#Japanese stringed instruments skin#
Sanshin exported to cold and/or dry countries have an increased vulnerability to skin cracks, tears and breaks, leading to the development of artificial sanshin skins made from a variety of materials, such as nylon and polyester. When sanshin began to be exported across the world, skin breakages became a more prevalent issue, as no sanshin craftsmen existed outside of Okinawa, with Western luthiers unfamiliar with the construction of the instrument, or its use of natural skins. Up until recent times, skin breakage was never considered much of a problem, as the sanshin's construction allows for it to be fully disassembled, re-skinned, and reassembled, usually with little time, cost, and inconvenience, as a number of sanshin craftsmen were heavily dotted throughout the Prefecture. Naturally-skinned instruments - while considered unparalleled in sound quality, producing a warm, deep yet pronounced tone - are infamous for cracking and tearing, especially when the sanshin is taken out of its natural habitat, the humid tropicality of the Ryukyu Islands. There is some room for interpretation of this, in that the treaties specify that the restriction is for endangered snake species. Due to international wildlife protection treaties, it is not legal to export snakeskin-covered sanshin to some countries, such as the United Kingdom and the United States. Though the pythons used to make sanshin skins today are not an endangered species, the difficulty of distinguishing faux snakeskin from real snakeskin makes transporting real-snakeskin ( hongawa) sanshin internationally somewhat risky.
Though Okinawa is famous for the venomous habu viper, the habu is in fact too small for its skin to be used to make sanshin, and it is believed that the snakeskin for the sanshin has always been imported from Southeast Asia. Python skin is used for the skin of the body of the instrument, in contrast to the cat or dogskin used traditionally on the shamisen. Traditionally, the sanshin was covered with the skin of the Burmese python, but today, due to CITES regulations, the skin of the reticulated python is also used. They are currently preserved by the son of the couple. Later, they were dug up, and brought back to their rightful home, having made it safely through the violent war. In an attempt to preserve his and his wife's sanshin, the husband wrapped them up, put them into a wooden box, and buried them deep in the Okinawan forest. Due to the destruction to main island during the war, the pair of sanshin were in danger, and the war wiped out almost half of the native population. At the onset of the war, the husband was forced into military service by the Japanese, and therefore had to leave his wife and home. They were owned by a husband and wife prior to World War II. Sanshin are generally designed to last more than a lifetime, as they are often passed down through the generations of a family.Ī traditional Okinawan story, the tale of the 'Husband and Wife Sanshin', tells of a pair of sanshin made from the same core of Okinawan Ebony tree. This is reflected in the traditional construction of the sanshin. The sanshin is held in great respect among the Ryukyuan culture, and is often viewed as an instrument that carries the voice of the deities, and is regarded as a deity itself. It is the center of small informal family gatherings, weddings, birthdays, other celebrations, community parties, festivals. Played by youth as young as 2, to older people aged 100 or more, there is a sanshin in most Okinawan homes. The sanshin is considered the soul of Okinawan folk music. In mainland Japan, it evolved into the larger shamisen, and many people refer to the sanshin as jabisen ( 蛇皮線, lit., " snake-skin strings") or jamisen ( 蛇三線, "snake three strings") due to its snakeskin covering. In the 16th century, the sanshin reached the Japanese trading port at Sakai in Osaka, Japan. Its close resemblance in both appearance and name to the Chinese sanxian suggests Chinese origins, the then- Ryūkyū Kingdom (pre-Japanese Okinawa) having very close ties with Imperial China.
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