| Themes > Arts > Music > Musical Instruments > Musical Instruments of East Asia > Sanshin | |||
| The sanshin is a plucked lute consisting of a long, black-lacquered ebony neck which pierces the top and bottom of an open frame-shaped body covered on both sides with snakeskin. The three strings were formerly made of silk, although tetron is now more commonly used. They are plucked by means of a plectrum made of water-buffalo horn into which the index finger of the right hand is inserted. There are various types of shashin classified in accordance with such features of the neck as the angle of inclination of the head section, the size of the peg box, and the curvature of the base of the neck before it enters the body. Named after their original makers, these include the Makabi (the most popular type), | |||
| Febaru, Chinen-deku, Kuba Shunden, Kuba-nu-funi, Hiranaka-Chinen, and Yunagushiku types. Although originally the exclusive preserve of the Ryukyuan nobility, the sanshin assumed many forms after its adoption by commoners during the nineteenth century: the scarcity and expense of Indian python skin meant that the body would often be covered with tanned paper, while at the end of the Second World War makeshift instruments known as kankara-sanshin were made from materials such as tin cans for the body and parachute fabric for the strings. | |||
