Sanshin

The sanshin (, literally "three strings") is an Okinawan musical instrument and precursor of the Japanese shamisen. Often likened to a banjo, it consists of a snakeskin-covered body, neck and three strings.

Is close resemblance in both appearance and name to the Chinese sanxian suggests its Chinese origins, the old Ryūkyū Kingdom (pre-Japanese Okinawa) having very close ties with China. In the 16th century, the sanshin reached the Japanese trading port at Sakai in Osaka, Japan. In mainland Japan, it evolved into the larger shamisen.

In mainland Japan, many people refer to the sanshin as jabisen (蛇皮線, literally "snake-skin strings") or jamisen (蛇三線, "snake three strings") because the body of the instrument has a snakeskin covering. Traditionally, it was covered with the skin of the Burmese python, but today, due to CITES regulations, the skin of the python reticulatus is also used. A bamboo bridge raises the strings off the skin.

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 wear a plectrum, made of a material such as the water buffalo horn, on the index finger. Today, some use a guitar pick or the nail of the index finger. In Amami, long, narrow bamboo plectra are also used, and the strings are yellow and thinner, which allow a higher-pitched tone than that of the Okinawa sanshin. In Amami, the sanshin is called shamisen .

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