■ The Shamisen is a lute instrument with three strings. The body is stuck on a pole, the neck. Body and neck can be taken apart. The neck can be spilit into three pieces. So the Shamisen is easier to tansport.
■ A unique feature of Shamisen is "SAWARI". The sawari is created by the sound of the first string where it touches the wood slightly at the top. The second and the third string doesn't touch the wood so doesn't have sawari but when you press some particular point during playing, it sympathizes with the sawari and it makes a unigue sound. This makes a resonant sound. I think it is difficult to imagin the sound of sawari. It's a kind of noise. It's a vibrating sound.
■ History
There are several theories about the arraival in Japan of Shamisen. One is, the Shamisen has it's origins in China. Around 16th centry, From china the instrument came to Japan then it was improved many times and became the Shamisen. The Shamisen was and is still used as principal instrument for back ground music in Japanese theater, And with rising atraction KABUKI during Edo period, the popularity of this musical instrument soared.
The Edo period is a division of Japanese history running from 1603 to 1868. It is the premodern era.