三味線

The shamisen is a three-stringed instrument struck with a large plectrum, and it stands at the center of kabuki music. It is classified by the thickness of its neck: the thin-necked type is used mainly for nagauta, the middle-necked for Tokiwazu and Kiyomoto, and the thick-necked for gidayū (takemoto).

Each type has its own voice—light and melodic in the thin-necked instrument, deep and weighty in the thick-necked one. Breathing with the actors' lines and movements, the shamisen announces entrances, colours emotion, and transforms the air of a scene; the kabuki stage moves with its sound.

The shamisen has even entered idiom. To 'play the shamisen' (shamisen o hiku) is to humor someone—matching their tune on the surface while dodging or disguising one's real intent—an expression said to be born of the instrument's role of following and matching the singer's line. Kuchi-jamisen, 'mouth shamisen,' likewise names an empty, tuneful chiming-in.

The shamisen belongs to kabuki as a whole rather than to any one house. Even the boldest aragoto poses of the Ichikawa Sōke's repertoire resolve into a finished picture only together with its music.