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
Sanshin
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The sanshin is a Ryukyuan musical instrument and precursor of Japanese shamisen. Often likened to a banjo, it consists of a snakeskin-covered body, neck and three strings.
Shamisen
…Chinese sanxian (Chinese: 三弦). The sanxian was introduced through the Ryūkyū Kingdom (Okinawa) in the 16th century, where it developed into the Okinawan sanshin (三線), from which the shamisen ultimately derives. It is believed that the ancestor of the shamisen was introduced in the 16th century through the port…
A sanshin