Instruments
Shamisen
The three-stringed shamisen is the characteristic lute -- a plucked stringed instrument with strings running parallel to a sound-chamber body and then along an extended neck -- of Japan. Its sound box is almost cube-shaped, and its neck is quite long. The shamisen has a unique resonant sound, with elements produced by the vibration of the sound-box skin (traditionally made from catskin) and sometimes by devices on the neck as well as by the strings themselves. As with other lutes, even at this great distance, the ultimate roots of the shamisen are Middle Eastern; the word is derived from an old Persian term meaning "three strings." Generally used to accompany singers, the shamisen is heard both in high-art genres such as kabuki theater and in folk styles; it is also often a component of the modern Sankyoku instrumental trio.