shamisen

British  

/ ˈsæmɪˌsɛn, ˈʃæmɪˌsɛn /

noun

1. a Japanese plucked stringed instrument with a long neck, an unfretted fingerboard, and a rectangular soundbox

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Etymology

Origin of shamisen

Japanese, from Chinese san-hsien, from san three + hsien string

Example Sentences

It includes Carolyn Jones, as Morticia, singing “Deck the Halls” to the accompaniment of shamisen and harpsichord and a closing group sing of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 22, 2022

“Negativland” buzzes with a distorted twang created by Plank manually phasing two recordings of Dinger playing the shamisen, a Japanese banjo, standing between two tape machines and slowing down one tape and then the other.

From Washington Post • Sep. 23, 2022

I borrowed a sanshin, which is the Okinawan version of the shamisen, the three-stringed Japanese banjo, from the Okinawa center.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 1, 2021

On a coffee table lay a three-stringed shamisen — a Japanese musical instrument — atop a binder of sheet music.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 12, 2016

Besides this, their daughters and young married women gain a trifle as wandering minstrels, called Torioi, playing on the shamisen, a sort of banjo, and singing ballads.

From Tales of Old Japan by Redesdale, Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, Baron