File:THE SAMISEN. (1910) - illustration - page 267.png

English: Illustration from page 267 of THE SAMISEN..
Caption: "THE SAMISEN. Quote: But extensively as the koto is practised by school-girls and ladies of position, the national musical instrument is the samisen, a Japanese variant of the old European rebec which was introduced into the country by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. In the old days it was considered vulgar to play the samisen, which consequently lay long in obloquy and was only to be found among the merchant and lower classes. But now, though the prejudice against it is still strong among old-fashioned people, it is in greater favour than the koto. It is played everywhere, at home, in story-tellers’ halls and theatres, and at every tea-house party. In its common form the samisen has a belly, four inches thick and covered with skin, which has convex sides, seven and nearly eight inches respectively, and has attached to it a neck twenty-five inches long with a tail-piece of six inches. There are three pegs in the tail-piece for the three strings of the instrument, which are carried over the neck and tied at the further end of the belly where a small movable bridge keeps them from touching the face of the belly. The belly rests side-wise on the right knee of the player, whose right hand strikes the strings with an ivory plectrum, while the fingers of the left hand support the neck and stop the strings. The top-string is the thickest and has the lowest notes, while the third string is the finest and has the highest notes. The samisen just described is known as the slender-necked samisen; the other kind, which is of larger dimensions, with thicker strings and is played with a heavier plectrum, is only used in singing gidayu, or ballad-dramas. On the scale of the samisen there is still a great diversity of opinion, musical authorities being unable to agree as to the exact nature of the notes it emits. Its scale is certainly different to that of any European instrument; but, roughly-speaking, its range is about three octaves, the notes of which are put at thirty-six, comprising what would in European music be sharps and flats. The ranges of the two kinds of samisen naturally differ, the smaller giving higher notes than the other.
The samisen is early taught. Girls of seven or thereabouts are made to learn it while their fingers are still very pliant. But the lessons are hard to learn as the tunes have to be committed to memory, for there are no scores to refer to. There is no popular method of notation; the marks which are sometimes to be seen in song-books are too few to be of use to any but skilled musicians. The lighter samisen does not require much exertion to play; women can thrum it for hours on end; and they make slight indentations on the nails of the middle and ring fingers of the left hand for catching the strings when those fingers are moved up and down the neck to stop them. But with the heavier kind the indentations are deeper, and the constant friction of the strings hardens the finger-tips and often breaks the nails, while still worse is the condition of the right hand which holds the plectrum. The plectrum, the striking end of which is flat as in the one for the slender-necked samisen, is heavily leaded and weighs from twelve ounces to a pound when used by professionals; and the handle, which is square, is held between the ring and little fingers for leverage and worked with the thumb and the forefinger. At first the pressure of the corners upon the second joint of the little finger is very painful; but the skin becomes in time indurated and insensible to pain. It requires both strength and dexterity to strike the thick, hard-drawn strings with such a heavy plectrum. The peculiar scale on which it is based has prevented Japanese music from being appreciated by foreigners. That it is crude is undeniable; indeed, no other Japanese art has been left so undeveloped. In most other arts we have stamped our national individuality upon what we borrowed from others; but in music we can hardly say that there is anything characteristically Japanese about the slow tunes of the thirteen-stringed koto or the quicker jangle of the three-stringed samisen. They have of course changed in our hands from their original forms; but the alteration is not something that we can attribute to our national genius as we should in the case of our pictorial, glyptic, or ceramic art. Moreover, music has never, like the other arts, had munificent patrons. We read often enough of a great daimyo or lord in the old days surrounding himself with famed painters, sculptors, makers of lacquered ware or swords, but never of one taking under his protection a musician of note. What musicians enjoyed his favour were those employed for the performance of music at sacred rites; and none won the daimyo’s patronage by the charm or power of his music. No encouragement was then held out to music; and even the musicians whose names are known to posterity earned their living, precarious at best, by catering to the general public. Samisen-music cannot in truth be said to appeal emotionally even to those Japanese who enjoy it. They admire a samisen-player for his execution, for the lightness and rapidity of his touch and the rich resonance of the strings under it; but of the expression, the emotional quality of music, neither he nor his audience know anything and probably care as little. And it must be admitted that the samisen can never charm and enthrall us like the deep-sounding cathedral organ; and its want of volume deprives it of any power to make a cumulative impression upon us. In short, our samisen-music is mainly a matter of dexterity, with a modicum of taste and judgment. We do not look to it to sway our passions—to move us to tears or laughter, to stir up in us anger, awe, pity, or wonder, or to fire us into bursts of patriotic enthusiasm."