Shamisen maker sheds animal skin in favor of synthetic material

Many people overseas flinched when we told them shamisen use dog skins and they said they didn't want to listen to us play," he explained.

No kidding.

If the sound is the same and it's cheaper, that's great ! Win/win !

Many people overseas flinched when we told them shamisen use dog skins and they said they didn't want to listen to us play

Do people imagine that japanese just grab cats and dogs in the street to skin them ?

i thought it was only cat skin! jeepers, i just came from Okinawa and enjoyed two concerts. i don't wanna watch my dreams now, I'm a wanchan person.

@Goodlucktoyou

As far as I know it's always been mostly cats skins, from already dead animals.

I don't know what kind of concert you saw, but if it was in Okinawa it is more likely that it was Sanshin shamisen, made with snake skin, not dog or cat.

Do people imagine that japanese just grab cats and dogs in the street to skin them ?

No one claimed the skins were sourced in Japan....I can think of some places in the world where, yes, they would grab them and skin them if there were any profit in it.

Bottom line...I just don't feel like listening to something made from dog.

> As far as I know it's always been mostly cats skins, from already dead animals.

Well in certainly will be dead if it has no skin on it.

Bottom line...I just don't feel like listening to something made from dog.

and me from cats since I am a major cat lover

No one claimed the skins were sourced in Japan....I can think of some places in the world where, yes, they would grab them and skin them if there were any profit in it.

Surely. But with all the cats already in Japan, and this being a japanese thing, where would be the point ?

As far as I know it's always been mostly cats skins, from already dead animals.*

Well in certainly will be dead if it has no skin on it.

Come on, you know what I mean... Cats and dogs are not killed for that purpose.

The point of the article is that it's changing anyway.

Plus, if you want to check a business really cruel toward cats and dogs, just check the pet industry !

I've always heard it was cat skin too. Learned something new that SEA sourced dog skin was being used. Some SEA countries may be able to export dog skins as a by product of a meat industry.

After some research, there were "cat hunters" before, and after restrictions were implemented in Japan, skins were imported from abroad, and even that has been decreasing gradually. I was wrong about import, my bad.

Some people also choose to donate the skin of their dead pet.

Anyway, it will hopefully not be needed anymore.

Well, when our mikeneko (tabby cat?) went missing, the neighborhood said that the poor animal was probably adoring a shamisen already. I have since been told, that only the skins of male mikeneko are used, because male mikeneko are rare. Ours was female, so don’t know if there is any truth in the mikeneko story, but valuable animals and things do get stolen in order to make a little money.

"Many people overseas flinched when we told them shamisen use dog skins and they said they didn't want to listen to us play," he explained."

Geez... talk about not looking things up a little before opening your mouth. Anyway, I thought using animals, be it cats, dogs, or snakes, stopped ages ago. Guess not. I always joke to co-workers that the reason the stray cats have all disappeared from the nearby park is because a shamisen maker opened up nearby (and they have a hard time with sarcasm and jokes, so they always look surprised), but I guess I might not have been far off.

There must be some cow lovers who flinch at the sound

Cow leather is a byproduct of the meat industry, and most of it is thrown away anyway. Cat and dog skin, on the other hand... wait a minute...searches on Google....

Oh sh*t! Now I know why it comes from other Asian countries..

The Korean drum Janngu uses dog skin on one side. But I suppose that could be sourced from the limited meat industry as well. Or maybe from cheaper SEA sources too,

Most Asian traditional musical instrument use animal skins since thousand of years and it's good of there is a replacement then I'm all for it...South east Asian drums are well known to be using cow and buffalo skin.

cat skins are used for shamisens used in stuff like classical plays and most folk songs.

dog skins are used in tsugaru jamisen - it needs to be thicker because they strike the body of the instrument (in the skin) with the corner of the plectrum, which is rather sharp.

python skin is used for okinawan sanshin and amami shamisen.

all of them have suitable synthetic alternatives and the difference in sound, while there, is certainly not enough to make a huge difference to most audiences.