Japan Today Get your ticket to GaijinPot Expo 2024
picture of the day

Okinawan strings

9 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© AP

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

9 Comments
Login to comment

Different and interesting Picture of the Day. I love the sounds of traditional instruments. My father used to play the erhu himself. Reckon the sanshin and erhu would sound pretty decent together.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

I play the erhu, koto guzheng, and pipa on my iPhone. Great fun.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

The sanshin is cool.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

The shamisen and sanshin are two different instruments.

Yes, they are similar, but indeed the sanshin traditionally has snakeskin. I've played sanshin for near on 3 decades. Mine have real python snakeskin and made of rosewood.

The sound is uniquely soothing.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

餓死鬼

   I play the erhu, koto guzheng, and pipa on my iPhone. Great fun.

> Interesting. Never actually thought to look before, but just had a browse out of curiosity. Found a sanshin app too.

All are available in the Garbageband app and many more including Taiko drums. I record my own music. Another good app is Music Studio.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I play the erhu, koto guzheng, and pipa on my iPhone. Great fun.

Interesting. Never actually thought to look before, but just had a browse out of curiosity. Found a sanshin app too.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

All are available in the Garbageband app and many more including Taiko drums. I record my own music. Another good app is Music Studio.

I'm afraid my musical talents are limited to singing in the shower (or the rain). At least I can hum my favourite erhu piece.

Not quite sure if this is one of the Japanese plucked string instruments, but one of the best things I've heard (looped because the original is achingly short):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMTtqATUg84

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Are the shamisen from Okinawa and southern Kyushu primarily made from snake skin? We had a shamisen repair shop in Tokyo close to our house when I was a kid, and most of them were made from cat or dog skin. Pretty sure the new ones today are made from leather.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Neither the name, nor the location of the shop are given in this truncated image description. Is there a website? Will the accumulated knowlege, skills, and experience of Mr Yoshimori ARAKAKI be saved and passed on to an apprentice before it is too late, and all are lost?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites