samisen

American  

[sam-uh-sen] / ˈsæm əˌsɛn /

noun

1. a guitarlike Japanese musical instrument having an extremely long neck and three strings, played with a plectrum.

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samisen British  

/ ˈsæmɪˌsɛn /

noun

1. a variant of shamisen

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Etymology

Origin of samisen

1610–20; < Japanese < Middle Chinese, equivalent to Chinese sānxia three-string banjo

Explanation

A samisen is a traditional Japanese stringed instrument that resembles a lute. A samisen, also called a shamisen, has a square, wooden body with three strings. The type of samisen that's played to accompany Kabuki theater has a very long, thin neck. The instrument is often played like a banjo, with a percussive plucking, though it can also be played with a bow like a violin. Samisen is from the Chinese san-hsien, which means "three-strings."

Example Sentences

The music underscoring the monologue is both haunting and jarring, and it mixes in sounds from traditional Japanese theater like wooden clappers and samisen, a traditional stringed instrument.

From Los Angeles Times • May 4, 2022

The program includes performances by a samurai group, taiko drummer Toshihiro Yuta, samisen musician Keisho Ohno, and Minyo Crusaders.

From Washington Post • Mar. 17, 2022

Musicians represented a global palette of sounds: the Japanese samisen, African djembe and Congo drums, harp, saxophone, accordion and violin.

From New York Times • Feb. 24, 2022

Although they were playing a single work together, the sounds you heard — the wheeze of a piccolo, a muffled trumpet, the plucking of a samisen — felt independent.

From New York Times • May 25, 2017

He played the three-stringed samisen, which Kiyo and I called his “pinko-pinko.”

From "Farewell to Manzanar" by Jeanne Houston