The
sanshin (三線, literally meaning "Three strings") is an Okinawan
musical instrumentA musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making the sounds of music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the beginnings of human culture...
and precursor of the Japanese
shamisenThe shamisen or samisen , also called sangen is a three-stringed musical instrument played with a plectrum called a bachi...
. Often likened to a
banjoThe banjo is a stringed instrument developed by enslaved Africans in the United States, adapted from several African instruments.The name banjo is commonly thought to be derived from the Kimbundu term mbanza...
, it consists of a snakeskin-covered body, neck and three strings.
Its close resemblance in both appearance and name to the Chinese
sanxianThe sanxian is a Chinese lute — a three-stringed fretless plucked musical instrument. It has a long fingerboard, and the body is traditionally made from snakeskin stretched over a rounded rectangular resonator. It is made in several sizes for different purposes and in the late 20th century a...
suggests its Chinese origins, the old
Ryūkyū KingdomThe Ryūkyū Kingdom was an independent kingdom which ruled most of the Ryukyu Islands from the 15th century to the 19th century. The Kings of Ryūkyū unified Okinawa Island and extended the kingdom to the Amami Islands in modern-day Kagoshima Prefecture, and the Sakishima Islands near Taiwan...
(pre-Japanese Okinawa) having very close ties with China. In the 16th century, the sanshin reached the Japanese trading port at
Sakaiis a city in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the Medieval era.Following the February 2005 annexation of Mihara Town in Minamikawachi District, the city has grown further and is now the fourteenth most populous city in Japan, with...
in
Osakais a prefecture located in the Kansai region on Honshū, the main island of Japan. The capital is the city of Osaka. It is the center of Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto area.- History :For the history of Osaka prior to Meiji Restoration, see Osaka....
,
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
The
sanshin (三線, literally meaning "Three strings") is an Okinawan
musical instrumentA musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making the sounds of music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the beginnings of human culture...
and precursor of the Japanese
shamisenThe shamisen or samisen , also called sangen is a three-stringed musical instrument played with a plectrum called a bachi...
. Often likened to a
banjoThe banjo is a stringed instrument developed by enslaved Africans in the United States, adapted from several African instruments.The name banjo is commonly thought to be derived from the Kimbundu term mbanza...
, it consists of a snakeskin-covered body, neck and three strings.
Its close resemblance in both appearance and name to the Chinese
sanxianThe sanxian is a Chinese lute — a three-stringed fretless plucked musical instrument. It has a long fingerboard, and the body is traditionally made from snakeskin stretched over a rounded rectangular resonator. It is made in several sizes for different purposes and in the late 20th century a...
suggests its Chinese origins, the old
Ryūkyū KingdomThe Ryūkyū Kingdom was an independent kingdom which ruled most of the Ryukyu Islands from the 15th century to the 19th century. The Kings of Ryūkyū unified Okinawa Island and extended the kingdom to the Amami Islands in modern-day Kagoshima Prefecture, and the Sakishima Islands near Taiwan...
(pre-Japanese Okinawa) having very close ties with China. In the 16th century, the sanshin reached the Japanese trading port at
Sakaiis a city in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the Medieval era.Following the February 2005 annexation of Mihara Town in Minamikawachi District, the city has grown further and is now the fourteenth most populous city in Japan, with...
in
Osakais a prefecture located in the Kansai region on Honshū, the main island of Japan. The capital is the city of Osaka. It is the center of Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto area.- History :For the history of Osaka prior to Meiji Restoration, see Osaka....
,
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. In mainland Japan, it evolved into the larger
shamisenThe shamisen or samisen , also called sangen is a three-stringed musical instrument played with a plectrum called a bachi...
.
The Okinawan names for the strings are (from thick to thin)
uujiru (男絃, "male string"),
nakajiru (中絃, "middle string"), and
miijiru (女絃, "female string"). The strings are white, except in Amami, where they are yellow.
Traditionally, players wore a
plectrumA plectrum is a small flat tool used to pluck or strum a stringed instrument. For guitars and similar instruments, the plectrum is a separate tool held in the player's hand...
, made of a material such as the
hornA horn is a pointed projection of the skin on the head of various animals, consisting of a covering of horn surrounding a core of living bone. True horns are found mainly among the ruminant artiodactyls, in the families Antilocapridae and Bovidae...
of the water buffalo, on the index
fingerA finger is a type of digit, an organ of manipulation and sensation found in the hands of humans and other primates.Normally humans have five digits, termed phalanges, on each hand . The first digit is the thumb, followed by index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger or pinky...
. Many still do, whereas others use a
guitar pickA guitar pick is a type of plectrum designed for use on a guitar. Over time people have made picks of various materials, including plastic, rubber, felt, tortoiseshell, wood, metal, glass, and stone. They most often take the shape of an acute isosceles triangle with the two equal corners very...
or the
nailA nail is a horn-like structure at the end of a person's finger or toe. See also claw.-Parts of the nail:Fingernails and toenails are made of a tough protein called keratin, as are animals' hooves and horns. Along with hair and teeth they are an appendage of the skin. The parts of the nail...
of the index finger. In Amami, long, narrow
plectraA plectrum is a small flat tool used to pluck or strum a stringed instrument. For guitars and similar instruments, the plectrum is a separate tool held in the player's hand...
of
bambooThe bamboos are a group of woody perennial evergreen plants in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Some are giant bamboos, the largest members of the grass family. Bamboos are the fastest growing woody plants in the world...
are also in use.
In mainland Japan, many people refer to the sanshin as
jabisen (蛇皮線, literally "
snakeSnakes are elongate legless carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
-skin strings") or
jamisen (蛇三線, "
snakeSnakes are elongate legless carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
three strings") because the body of the instrument has a snakeskin covering. A bamboo
bridgeA bridge is a device for supporting the strings on a stringed instrument and transmitting the vibration of those strings to some other structural component of the instrument in order to transfer the sound to the surrounding air.- Explanation :...
raises the strings off the skin.
In the years following
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, many Okinawans made sanshin from empty
tin canA tin can, tin , steel can, or a can, is an air-tight container for the distribution or storage of goods, composed of thin metal, and requiring cutting or tearing of the metal as the means of opening...
s, known as "kankara sanshin".
Due to international wildlife protection treaties, it is not legal to export snakeskin-covered sanshins to some countries (such as the United Kingdom and United States).
External links