playing technique, reality vs youtube and so on :slight_smile:

Which material is your koma, looks like bamboo?

#5

Hi. The sound is mostly affected by the koma and the bachi. I think if you play a jiuta shamisen with a tsugaru koma and a tsugaru bachi, it will sound close from a tsugaru shamisen. But concerning your shamisen, Shannon, can you give us the measurements of the dou ? Your shamisen looks like a first level of tsugaru (without the azuma sawari). By the way, Yatagarasu, I may be wrong, but I’m not sure the tsugaru shamisen have a longer neck (except the small difference of the total lenth due to the thickness of the 2 opposite sides of the dou…)

#6

Yes, the koma is a bamboo one, and is for the Tsugaru shamisen if I’m correct. The bachi, I’m not sure about. It was included with this one.

The dou measures 24 cm (9,4 inch) x 21 cm (8,2 inch) x 10 cm (3,9 inch).

#7

To be complete, can you measure the thickness of the sao ? Thanks

#8

The sao is 3 cm (1,2 inch) thick.

#9

A tsugaru for sure !

#10

By the way, Yatagarasu, I may be wrong, but I’m not sure the tsugaru shamisen have a longer neck (except the small difference of the total lenth due to the thickness of the 2 opposite sides of the dou…)

From wikipedia:

The futozao of Tsugaru-jamisen is quite a recent innovation, and is purposefully constructed in a much larger size than traditional style shamisens, and its neck is much longer and thicker than the traditional nagauta or jiuta shamisens.

I think I’ve seen it in other references too, haven’t had the chance to see two shamisen really side by side yet :wink:

Tsugaru has a slightly wider register of notes than say nagauta for example, as well. Think it’s got something to do with the length of the sao as well.

There’s other styles of futozao shamisen, but I’m not aware of all their specifics (gidayu apparently has a dou between nagauta and tsugaru, but how about the other parameters?). (EDIT: Kouta of course is NOT a futozao but hosozao. I understood it has a lower register too.)

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