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The skin used depends on the genre of music and the skill of the player. The body, called the dō ( 胴), resembles a drum, having a hollow body that is covered front and back with skin, in the manner of a banjo. The neck of the shamisen is fretless and slimmer than that of a guitar or banjo. Its construction follows a model similar to that of a guitar or a banjo, with a neck and strings stretched across a resonating body. The shamisen is a plucked stringed instrument. View B shows the neck and head of a Azumasawari shamisen. View A shows the neck and head of a Yamasawari shamisen. protective piece of leather ( bachigawa, azumasawari).The one used to accompany puppet plays and folk songs has a longer and thicker neck instead, to match the more robust music of those genres. The instrument used to accompany kabuki has a thin neck, facilitating the agile and virtuosic requirements of that genre. The construction of the shamisen varies in shape, depending on the genre in which it is used. In Western Japanese dialects and several Edo period sources, it is both written and pronounced as samisen. The Japanese pronunciation is usually shamisen but sometimes jamisen when used as a suffix, according to regular sound change (e.g. It is played with a plectrum called a bachi. (all meaning "three strings"), is a three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument derived from the Chinese instrument sanxian. The shamisen ( 三味線), also known as sangen ( 三絃) or samisen 1800 A Japanese man playing a shamisen while another sings A shamisen accompanying traditional vocals, with a solo (audio) 1870s Kitagawa Utamaro, "Flowers of Edo: Young Woman's Narrative Chanting to the Samisen", c.
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