Basic History of Tsugaru Shamisen -- 津軽三味線の歴史 (Patreon)

Today we are giving a very basic outline of the history of the Tsugaru Shamisen!

While it is a condensed version, we hope it will give you a peek behind the curtain on this wonderful instrument that we all enjoy so much!

A Basic History of Tsugaru Shamisen

It has its origin as a string instrument in the Middle East, and gradually changed its shape while traveling through India to China, eventually becoming Sanxian in southern China. Then the Sanxian was taken into the south-western Japan through Okinawa and finally formed the shape of Japanese Shamisen. Little by little, the Shamisen started to be used more in a variety of performing art scenes in Japan, and traveled to northern Japan. This is how Tsugaru Shamisen has started to be played by people in the Tsugaru region.

The very first player of Tsugaru Shamisen was said to be “Bosama (Mr. monk)” who was a blind man in Aomori in the late Edo period. It was an ordinary street performance at the beginning but many good players started to compete and adopted difficult/dynamic techniques and formed the basis of the current Tsugaru Shamisen. They also started using the biggest neck “Futozao”, and the percussion style striking technique called Tataki became the main technique. As the time went by, the music got more exciting and more people started to give attention to the Tsugaru Shamisen.

Tsugaru Shamisen got more popular when there was a boom of Minyo (folk song) back in 1965’s. Until that point, it was just an accompaniment of Minyo, but people started to call the Shamisen music individually as “Tsugaru Shamisen”, one of the music genres. It always used to be played behind the curtain on the stage as an accompaniment instrument, so audiences did not see players but that has also changed and the prelude of Minyo (Maebiki) got independent and that led Tsugaru Shamisen as solo performance instrument. In 1980’s, Tsugaru Shamisen players started to have concerts as one of the stage arts. Not only solo, but ensemble style also started to become common and the instrument became more as leading players instead of just becoming supporting players of other musicians. Nowadays, it draws attention more as a solo instrument, and every Tsugaru Shamisen player has been seeking their own variety of play style to spread the width of the expression.

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今日は津軽三味線の歴史を簡単に紹介したいと思います。どのようにして日本の伝統楽器になったのかを知ると今までと違う景色が見えてくるかも！

津軽三味線の歴史

中東で生まれた弦楽器が形を少しずつ変えながらインドを経て中国に入り、中国南部において「三絃」が誕生。その後、沖縄を経て関西に持ち込まれ日本の三味線の形が出来上がる。更に、三味線は日本の様々なところの芸能で使われるようになり、どんどん北へわたり津軽地方でも津軽三味線として演奏されるようになる。

津軽三味線の始まりは、幕末に青森県で［ボサマ］と言われる目の見えない男性と言われている。それまで地味な門付け芸が、たくさんの名手が競い合い難しい派手な奏法を取り入れ、今の津軽三味線の原型を作る。使われる楽器も一番太い太棹に変化し、奏法も「叩き」という打楽器的な奏法が主流になる。より人々の注目を集められるよう、時代とともに派手になる。

昭和40年代の民謡ブームで津軽三味線が人気を集め、それまでは単に民謡の伴奏だった三味線音楽を「津軽三味線」と呼ぶようになる。本来は伴奏楽器としてお客さんから見えないよう舞台袖で演奏するものだったが、三味線のみで演奏する民謡の前奏部分（前弾き）が独立し、独奏楽器としても発展する。 1980年代には、舞台芸術としてのコンサートも開かれ、独奏のみならず合奏形式でも演奏され、津軽三味線の持つ役割が脇役から主役になる。 現代では独奏楽器として注目されることが多く、奏者によって様々な演奏スタイルを追求し、表現の幅を広げている。