Acquiring the Sangen (Shamisen)

I didn't know anything about the cost of the instrument, prices, where I could buy one, etc. Just figured I could buy one just like any other guitar, banjo, whatever. Wrong again.

First, these are not cheap instruments to own. In searching on eBay and several online Japanese sites, I never saw one that was fully functional for less than $900 plus shipping—usually from Japan! I was only interested in sangens, not the Okinawan sanshins with the snake skinned drums. Japanese sangens have drums of cat or dog skin for the most part and are very expensive compared to their Okinawan brothers.

High quality sangens go for $1,500-$6,000. Wow! Not chump change. Hey, I can get a decent electric guitar for well under $500! What's the deal here?! But it is what it is.

Timing is everything. When I became interested in purchasing a sangen, a reasonable-priced one showed up on eBay. It was used with average quality wood, but with a new dog skin ($400 to replace the skin!) and fully functional with the accessories needed to play (bachi—plectrum; koma—bridge; ito—spare strings; doukake—cover on top of drum; and yubikake—finger sack for left hand to slide along the neck).

A deal was struck and the sangen was on its way to my home. Of course, during this time I was valiantly searching the web every day for shamisen instruction, music books, video instruction, anything—confident that I would find what I needed to begin to learn the instrument.

No deal. Nothing out there. Well, there was some, but it was in Japanese, not in English. Here I was, just purchased a $600, three-stringed instrument with no way to learn how to play it. Time for Plan B.

Plan B was looking for an instructor where I lived, a large metropolitan city of two million plus. Again, piece of cake. This city is Huge. I'm sure to find plenty of teachers—at least within the confines of the Japanese community. Again, busted!

As I noted in the blog introduction, a miracle did happen for me. After scouring every community and university resource associated with the Japanese culture, I was able to find only one teacher in the entire city AND county—and she lived less than 10 minutes away. I could not believe my good fortune.

If this teacher were not available, I was going to have to travel 120 miles to a larger city for weekly lessons. Not an appetising choice but one I would have to live with if I wanted to learn the instrument. But as I said, I was fortunate. She was accepting students. Arrangements were made for my first lesson.