Shamisen
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The shamisen or samisen, also known as sangen, is a three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument derived from the Chinese instrument sanxian. It is played with a plectrum called a bachi.
Tokyo geisha with shamisen, c. 1870s
A Japanese man playing a shamisen while another sings
The heike shamisen compared with a medium-sized, or chuzao shamisen
Bachi for min'yo, tsugaru and heike shamisen
Sanxian
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The sanxian is a three-stringed traditional Chinese lute. It has a long fretless fingerboard, and the body is traditionally made from snake skin stretched over a rounded rectangular resonator. It is m
Possible sanxian (left) and pipa, from a 762-827 A.D. painting in the Mogao caves near Dunhuang―Grotto 46 Left interior wall, second panel. Also called cave 112.
Sanxian, ca. 1900, housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
A sanxian
Xu Fengxia playing sanxian