Mmm--mm--mmf!
Hey everybody, you know what time it is.
This is Shawn Renzoh Head and we're about ready to go over the history of the shamisen.
Let’s begin our history of the shamisen with a story.
It’s an Okinawan story about the origin of the sanshin, an instrument similar to the
shamisen.
The Legend of Aka Inko
It’s a legend of a man named Aka Inko, Child of the Red Dog.
How did someone receive such a name?
Once upon a time, there was a woman whose village was suffering from a deadly drought.
One day, she saw a red dog in the streets and fed it.
Perhaps because of her kindness, the dog led her to a fresh spring.
The fresh water saved her village and from that day on,
she took in the dog and cared for it.
This woman was quite the looker, and it caused people to be jealous of her husband.
One day, naturally, a jealous man killed her husband.
That was bad enough, but soon after, she became pregnant.
A vicious rumor circulated that her dear dog had impregnated her.
After giving birth, the woman killed herself from embarrassment.
Her grieving parents took in the baby and people started calling him Aka Inko,
Child of the Red Dog.
When Aka Inko became older he heard the sounds of rain and the other elements around him.
He was stricken with inspiration.
“What if I made a sanshin with a wooden body and used horse tail for strings?”
He performed on this newly made musical weapon whilst singing, becoming the first person
ever to incorporate the singing style with sanshin.
Later on after becoming the sanshin vocal master,
he became thirsty from tirelessly singing.
He saw a local ship in Seragaki and asked, “Could I have some water?”
They flat out said no.
Like any self-respecting musician, he proceeded to write a song about it, called
“Seragaki Water Ship.”
He then came to a ship in Chatan and asked, “Could I have some water?”
They said yes and he in return wrote a song for them titled
“Chatan Speedy Ship.”
As karma would have it, it wasn’t long before the ship from Seragaki sank,
and the ship from Chatan proved itself to be quite fast.
Seeing that their ship had sank, those sailors were pretty pissed and hunted Aka Inko down
and slaughtered him.
But it’s all good because he has a shrine in Yomitan near the Torii Station main gates.
You can go there today and strike a deal with Aka Inko by giving him water and you will
become a master sanshin player.
The sanshin is a revered instrument in the Ryukyuan Islands.
It’s also a cousin to the shamisen because both instruments evolved from a Chinese instrument,
the sanxian (sangen).
This Chinese banjo made its way to Okinawa in the 1500s and became the sanshin.
It also arrived in Japan and became the shamisen.
Here’s a shamisen.
The shamisen was the musical instrument of choice for geisha.
Now one thing to know is that the name Geisha means performing artist.
The first geisha were men and geisha were not oiran, or prostitutes,
though they had similar attire.
The confusion most likely happened because of the pleasure quarters in the 1700s and
also the Allied occupation of Japan in 1945.
Many prostitutes were dressed similar to geisha, but foreigners did not know the difference.
The geisha would entertain clients through, dance, song, and calligraphy.
After being entertained was when the clients would go to see the oiran.
Women came into the scene as dancers.
After becoming too old to dance as young girls, they became geisha.
Geisha played the shamisen and sang short songs called Kouta.
Ko means little and uta means song.
Kouta began to become popular from the middle of the Meiji era and is one of the most popular
genres of traditional Japanese music today.
Like other genres in the Shamisen universe, kouta can be played solo, duo, or trio.
Kouta, remember meaning little are very short.
So short that many of the songs are just around 40 seconds long.
So, what do you get from 40 seconds of music?
The idea is that every Kouta generates a new atmosphere and gives you the feels.
Think haiku.
Few words, but profound meaning.
Everything from corny jokes to deep aesthetic sentiments can be found in the kouta genre.
That also holds true for Linfamy’s videos.
There are many other genres of shamisen music.
Nagauta means long song and plays a big part in the history of the shamisen.
This genre started as a simple lyrical style but later developed into complex story telling
similar to the biwa storytelling culture.
Joruri is used in Bunraku, or puppet theatre.
Kake ai is used in Kabuki theatre.
And then there’s Tsugaru-Jamisen.
That was from the brother duo, Yoshida Kyodai.
The Yoshida Brothers are described as energetic, aggressive, fast and twangy.
This style is what I believe made shamisen super famous around the world.
It’s flashy, bombastic, and loud.
There were musicians in the early 1900s like Shirakawa Gunpachiro and Takahashi Chikuzan
who developed a new style of playing based on folk music that involved
improvisational riffs.
The best way to think of this is the guitar player
who feels a solo is needed after every chorus,
bridge, and verse.
Let’s look at the anatomy of a shamisen.
It’s a three stringed banjo-like instrument that is played with an epic looking guitar
pic called a bachi.
Shamisen come in many shapes and sizes depending on its purpose.
It’s a plucked instrument.
It looks a bit like a banjo, but it has no frets, which makes *you* fret because it’s
harder to play.
The body is called do.
It is a hollow box that is traditionally covered in cat skin but this fell out of fashion in
recent times because Japan exported all of its cats to Aoshima
where the cats now rule the land.
Nowadays, we use human skin.
Or some synthetic material.
The neck is called the sao, and it can be divided into 3 or sometimes 4 parts.
At the top of the neck are 3 giant pegs for tuning.
They used to be made of ivory but now are made of plastic or wood.
The strings are made of silk, but recently nylon has become popular.
The strings stretch from the pegs down the neck, over the do, where it’s raised by
a bridge called a koma which sits on the cat skin.
An interesting setup on the shamisen is the lowest sounding string is intentionally set
lower so that it buzzes.
This is a special feature of the shamisen and it has a special name called “sawari”
which is like a buzzing sound.
You can find many great shamisen players on YouTube, give it a search!
Anddd I’m out!
Linfamy: Alright where is he? Oh.
Yeah that’s what I thought, Shawn.
But you should check out Shawn’s YouTube channel over at Renzoh Flutes,
where he infects you with Renzovirus it seems.
He also gives shakuhachi lessons and talks about all kinds of musical topics.
Also, check out this epic shamisen music, you won’t regret it.
Link in the description.
Okay so here’s today’s quiz question.
At the Battle of Kojima, Minamoto no Noriyori’s army was able to win by crossing a path that
only appeared when?
I will choose a winner from among the correct answers in 24 hours.
Winner gets one of these sticker sets.
This is for US and Canada residents only, unfortunately, because global shipping is
wonky these days.
Good luck!
Alright, we have a new emperor this week, Area609Joe.
He works at Area 609, where the government experiments on Pokemon.
Area 51 is a distraction.
Wake up, sheep.
And this week’s new patrons are Lex he cashes big checks,
Scott Lystig Fritchie,
Shay yay!,
SpaceDaimyo lord of space (all of it??),
terman,
David Lee Fish the most delicious of fishes,
Anthony Tse,
and Mary M Alderman.
Thank you so much you guys!
For more videos about traditional musical instruments, check out this playlist.
Alright much love, and spread the knowledge!