The three-stringed shamisen is one of the most important and versatile instruments in Japanese traditional music, especially in music developed during the Edo Period (1603 - 1868). It is used in music for the kabuki theater such as Nagauta, Tokiwazu and Kiyomoto, the music of the Bunraku puppet theater called Gidayu, and a wide variety of chamber music styles such as Jiuta, Kato Bushi, Itchu Bushi, Miyazono Bushi and Shinnai Bushi and other popular and folk music styles.
The origins of the shamisen are somewhat obscure, but seem to be based on a three-stringed Chinese instrument called the "San Hsin", which was introduced into the Ryukyu Islands (presently Okinawa) in the 15th century and in turn, entered Japan proper in the Eiroku Period (1558 - 70). In Okinawa the instrument is covered with snakeskin and is played with an small oval plectrum, but when the instrument was instrument was introduced into Japan, a number of changes were made. Instead of snakeskin, the instrument was covered with cat or dog skin and since the first performers on the shamisen were players of the biwa lute, they used a large plectrum similar to that used for the biwa.
There are also several different types of shamisen. The most prominent difference is in the thickness of the neck of the instrument and different sizes of shamisen are used for different styles of music, to produce the sound best suited to that style. The thinnest neck, or "Hosozao" has a light sound and is used for the lyrical Nagauta style which often accompanies kabuki dance. The thickest neck, or "Futozao" is used for the heavy declamation of the Gidayu narrative style which accompanies the Bunraku puppet theater. (It is also used for Tsugaru Jamisen, and a very low bridge allows for very fast virtuoso playing.) "Chuzao" or medium-sized neck, is somewhere between the two and is used for narrative styles of music used in the kabuki theater like Tokiwazu and Kiyomoto.
There is a bewildering number of styles of shamisen music, but the biggest division is between lyrical and narrative styles. While the texts of lyrical music tend to be poetic with many nonsense words for rhythm and the texts of narrative music tend to tell stories, the more important distinction is in the treatment of text. Lyrical music is melodic and rhythmic; narrative music emphasizes chanting where the word rhythm and the meaning of the words is most important. The most important lyrical style of music is Nagauta which began in the early Edo period and became a mature style in the mid-18th century. Many of the most famous pieces of Japanese classical dance are Nagauta, including Musume Dojoji (The Girl at Dojoji Temple, 1753), Echigo Jishi (The Echigo Lion Dancer, 1811) and Fuji Musume (The Wisteria Maiden, 1826). Also, the music for such dance plays as Kanjincho (The Subscription List, 1840) is also Nagauta.
There is a long history of narrative music in Japan, in particular the epic Heike Monogatari (The Tales of the Heike) which were recited by blind priests to the accompaniment of the biwa. In the Edo Period, narrative music came to be accompanied by the shamisen and there was a variety of styles each based on the personality of some charismatic performer and the plays were acted out by puppets. Finally, at the turn of the 18th century, the playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653 - 1724) collaborated with chanter Takemoto Gidayu (1651 - 1714) to create an extremely sophisticated form of musical storytelling together with puppets. Musically, Gidayu took all the best features of the styles that preceded him, so that Gidayu became the dominant style of narrative music and all the styles that came before came to be called "Kojoruri" or "Old style narrative music".
But at the same time, other styles of narrative music continued to develop, especially in the kabuki theater. Kato Bushi is a style associated with the wealthy merchants of Edo and its most famous piece is Sukeroku (1763). Even today, when actors from the Ichikawa Danjuro line of actors perform this play, Kato Bushi music is used and the performers are amateurs. Itchu Bushi (see "What is Itchu Bushi") is another style originating in Kyoto and although many pieces are based on plays by Chikamatsu, they are relatively short and add popular songs for great musical variety. In addition to its significance in its own right as a style of music, Itchu Bushi is also significant as the ancestor of most of the non-Gidayu narrative styles of music performed today. In the early 18th century, a performer of Itchu Bushi, Miyakoji Bungo-no-Jo traveled from Kyoto to Edo and his singing was extremely popular from around 1734 to 1737. He specialized in love suicide plays and had great impact on fashion and hairstyles. However, his career was ruined when the shogunate banned love suicide plays since they glamorized these love suicides and some felt that they even encouraged them.
After Bungo-no-Jo left Edo, his former students began their own schools of narrative music, first Tokiwazu and Tomimoto and then, in the 19th century, Kiyomoto split off from Tomimoto. Although Tomimoto has almost disappeared, Tokiwazu and Kiyomoto are the most important schools of narrative music purely for kabuki and not for the puppet theater. Tokiwazu (see "What is Tokiwazu") has a strong, clear sound and features some of the great classics from the mid-18th century like Seki no To (The Snowbound Barrier, 1784). Kiyomoto has very high singing with elaborate ornamentation and includes sensuous pieces like Michitose (The Love of Naozamurai and Michitose, 1881). Shinnai is another style that originated with the followers of Bungo-no-Jo, although its development has largely been separate from the kabuki theater. Shinnai is the most sensuous and highly ornamented style of singing and its most famous piece is Akegarasu. Tokiwazu, Tomimoto, Kiyomoto and Shinnai are all called "Bungo Bushi" styles because they have their origin in the performances of Miyakoji Bungo-no-Jo.
The shamisen is also used in a variety of chamber music styles. Some styles like Itchu Bushi, Miyazono Bushi, Tomimoto Bushi and Kato Bushi originated in the kabuki theater, but now appear in plays only rarely, or not at all. Other styles were always separate from the theater. The shamisen is used together with the koto zither and shakuhachi for koto chamber music and Jiuta is a singing style that comes from the banquet chambers of the pleasure quarters of Kyoto and Osaka. Kouta are short art songs that performed as chamber music or party music. The shamisen is also used in all kinds of folk music, in particular Tsugaru Jamisen, a playing style that comes from the far north of Japan and originates in the elaborate shamisen preludes to folk songs that were developed to make performances of standard works more appealing by blind performers who went from door to door performing. Now the folk songs themselves are seldom performed, but the virtuosic playing has been combined with all kinds of newer musical styles.